Try cleaning the throttle body, especially the IAC well. Reset the computer, (just leave the battery disconnected while you pull the TB, and clean it.) when it's all back together, hook the battery back up, turn the ignition to 'on', (not start). don't touch anything, count to ten, THEN start the engine. Computer should figure out idle fairly quickly......

 

Gave the throttle body and IAC a good cleaning. When I went to put the TPS back on I noticed that it's failed. The return signal voltage is staying at 2.5V-ish all the time no matter how I turned it. Possibly the reason for the poor idle?
Did the computer reset anyway. Truck didn't want to start at all - it'd fire but finally with a little encouragement of the throttle pedal she ran - but idle still dropped to about 400RPM.

I'm going to order a couple TPSs - hopefully I can get a hold of a good one. Haha!

here's the IAC when I first started cleaning it. Was really sooty. Kind of rusty under the soot.

 

The farm store was having a deal - buy any cordless tool get a battery for free! So I had to run in to town to take advantage of that and get myself a battery powered trimming chainsaw! Haha! Got the version with a battery but not got 2 for it! Or another battery for the shop - though I've only got a 1/4 drive impact for battery tools....

Figured while I was in town I'd stop in at the parts store and see if they still had a TPS and IAC in stock - they did!
Bought both and threw them in the truck when I got home.

I think my IAC was stuck because the new one I got's plunger moves pretty easily and I could barely get the old one to move at all.
TPS was reading .8V at rest after I got it bolted down tight. Was actually sitting at 7.1V before getting torqued down.

Also did a PCM reset by pulling the battery cables while I switched out the ignition switch. The PO had destroyed the illuminated bezel so I'd ordered a new one a while ago - figured as good of time as any to get it replaced...

Truck fired up on the second key turn. Fired - ran up to about 1200RPM and quickly settled down to 800RPM and held. Sounded great! Let it run until the temp gauge started coming up and shut her down. Idle held steady at 800RPM the whole time.
Shut the truck down and got the air cleaner assembly all re-installed and double checked my TV cable adjustment and then took her out for a drive.

RAN GREAT!
No matter where I held the pedal the truck accelerated and felt like it shifted appropriately. Throttle response was nice and the engine felt like it had good power behind it. Never floored it but got on it pretty good and she got up and going!
It's rained for the past few days - on and off but more on than off. So driving down the field side of the back drive-in I got on her and spun some tires. Almost got stuck coming out of the back drive onto the road (steep hill) and put her in 4WD (haven't actually tested yet) and climbed right up the hill no problem! Wanted to take her in to town to fill the tank but the wife said she wanted me to start grilling dinner soon so settled for just about half way (maybe about 7-8miles?) and then turned around for home.

I really like this truck. Only thing that'd make it better is if it was a 6-speed manual! Haha!

I really wanna get her on a real road test this week though I'm thinking maybe I should take apart and inspect the oil pump before...? The oil pressure at highway speed 55-60MPH (16-1800RPM) was about 20 PSI on mechanical gauge. Stock gauge was showing what I would guess to be about 30PSI - needle just below 40. Warm Idle we were looking at about 8-10PSI.

Also another oil leak seems to have started from somehwere... I need to do some inspection but appeared to be dripping down from somewhere - possibly heads...? - and then rolling off the transmission bellhousing at the TC inspection opening (closest to the motor).

 

Awesome. Yeah, the 8.0 is a torque MONSTER. Mine doesn't even downshift when I pass folks on the way to work. I can get it to, but, it simply isn't necessary. The engine has plenty of power to get that huge brick moving. It'll pass anything but a gas station.

