First off I apologize for being a nuub and if it's been addressed but I've read many many threads of possible solutions and nothing has worked yet so I've resulted to posting my own questions and hope someone saves me. I have a 2002 5.9L 1500 with 125,000, go outside to start it up one morning and it won't fire. At the time it was single digits cold (January in MO). It would crank but just not fire. I thought the fuel line was frozen so I got it pushed inside the garage and after about 24 hours, it fired up but ran horribly (no codes on dash or OBD). Symptoms include rough idle, very erratic 200-800 rpms, loud popping, eventual stalling. When I push on the gas, it hesitates, pops more, does not really come up to consistent idle, keeps jumping all over the chart. Here's what has been either checked or replaced:
IAC
TPS
MAP
PLUGS (LOTS OF RESIDUE ON NEW PLUGS, APPEARS TO BE FOULED ALREADY LIKE IT'S RUNNING VERY RICH)
WIRES
CAP
ROTOR
COIL
PICK UP COIL (INSIDE CAP)
FUEL FILTER (INSIDE TANK)


I feel like it could be the plenum gasket but I'm trying to eliminate everything else first. I've also heard bad upstream O2 sensor/bad cat (even tho no codes) and I've heard this year/model is very sensitive to the battery. Current battery is only 3 years old, been charged/tested, everything checks out.


I haven't checked fuel pressure yet which I'm sure is pretty idiotic but with the lean smelling engine bay after starts, I assumed it was getting plenty, figured it was lack of air.


ANY FEEDBACK IS MUCH APPRECIATED!! TRYING TO AVOID THE SHOP/DEALER

 

I assume by now you have found and fixed the problem. But it sounds like a bad cam sensor. It is located on the top of the bell housing on the passenger side.

 

Yes I have, thanks for the help. It was the cam sensor but it was also the first thing I replaced. The shop told me that it was the aftermarket sensor I put on it. They said they put an OE sensor on it just to try it and it fired right up...

 

Sounds like you replaced the crankshaft position sensor on the back of the block instead of the camshaft position sensor (a.k.a. ignition pickup) in the distributor. Did you never have any error (P)codes?

 

yes, I'm sorry I meant crankshaft... Huge difference huh.
I never did get any codes at all.