Hey guys, this is my first post here. So i recently bought a 97 ram 1500 with 260k miles on it with automatic transmission. And i didnt notice i had a loss of power until i drove my buddys tryck which is an 01 with the 5.9 and he had a significant amount more power while going up hills etc. i replaced my spark plugs and 5,6,7 and 8 had a decent amount of oil on them especially 6 and 7 so i went ahead and bought a new valve cover gasket to put on when i get a chance. I also had read about the plenum problems. And my 8 spark plug was also awful so i went ahead and bought a plenum from hughes. But i was wondering if there could be any other reasons for loss of power that i may be missing?

 

If it's burning a lot of oil the catalytic converter could be plugged. With that many miles, it needs a new timing chain. Run some fuel system cleaner. All the sensors are old and not working as well as they used to. Don't get cheap parts store sensors. NTK O2 sensors work well in our trucks. A new coil, distributor cap, rotor, and wires will help.

Also is there a difference in axle gears and/or tire size?

 

I did replace the distributor cap wires etc. and the timing chain was replaced in 2009. I did just have the water pump and fan clutch replaced two weeks ago and the guy said the timing chain looks fine. But im not sure about the gear size im 99.99 percent sure its the stock gears. And i dont have oversize tires or a lift so i dont think that would be the problem.

after i changed the spark plugs i did get a good amount of power back. But im still losing power somewhere

ill try out the sensor. I heard if you take the o2 sensor off and it runs better it means the cat is clogged so i may try that as well if i have time today after work

 

Wanna check the plenum as well. There is a thread on that topic stickied at the top of the forum.