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Ram Van - 318 sluggish acceleration, backfire, slip when shifting

5K views 4 replies 5 participants last post by  Ram4ever 
#1 ·
Hi all,

About the Van:
1995 Dodge B250 Conversion Van (2 wheel drive)
318 from a junkyard (I can tell by the small logo tags they put on the back of the heads, year unkown)
Fuel Injected.

I just got this about a month ago
Here's what's been done so far
When i test drove it, it seemed to run fine, but had a bad exhaust leak

I pulled the doghouse off, a bolt was missing from the exhaust manifold, i put a new one in, fixing 95% of the leaking exhaust (small tick now, gasket prob got abit messed up from running without a bolt)

The tranny slips between 2nd and 3rd, it seems to shift way too early. It seemed to shift better when I was on the gas more, but also would backfire.

We drove about 200 highway miles, the last 15 i noticed that it was sluggish during acceleration. (We got about 19MPG, considering the weight, and area, this seemed decent)

I changed out the plugs, all where about the same level, normal and all plugs looked to be in the same condition. I got some new ones installed.
Idle seemed to improve, sluggishness was still there.

I checked for codes using the key on, off, on, off, on off method.. only code listed was the one that it was done displaying codes, so basically no codes exsist.

The plug wires look new as well as the cap, i didn't pull it off yet to check the rotor.

I replaced the coil and the MAF (or whatever it's called, it's on the front of the throttle body with a small hose and two bolts. I noticed build up under the throttle body (when looking down the blades), i cleaned up what I could without a teardown.

No change, it still sluggish and backfires under acceleration. There is some valvetrain noise, but nothing that I would consider excessive. Oil needs changed out, but is full and it doesn't smoke at all and doesn't seem to be burning it.

Timing? Fuel pump? O2 sensor (shouldn't that throw a code)?

Any ideas of where to look or what to do would be great, I have to get this thing running ASAP to move.

Thanks!
Jim
 
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#3 ·
The item on the front of the throttle body you replaced is the MAP sensor. It has a vacum hose and an electrical connector connected to the computer. It's funtion is to tell the computer how much load the engine is under.
Timing of the ignition is set by the computer and picked-up by the crankshaft position sensor and isn't adjustable. The distributor has the camshaft sensor in it and controls timing of the fuel injectors so don't try to adjust timing there... I'm not sure on the procedure to make sure this is correct.
A slow (old) 02 sensor may cause slugish and probably won't throw a code.
Your mileage is on the high side so I would guess it's running near the lean side.. Fuel starvation by fiter, pump or 02 could all do this. Also check you ignition cap and rotor as misfire can cause rich running and this would tend to clog the catylitic convertor. This could also cause slugishness and lack of power.
 
#4 ·
My '94 does the sluggish start and backfire thing every once in a while and then it goes away for awhile and then it reappears.

I was thinking about giving the throttle body a good cleaning, changing the O2 sensor since it's original and maybe changing the throttle position sensor as wheel.

Timing is controlled by the PCM, so there's really nothing you can do about that. Turning the dist. won't accomplish anything.

Your shifting troubles could be caused by a kickdown cable (aka Throttle Valve or TV Cable) that's out of adjustment.
 
#5 ·
Like Nate said, if you have a cable or transmission kickdown linkage mechanism that's way out of adjustment you can get some of those symptoms. That's the way my '81 with a 727 transmission acted. It slipped, bogged down, backfired viciously and sometimes even stalled when I'd try to accelerate. Adjusting the linkage about 3/8" totally cured all those symptoms. I couldn't believe it! I'd have been tempted to play with the carb if I hadn't been under the van and saw that some of the plastic bushing bearings in the transmission linkage had popped out. That got me looking into the linkage adjustments in my service manuals.
Seeing as how your engine was replaced, things like that certainly would have been disturbed.
 
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