Help, not sure what's wrong with my 98 dodge ram 1500 5.9l automatic 2wd. I was driving along when the truck died, I eventually got it started again but it won't go past 30 and when I start it there is a rattling kind of noise from what seems like cat area then when I run it for a little while it's like a popcorn noise in the same area. The check engine light flashed when this first happened but off now. It doesn't really feel bogged down more like there just isn't power. Any ideas what the problem may be and how to check it myself?

 

Read this thread.

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...um-thread.html

 

Does the popping coincide with the RPM's? Check your spark plugs too.

 

That's a classic symptom of fractured substrate in the catalytic converter. Get under there with a rubber mallet and soundly (though not violently) thump the converter -- if the innards rattle back at you, that's all the proof you need that it's the cat.

As jkeaton suggested, it's a good time to look over the stickied plenum gasket thread because it's most often engine oil in the exhaust that kills the cat, which will then kill the passenger side cylinder head, which will then take a fat slash out of your wallet.