Bought a 4x4 5.9 98 dodge ram 1500 for $1500. For starters the guy gave it to me on an empty tank, tires balder than hell, and the lugs an inch off the lugs. So I already knew I got a bad deal but here what I’m dealing with

The dash is smoking with no burning smell and when I turn of the heat it blows soot all over the front windshield. I’m pretty sure that’s just a bad heater core.

2nd is at idle it will get down to 500 rpms just barely keeping itself alive on top of the fact that’s it’s running richer than thinkable.

Honorable mention: The exhaust is cut right after the first sensor that’s on the exhaust so I’m assuming the cat was taken.

I Ran codes and get P0601 which comes back to a faulty pcm.

Last but not least, it DRINKS gas. Just driving around for around 1-2 hours for a 1 day I used $55 in fuel.

Another thing I’d like to say is that the inside of the radiator has a black sludgy coating with oily consistency… Blown Heads??

 

Wow... You are going to be spending some money to get that back into driveable shape. Just replacing the cat is not gonna be cheap.... But, before you get there, make sure you can make it run decent. I would start with a full tuneup, plugs, wires, cap, rotor, air filter. Clean the throttle body. Physically removed it from the intake, clean all the ports, especially the IAC well. (its toward the back...) While its off, have a look down the hole, see oil in there? That's a blown plenum..... Disconnect the front O2 sensor, see how it runs.

Also, pull the headlight switch, and have a look at the harness that plugs into it, they tend to melt, short, and cause all sorts of fun.

Start there, see what ya get.

Welcome to DF.

 

Glad to have more insight. Today I welded in a pipe where the cat used to be. It’s much quieter and I’d even say it run better. The only main problem im realizing with the truck is once I get it fixed that’s cool and all but it’ll still be an unusable 11 mpg hog😭. The practicality really went over my head with this one.

 

Yeah, trying to label it as 'fuel economy' really doesn't work for these trucks. With my 96 5.9 4x4, I think I averaged around 14 or so, in mostly suburban driving. Of course, that was after putting a fair bit of work into it.