I need some real help here folks,
I have been unable to use my 88 Dakota for quite a few months (years?), now.
My problem is that it will barely idle, and then, only if you constantly pump
the pedal. It won't deliver enough power to drive the vehicle either.
When I first had the problem I wrote in and it was suggested that I try
replacing this and that.
In my stubbornness to avoid the dealer and in an effort too learn more about how
to fix the thing myself I have followed the suggestions from the list.
So Far I have replaced the EGR valve, the O2 sensor, took the fuel tank off
"thrice" and cleaned out all the lines, replaced the fuel and the fuel filter,
replaced the injectors, and a few other trial and errors, at a cost I might add,
that has probably exceeded what it would have been if I had just taken it in to
the dealer to begin with.
The fault codes I am consistently getting are "22 & 33". Yesterday I pulled the
tank off for the third time, cleaned everything inside and out. Blew out all the
lines and checked the injectors again. While I had the pump out I dropped it
into my parts cleaning tank and gave it 12 volts of power, it seemed to pump out
a "fair and consistent", volume of fuel in that test.
Putting an external fuel pump on has not helped either. If I hand pour a small
amount of fuel down the opening of the injector housing, it with continue to
idle, I can even rev it up. At times it sounds good, until I get into the cab
and attempt to drive it, then it coughs and sputters and won't rev high enough
to operate.
During my trial's yesterday I finally got it to rev up for a while without
adding fuel down the port but this was short lived and flipped right back into
not wanting to rev up under it's own.
At one point after turning it over a high RPM for a while I got out of the cab
to close the hood and try driving it. As I came up along side of the engine bay
however I noticed the exhaust header on the drivers side was glowing red hot in
the central area of the header area where it comes out of the manifold. At this
point the engine was still idling and within a minute the redness disappeared.
I don't know if this is a sign that something is wrong somewhere or if it was
just a result of the high RPM's that I was running it at. I had it at a high RPM
for about a minute or so. The funny thing is that only the area near the center
piston on the drivers side was glowing red, but then that is also the area that
all three exhaust on the drivers side join together before combining into one
pipe as it heads downward towards the exhaust pipe.
Where do I go from here? Any more suggestions? Or should I just shoot it in the
head and put it out of it's misery?
Steve
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:07:25 EDT