 

Nice to hear you are getting sorted out. TPS affects shift and fuel distribution. Flaky TPS causes all sort of monkey bidness. Someone wrote an article long time ago about installing a condenser into the return voltage line, smooth out errant voltage signals to the PCM.
Quality? What does that mean? AC Delco/Standard about all the quality there is. Maybe yours is better, but MOPAR sensors for OBDI V-10 Rams, unavailable. VIPER guys got wise and hoarded the few remaining years ago.
I have three gauges on a pillar. AFM wide band Air/Fuel, transmission temp, and engine vacuum. Like that setup very much. But, I cheaped out on the pillar mount. The Amazon PoS I bought had no provisions for mounting. Had to stick screws through it.
Subject of oil. I had my cam reground, stuck it in with the rebuilt heads. Like a good boy I bought new lifters. Measured/ordered custom pushrods. Ran/rattled like sheeite. Asked my machinist, he told me I needed 5w30 not the 15w 40-50 I wanted to run. It helped, but did not fix the problem.. Wrote about this before, had to order half a set of Smith pushrods.
Pulled the Melling lifters as well trying to sort it out. The feed hole faces up (or down) not forward into the oil galley flow like stock lifters. It ( the teeny a## feed hole ) is also about half the diameter. Cannot handle the flow of the higher viscosity oil, is my best guess.
Hope you like your truck.

 

I'm very interested to see what kind of MPGs this baby gets. I'd like to get some miles on it and make sure I don't NEED to fix anything else to daily it at least for a little bit.
Need to get the K1500 in the shop and do some work to it. Mainly the fuel tank needs replaced (doesn't LEAK but pretty much every surface of it is flaky rust and constantly wet with fuel). Can't tell if I get 10MPG because somethings wrong or just that much fuel is evaporating through the tank! Haha! I mean - it got 18MPG at 55MPH on a 3hr road trip about a month back!
There's other random small things I'd like to sort out on it as well if I've got the time.

I keep forgetting to plug in my original PCM again - just for fun.

I've never ran into the poor quality of the aftermarket parts issue before this truck but man... This has been a little ridiculous! Haha! I did notice that I could find the sensors on VIPER websites - even listed as for the Rams. I haven't bought anything from them though because they even say "Aftermarket" - not MOPAR - and they want about 3x as much for the parts as even the box stores!

Now I just need to buy out the remaining aftermarket supply of crank and cam sensors to find one of those that'll work consistently HAHA!

The ones I have now at Oil pressure/temperature, transmission temperature and coolant temperature. Debating about getting different ones to put in there... What made you go with A/F and vacuum?

This oil situation is very interesting... I'm definitely going to have to go with a light weight oil... Want to change my oil again in a few hundred miles at least - going to put some treatment in the crankcase and hopefully get rid of any deposits and sludge still remaining in the motor...

Definitely enjoying the little bit I've gotten to drive the truck - running well, that is. Haha! Only a few more things to sort out and maybe she'll become a daily!

 

Well, driven the truck for a few days now - started driving it on the 1st of the month. (Well, filled her up on the 30th.) Chevy broke down - sort of... Major electrical issues in a 90's Chevy - unheard of! HAHAHAHA

For the first two days she fired first turn of the key every time! And I had to do a lot of travelling between plant sites during those two days - was probably somewhere between 16-20 startups! Thinking somehow things had sorted themselves out until yesterday evening when I stopped at the store on the way home to pick up some groceries - took a few cycles to fire up. And again this morning.

Otherwise the truck has been phenomenal! I really like this beast. Honestly it feels like it rides the same if not better than my k1500 and feels like I've got twice as much room in the front seating area.

Got to experience what HeyYou said about passing - was going 55 and stomp on it and she just GOES! Honestly haven't ever had a truck that felt like this powerful - though my only comparisons are old 7.3l IDI/IDIT's and 5.0SBF's and 5.7SBC's. Still need to experience a load on her but I'm sure that she wont disappoint.

Hoping to get some decent time in the shop this weekend. Have a couple jobs to do for others and then I'd like to get the electrical problems on the Chevy figured out so I can tear into the oil pump on the Dodge - so I've at least got one running truck in case I can't complete the job for any unforeseen circumstances. Haha!

