hello everyone,new to this sight and looking for a little help.quick summary of what i have. 1996 ram 1500 4x4,5.9 magnum,auto. bought this truck appox 2.5 yrs. ago with 60000 miles. now has 92000. last fall coming back from N.C. the oil pressure dropped. it would stay around 35# above 1000rpm but drop to 0# below that, to make a long story short I dropped the oil pan when I got back to my home in Ohio. The pickup screen was plugged. cleaned it, put in a new pump,pressure was normal again. A day late and a dollar shot,I had a rod knocking,and no time to fix it untill recently.Pulled the motor and dissambled it. took the crank to ashop that has been around for 15-20 yrs,very reputable. Crank was no good ,thrust was completly gone ,they found a good crank and turned it. Took the heads to another shop that specializes in that field,heads checked good,amazingly they had no cracks, so they did the seats ,seals and new oem springs.I figured while the motor was apart I would do a mild rebuild,little bigger cam.roller rockers,intake etc.... everything was done by the book,cylinder walls honed, new bearings,rings,etc........... a brand new engine. list of parts used is this. Crane compucam(powermax 2030)mild lift-duration.Crane alum.energizer roller rockers 1.6 ratio with required conversion kit(pedestal to stud mount). Mopar perf lifters,adjustable timinggear-chain set installed staight up per Crane tech reccomandation. FMS 19#high flow injectors. Mopar M1 intake w/ stock throttle body, Summit headers and 3" single Exhaust. Problem is the base timing is at 10-12 deg advanced. The truck starts, idles good, but falls on its face when I get into the throttle. I had checked the timing when I bought the truck and again prior to tearing it down, it was at 0 TDC,ran execellent other than the knocking. So far I have checked all the sensors, the only one that was bad was the map,replaced it, and the truck ran slightly better,no change in timing though. have been following the thread on alter the base timing by the cps, tried that trick this morning without any change in timing at all. Have called Crane tech line already, they say cam timing won't affect ignition timing??????? anyone have any thoughts ,ideas, or suggestions. I would like to be able to drive this truck back down to N.C. to see my daughter and son in law in a couple weeks, they are in the army, stationed at Ft. Bragg. Any help would be appreciated.

 

i myself am just getting into motor building. i would shoot either the burning rom or RMindy a pm or wait for them to respond.

 

just got back from driving truck, put about 50 miles on it .seems to be running a lot better ,it won't fall on its face untill wot, then things sound ugly,misses,and pops thru the throttle body.timing light still shows ign. advanced about 10deg.. I have slotted and moved the crank sensor as far as possible to try and pull timing out, any have any ideas?

 

I am going to suggest you may need to recheck the timing points on the cam gear and the crank gear. I have built three motors in the past when I was able. I am no professional mechanic, but I had the same problem with one of the motors I installed after rebuild. I had a pretty good size cam ( Crane ) and I had a problem with predetination ( knocking) when the car got hot. When I installed the cam I am pretty sure that if you set the points at 10 degree advance it increases the torck, but it did cause the knocking, I tried the point to point setting and that pretty much stopped the knocking. The motors I built where with carbs, not fuel injection so I'm not sure if that makes a difference or not. I do know if you have knocking a low octane fuel can cause it with a larger cam installed. It is possible the gears jumped timing. I had a double timing chain to prevent that. Again this is only a suggestion, I am not a certified mechanic. I replied, as I see you have not gotten much of a reply to your posting.

 

heminuts, thanks for the reply. I installed a mopar performance parts double row chain and gear set when I put the motor back together. I have had the front cover off twice since and rechecked the timing marks. I am currently running 93 octane gas and the fuel pressure is right at 50#. Thanks again.

 

It says ur running 19# injectors, does that mean they are 19 lb/hr injectors? if so i believe they might be the issue. the stock 318 and 360 injctors are about 23 to 24 lb/hr injectors. i read in some off road mag that after they added similar stuff (they used all the mopar r/t stuff_) they had problems with no power and or pickup and they found that the stock injectors were the issue. they order higher lb/hr injectors and noticed a big improvement. i cant remember what sized they went up to i think they may have been custom sized for there specs.

 

the injectors are Ford Motorsports high flow 19lb/hr. the dealer info i got on the stock units had the oem's at 16#. I thought the 19# injectors might have been part of the problem so i installed a air/fuel ratio gauge this morning,it is showing the a/f ratio is good. I have been getting check engine code#43 coming up occasionally[ peek primary circuit current not achieved with the maximum dwell time]. Anyone have a clue wtf this means. the engine is running pretty good up untill around 3500rpm, where it will start to cut out and i'll get some mild detonation and have to back out of the throttle. The timing light is still showing about 8-10deg. advanced at idle. would it help to retard the cam timing.Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions? any help would be greatly appreciated

 

I have never built an engine or realy gotten that deep into one, but the only time I have ever had a problem like yours was when I did a tune up on my 97. I accidently got every wire off by 1 pole on the distributor. I know it sounds so simple but with the distrubitor in the location it is in it is very easy to do.

 

magicdssman, thanks for the reply, but i've already checked the plugwires several times

 

What about the button or the distributor cap is there any chance they were put on incorrectly.