My truck in the signature is on life support and I'm working on a repair proposal to present to the wife. My rig is the 1999 Dodge 1500 in my signature. About 10 years ago, the engine was stock and working as expected. On the way to work one day, she broke down. She would barely start and barely run, appearing like a jumped timing chain. The problem was when I investigated, I found no evidence of a failed timing chain. I replaced the chain with no improvement. I replaced the cam and crank sensors with the same result. I bought a reman PCM and again, she wouldn't crank or run easily. I got in a relationship and the truck went on hold, until the relationship failed traumatically. Newly single and heartbroken, I pulled the engine and poured money into it.

Before I go too much further, I wouldn't call myself a builder but I have rebuilt several stock engines with great success. This has been my one and only attempt at building one better.

I had the block cleaned and bored .030 oversize. I bought Sealed Power pistons, Sealed Power main and rod bearings and Hastings piston rings. I bought a Hughes Engine camshaft, listed on the site as the biggest you could run on a re-tuned PCM (vs stand alone engine management). Here's the link to the cam. I bought an Air Gap intake, Big Gulp throttle body, billet fuel rails and 26lb fuel injectors. I bought Iron Ram heads with oversized exhaust valves with springs to match the cam, a set of adjustable 1.6:1 rocker arms and a set of shorty headers. I bought a high-volume oil pump, an adjustable timing chain and a timing chain tensioner. I re-used the old crankshaft, connecting rods, lifters, distributor and sensors. I modified the original valve covers to clear the new rockers.

I set all the parts on my workbench and set to work. After fitting the heads, I measured and ordered hardened pushrods to length. I built everything carefully, using Plasti-Gauge to verify clearances. I bought a tuner and an e-mail tune (I can't remember who wrote it). I dropped the engine in, uploaded the tune and turned the key. She begrudgingly cranked, not unlike a fresh engine. I broke her in using Royal Purple break in oil. The truck ran, significantly better than before but still not right.The primary symptom was a bit of hesitation when initially pressing the gas. Second, when coming to a stop and pushing the clutch in the engine would die if I didn't heel-toe it. Once stopped, I could stop heel-toeing it and she would idle again. Then, I would have to feather the gas pedal again to accelerate.

I took the truck to two different tuners, neither one able to identify or fix the problem. I bought a camshaft degree kit and found the cam off a couple of degrees. I adjusted it to the camshaft card's specifications but saw no improvement. To make matters worse, my tried and true method of installing the harmonic balancer using the balancer bolt resulted in stripping the threads out of the crank. I bought a longer grade 8 bolt and bandaged it, but now I'm nervous about pulling the balancer. The rear main seal surface is worn in as well and leaking; I need a new crank. I tried just driving the truck anyway, but as time went on the engine started backfiring. First it was here and there, then became any time throttle was applied and increasing. It got to the point that the pressure would blow the dipstick out of the tube. Eventually, I had to park her and remove insurance.

I want to fix her but I don't know what direction to take. I would like to find a 3rd gen body with a Magnum engine and a 5 speed and swap in all the chassis mods I've accumulated, but I've been looking for a while and haven't found anything yet. The biggest benefit this would give me is true four doors for the kiddo. I have no idea how hard it is to convert a truck meant for a Hemi and retrofit if for a Magnum. I could buy a junkyard motor and go completely back to stock on my 2nd gen. This would get my truck back but I would lose all the go-fast money I invested. Plus, the rumble at idle was pretty mean. I could buy a 360 and a stroker kit; maybe the top end being built and the bottom end being stock was too big a mismatch. But that's more money and I'm concerned about throwing more money at a lost cause.


So I'm debating which direction to take, so I can take the plan to my wife and start making moved to get it done. What do y'all think? Thanks for reading!

 

The big issue is that you never dug into finding out what was wrong 10 years ago, it might have just been a failing fuel pump. Now so many things have been changed it makes it hard to diagnose the problem. Here's what I'd do, not necessarily in order:
Check fuel pressure
Check that TDC on the crank pulley is actually TDC in the engine
Double check the cam timing, many aftermarket timing sets have multiple degree options with confusing marks on the sprocket
Set "fuel sync", not super critical the method in the FSM should get you running
Solid power and grounds for the PCM and engine block to battery negative
Good blue spark from coil
Related to above, full battery voltage at coil and injectors (burnt auto shutdown relay ?)
Use a proper "shop level" tool (not a simple OBD2 reader) to look at what the PCM is actually reading for RPM, fuel sync, MAP, temps etc.
Call exorcist ....

I'd love to find a nice 2002 1500 with the 5.9 as well

 

Agreed, I tried to find the culprit and it's always bugged me. Any other engine, I've found the cause; bent valves, fried rings, a hole through a piston once. Not this time, and it's never set well with me. When the engine failed, it acted exactly like one that jumped time. She would only crank with throttle, then spit, sputtered, missed and sounded like hell. What else behaves like that?

After the rebuild, I've tried many of the mentioned checks. Fuel pressure present. Fuel sync set, using a custom made pigtail to check voltage in-line. TDC determined via piston height, degree wheel and halving the degrees. It very well could be a timing chain issue, but I'm nervous about pulling the harmonic balancer again. I barely got it back on the last time and at minimum need to replace the crank with a reman unit. Word to the wise; use the correct tool lol.

 

I just recently rebuilt a 318 with mild performance cam and parts as well and ran into the idle issue as well once the truck warmed up. What worked for me was cleaning the idle air control valve. That's worked well for the past 700 miles. I only ran into issues again recently after playing around and testing 0 to 60 times. I noticed after it died when I pushed the clutch in that the fuel pump was making more noise than normal. I'm wondering if you have good fuel pressure at idle but if the pump can no longer support the volume of fuel necessary at open throttle. Also I know you said you did a lot of the checks but were you getting readouts from the sensors? If they aren't reading airflow correctly then i would think the pcm wouldn't know how to deliver fuel correctly.