yes I have fuel injection , ok well I looked around to try and find a fuel gauge and cheapest one I could find was 80 bucks, so I took her to local garages to have them check things out, one garage worked on it for hours but since they could not find anything wrong there was no charge . Another garage checked both fuel and oil pressure for a couple bucks and both places said oil and gas pressures were within specs ,as was the bleed off for the fuel, So now I am more confused than before and the truck is running worse than before, I think they forgot to put back a vacuum line . Because now when the engine is warm and I rev the motor and it comes back down the rpm's go down too far and the engine almost dies out but catches itself .so what should I do ? anyone got any ideas ?should I rent a fuel pressure gauge if I can find one and get my own numbers or ? ohh and there is black soot inside the tail pipe not a lot but some

 

I would be tempted to get a gauge, and run the tests myself.

I would also be tempted to do a compression test..... (can get that gauge from the parts store as well.)

 

well actually I do not know it was gas, it smells real bad, but maybe it was just a bunch of crap that came out of the engine , I tried to light the oil ,on some cardboard ,to see if it would burn but it wouldn't from a lighter , I took the oil somewhere and had it tested they found no contamination in it ?, it was thin and smelled bad but ? which is something I wanted to ask if I ran top shelf ,straight motor oil in it the trucks whole life. and I took it somewhere, and they put synthetic in it would that strip stuff from the motor and send it all to the filter and pan?. the truck runs perfect cold but I noticed when the truck warms up and the temp gauge goes to the center. its starts with the dropping idle I rev it to about 1500-2000 and the idle comes down to about 500 on the tachometer then recovers to about 800. I checked the plenum and all the vacuum lines today and found nothing, the plenum is clean ,but smells slightly of gas, I will be checking the fuel pressures this week unless someone has another idea?

 

The oil will collect blowby from the cylinders in any event. So, smelling bad, really isn't a stretch. If you oil level goes UP over time, then you have an issue.

What oil are you using?

 

okay so I went out and bought a pressure gauge ,first try the fitting was not tight enough and I followed the instructions telling me to use Teflon tape on the fittings well big mistake even after tightening it up it shot gas everywhere .So I took it back off,removed all tape and retightened, and then it did not leak but my findings give me more questions than answers. Key on and not running 40 P.S.I is the best I get , key off and the pressure drops 10 pounds as soon as the key is off ,then the pressure drops 10pounds for every two minutes of time ,taking about 10 minutes or so to go to zero, so what does this mean ? should I attempt a running fuel pressure or ? I did not want to try it today what with the spraying gas everywhere but do I need to? someone told me that on most dodges if its a fuel problem most of the time its the front o2 sensor ,should I check this and if so how ?

 

Test fuel pressure while running. If it doesn't make it to at least 45 PSI, it's time for a new pump. Front O2 sensor has nothing to do with fuel pressure. It DOES control fuel mixture once the engine gets to closed loop though.

 

Do you smell gas upon start up? Your pressure test tells me either you have a bad fuel pump or bad fuel injectors. If you don't smell gas then listen while you turn key to on, do you hear the pump? Injector is making some sence to me right now with your original problem-n-all.

dont worrie about starting the truck with the guage hooked up. You can go take it for a test drive with that on there, just make sure the hoses aren't touching hott things.

 

update: ok well after taking her to 4 Garages and having multiple tests done I still had nothing to go on so I ran a code check myself and found a code for a malfunctioning thermostat that was it. So I changed the thermo ,and it ran better with no diving rpm's , I kept a check on the oil and it has been fine no gas smell no extra in oil, since I changed the blown apart thermo. But then last week she left me sit on the highway 150 to tow her to a garage 200 for the pump and 155 to change it and she is back running strong again just wish I could of found it and changed it myself before the hit to my wallet....thanks for all the help