Hello, I am new here.

I have been reading some of the previous posts and it has given me some ideas.

I have a 1997 2500 5.9L Conversion Van. Currently having issues.

I have had it maybe a year. When I got it I noticed every now and then it would make what sounded like a spark knock and blow black smoke when say climbing a hill or towing.. That oddly seems to has minimalized with putting 93 octane in the tank.

Also the fuel guage does not work right and about 1/4 a tank is actually E

Not sure if that is is related to this or not.It has the Check Engine light on.When it is cold at start up it runs horribly. Missfires and rough idle. It will want to stall.. Then it will surge.. It will blow black smoke and sometimes watery sludge out the tail pipe. If I hop in and drive it it will hesititate, missfire "you can hear it popping in the dog house" and it will want to stall while puffing black smoke. Once it warms up.. It runs great. It is giving codes for Random missfires on cylinders 1, 2 and 8 . ????? that is all it is giving me. It recently had a tune up .. new plugs, wires and cap.

NOW.. 2nd issue.. I will be cruising alone on the highway and the check engine light will start to blink.. Black smoke starts to puff and then the entire front end will start to shake. Like worse then anything I have ever felt. You can control it by backing off the throttle. But if you accelerate it shakes you almost out of your seat.. I can open it all the way.. black smoke will puff out and it will stop shaking and the engine light will stop blinking..


I have replaced a second set of plug wires just incease that had something to do with it.

But after reading some posts maybe I should start by cleaning out the IAC? Check the wiring harness by the transmission crossbar and clean that. ??? I will be doing a compression test on it later this week.

I noticed it will run extra crappy when I just filled up or it is running below half a tank. When the tank is fuel it usually is running good.. besides the cold start issue.

It also has a high oil consumption too. Which I am finding seems to be common on these. But I have onlyl 126,000 miles.

Any thoughts?

 

Sounds like your in-tank fuel pump may be on the way out. When the engine is starved for fuel it will shudder, make black smoke (gasoline) and send misfire codes to the ECM. Checking the things you mentioned like the IAC and the electrical connector are also very good and will contribute to the overallhealthy runningof your van. Hopefully you'll find junk in the connector causing your fuel gauge andfuel deliveryproblem - but I think you're gonnaend up changing the pump.

 

Ditto!

 

Yep, dying fuel pump - especially since you say it runs worse when you have less than half a tank.

 

Double ditto from me. My 97 has donea simular thing before I bought it (to the previous owner's driver of the van). Funny thing with these pumps is like on mine it mess up hot not cold. So there are several way these pumps can start misbehaving. I right now WILL NOT let the tank drop to 1/2 tank. So far I have drivin the van over 800 miles and just last Thursday I ran it nearly 112 miles, still with no problems.

Just replace the pump which will alread have the new fuel gage sending unit with it and that will solve your current problems. Do this very soon for your pump is on borrowed time.

 

Right on thanks.. This is actually making sense.

It started off doing it only when I turned.. When it was cold. It would almost stall and it very much sounds like it is running out of gas when it is doing this. ALSO.. I have ran it out of gas 3 times due to the fuel gauge.... 2 of them where on purpose to see where the guage actually read empty.. The guy before me told me it ran out of gas on him a few times. I hear that is horrible for this things fuel pump.

Also I had an S-10.. "boo" but it's fuel pump went and was showing similar signs and symptoms until it finally crapped on me.


Thanks... I will do some of the cleaning things this weekend then look into getting a fuel pump in ASAP.. Then have the codes cleared and go from there.