 

@adukart if you saw it, then there is something to it. My point remains. That is the exact type of thing that someone, who has never owned, driven, or opened up a V-10 will tell you with absolute authority was 'a huge problem' for 'all V-10s'. The interference knurling on the bolts and 'loc-tite' lead me to believe the exact opposite. However, the large aluminum housing and little steel pump cover would expand at differing rates/directions. So.
A/F ratio, vacuum gauges.
My cam is a regrind, put in with rebuilt/shaved heads. Had no idea how the PCM would react. Seems a good idea to monitor what the system is up to.
Also spliced in taps for TPS and MAP, let me hook up a VOM see if they were operating smoothly.
My non-programmable OBDI Mopar Performance PCM has never liked the cam, don't think it is suitable for what I need. May pull it for another. The original regrind I got back would have put an old Viper in the low 10's.
This truck pushed 14.5+ at times with Texaco/Chevron premium/87 octane mix, through the (higher flow) cats, stock pipes shortened to dump in front of rear wheel, little CherryBomb dual in/out muffler, Bosch Platinum +4s, upgraded Davis Unified ignition, full bed/toolbox, cooler Rockies air. Not even close now. Doing well to push 11.5.
Maybe running platinum plugs with their slightly wider gap is a problem for a Magnum V-8s marginal ignition, one tiny coil for 8 cylinders. This truck has five coils for 10 cylinders. Downgrading good plugs to copper seems a waste of money.
I will say, for the highway, find the mix of premium/87 that runs best, try 1:2. Keep careful track of fuel mileage and how it pulls the hills with a trailer. My truck is sensitive to fuel, for whatever reason. Chevron/Texaco, Conoco/Phillips, out west whatever fuel Costco sells, usually run well. I notice poor fuel. Maverik, off brands, ARCO, Mobil, none perform as well.
I run 20k+/yr on this truck. Carrying a spare tank of fuel, planning my stops around fuel quality/availability makes perfect sense to me. 1 mpg is about 10%. Makes it worth it to pay for good fuel that pulls well. Hope you get one of the good ones.

 

I did the math on the difference in expansion rates for the intake plenum on the V-8's. The difference was in the ten-thousandths of an inch..... so, not even remotely a problem. Same will be true of the aluminum timing cover, and steel plate for the oil pump on the V-10. Difference will be even smaller, since the steel plate is significantly smaller.

 

I'm just paranoid with the pressure being around 10 at idle when warm... I'd hate to have done all of this work to the truck to burn up the motor... Plus that low oil pressure warning ding every time I go to coast/come to a stop is pretty annoying - I want to see if I can stop that. haha!

That's really interesting about the different fuels.. There's a guy at work with an Escalade - it's his pride and joy and he dailies it to work. I made a joke about him being rich because of how far he commutes and does it in an Escalade. Says he averages 30MPG and that he only fills up at certain gas stations - I forget which ones....

As for the plugs - I did what was suggested to me. Those platinum plugs were definitely wore out though. Trucks running really well. I really would like to experiment with different oils and plugs with this baby though. I actually bought some 5w-30 for a few oil changes I've got to do - and figured I could use it later for the Dodge. Was in "bulk" but I think averaged to about $3.75 a qt...? Pretty good for around here!



Between yard work and the shop work - I sadly did not get to the oil pump... Though I did finish both jobs and got the electrical figured out on the Chevy - more like rewired about 60% of the truck. Could've gotten away with less but figured while I had the loom pulled I'd replace EVERYTHING that looked/felt questionable - which was most of it. Lights work like never before! Actually lights that never before worked, work now Haha! Driving it really made me realize how much more I like the Dodge - gotta find me a 6-speed for Diane!

Did get to putting spit loom on all of the plug wires and put treatment in the oil and gas tank.. I put almost 110 miles on the truck this week and am just below 3/4 tank of gas. I think I'm about on track for 10MPG...? Haha! *O2 sensors still unplugged too*

Intermittent starting:
This thing has been a beast on the starting front. Not sure how or what made i t get better but keeps surprising me with the startups. Haha! Still sometimes takes a few key cycles to pop off...
Had a guy at work that went to school to be a mechanic tell me that the PCM reads first from the crank sensor and then from the cam sensor f it doesn't get a signal from the crank...? He told me that the truck should eventually fire off if I kept cranking - I'm not experiencing this at all. I can drain the battery laying on the starter and it will not fire if it doesn't in the first second or two.
This got me to wondering - is he right? How exactly does the PCM read the crank and cam sensors in this truck?