Help. I havent been around in a while. All has been good, until 2 days ago. My 98 ram 318 started lossing power. Its idles fine, but while driving if i try to throtle up or hit passing gear. The RPM's run up to about 4500 at it dosent change gears or have power untill i back off the throtle. I had a rattle that sounded as if it was comming from the cat.Now this problem has started and the rattle has stopped. I have a friend who is a mechanic. He came by and hooked a computer to it and it said missfire but it was a pending code.My truck has 150000 miles and im not the original owner.He said tune up, plugs and wires. I feel that is probably does need them, but not the bigger problen now. Can anyone help me out. Thanks in advanced.

 

imo, new cat.
which cylinders are misfiriing?

 

Sounds like a plugged cat to me. Bogging down under load and a misfire code are two pretty good indications.

 

Yep, I agree with the other two posters. Cat is probably clogged. According to my mechanic the best way to tell if a cat is clogged is with a infrared temperature gauge. If I remember right, if the cat has higher heat in the front than in the back then the cat is working properly. When the heat is higher in the back than front the cat is clogged.

If I have this backwards I hope somebody else will set us all straight.

When my cat was clogged, the truck drove great at idle under easy acceleration. It was only when I needed the extra power to pull my camper or manuever around in traffic would it fall flat on it's face. It never did set a code though so mine was probably not plugged enough to cause the code.

 

Thanks for all the input. Decided to do what my friend said and changed plugs and wires. PROBLEM still there[:@]. Cat was my next target, Took a hammer and busted a hole in it. Truck is now loud as *&^@. But, its running right and has a lot more power. Changing the CAT as soon as possible.