hi everyone im new to owning a dodge and have been reading alot from this forum and have recieved a lot of good advice so i was hoping someone could help me with my problem.

i just bought a 97 dodge ram with 5.9l and the only prob is that it takes up to 4 seconds of crank time to start. i put new plugs, cleaned the throttle body. i noticed that if anything flammable is in the intake it will fire right up, but won't any other time. i would apreciate any help.

 

Can you give us a bit more information as far as mileage and other maintenance/tune-up stuff that's been done? From what you're describing, it almost sounds like low fuel pressure and/or poor spark. When's the last time you've done plug wires/cap/rotor?

 

i don't know when the last time a full tune up has been done, but by looking at the old plugs its been a long while. It has almost 150,000 miles. It gets at least 11mpg in town and it did idle rough untill i put new plugs in it, now it idle smooth and seems to run good.

 

how hard is it check fuel pressure?

 

Not hard at all. There's a schrader valve on the fuel rail on the drivers side of the engine. You just unscrew the cap, connect a fuel pressure gauge, and start the truck. I believe it's supposed to be between 35-45psi.

 

alot of the late 90's truck did not have the shrader, don't know why. Factory omitted it for a couple of years. Fuel pressure should be at least 40psi and should hold pressure for at least an hour after you shut it down. My guess is it bleeds off, try replacing the fuel pressure regulator(silver shiny round thingy) on top of the fuel tank, where the fuel plugs in.