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Discussion starter · #62 ·
Working on another problem now. Seems my fuel rail or an injector or something is bleeding down.

I have to turn key on, let it pressure up before starting it. Doesn't bleed down fast, but it's annoying.

Been looking for fuel at each injector, but don't see anything.


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#63 ·
FireEater said:
Working on another problem now. Seems my fuel rail or an injector or something is bleeding down.

I have to turn key on, let it pressure up before starting it. Doesn't bleed down fast, but it's annoying.

Been looking for fuel at each injector, but don't see anything.


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Is it the check valve in the fuel pump maybe? Mine doesn't seal all that well sometimes, so I usually turn the key to on, then back off, then on and start, so that the fuel pump cycles an extra time to prime the fuel rails and injectors. I'd replace it, but that means replacing the whole fuel pump.
 
Discussion starter · #64 ·
I was just thinking the same thing, a check valve. Just didn't know where it was located.

Fixing it would involve dropping fuel tank, then like you said, replacing the pump.

If the check valve is bad and causing fuel to leak back to the tank, would that effect the motor once it's started?

I know it needs a certain amount of pressure to start the motor, but what about while it's running?

So that leads me to part two of this problem.

When I floor it upon take off, it feels as though it hesitates until 20MPH. Once it hits 20MPH within about 50 feet, it takes off like a rocket, pushing me back in the seat through all the gears.

It literally screams after the 20MPH mark.

So could this be because of the bad check valve or the midrange RV cam?


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#65 ·
I don't think it will affect it once running, but I'm not positive. I don't have any hesitation issues when driving, just longer cranking (sometimes) if I forget to do the key dance.
 
Discussion starter · #68 ·
No, been camping since Friday.

I found a good Russell one online. Problem is trying to install it.

The part of the fuel line that is plastic is all the way by the tank.

Also, I grabbed the top of my fuel pump and can twist it back and forth. I was told it wasn't supposed to do that.

So I might just replace it later this week and be done with it.


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Discussion starter · #69 ·
The saga continues.......ugh

I've been chasing my tail over this engine build for weeks. Pulling the Popup camping for a 5 hour road trip netted me 6 GPM, plus the hills killed the power. This is after the Dyno and Sean's HemiFever tune on it. The speedometer was off due to the tires and gears though. But to go from 13 MPG with no trouble towing in overdrive to this was crazy. The old motor had more torque and power with the SuperChip tune on it.

So my journey into getting this right was to continue. Right after we left the campground and got on the freeway, the coil died. It seems to be a two year issue due to the engine heat. I got the spare out and had it installed within 8 minutes, a new record! lol

So once home, I ordered a MSD Blaster SS and mounted it away from the motor. I left the old coil in place and used a pigtail from Accel to connect the MSD. That way I could swap back to the old coil if something went wrong with the MSD. I took off an hour later, picked up my daughter at the school from practice, took her back home and left for the mechanics so he could basically look everything over. I got on the freeway and it died. Same symptoms from when the coil has gone out before. I swapped over to the new one and nothing. I had to get a wrecker to tow the D to the mechanics so he could look at it.

Turns out that my Coil Driver Module in the PCM burned out due to the MSD coil. Though other than those of us who have experienced this, no one will fess up that the SS will burn out PCMs. So I order a new PCM from a company in Florida that rebuild/refurbishes them. They flashed my VIN number to it to match my D. It was a plug and play item. Once in, it fired up with no problem. No longer using the SS coil now. I installed the HemiFever tune on it again.

Though my shifting issues have continued. Plus the running lean issue.

When I take off, it goes to 2nd gear in a matter of feet, then into 3rd, 4th and lockup. If I get in the gas on take off, the same thing happens with 1st and 2nd, but 3rd and 4th take longer. Once into 4th, no matter what speed, it goes into lock up instantly. Its like 4th is simply a stepping stone.

Plus it doesn't downshift passed 3rd gear. I have to come to a complete stop for it to downshift into 1st. Let's say I leave my driveway, I get to the end of the street and ready to turn. I'm not driving above 25 MPH but the transmission has already went through all the gears and is in lock up. I slow down to about 5 or 10 MPH to turn the corner, then take off. It literally stays in 3rd gear, even if I stomp on it. I have to manually change to 2nd or 1st to get power.

If I tow and take it out of overdrive, I simply have 3 gears and the RPMs are wailing away. I push the button to go into over drive and it goes into 4th, then instantly lock out. So no 4th to speak of.

So I attributed all this to the speedometer being off from the tires and gears. So I ordered a JET Accu Speed and install it Saturday. I got no speedo with it installed. I unhook it from the ABS Controller and start trouble shooting the problem. I change both Speed Sensors, one on the transmission and one at the rear axle. I hook the Accu Speed back up and nothing. Unhook it and the speedo works. Frazzled now......

So today I was told about G-Force. The have Dynos and custom tune Dodges, Fords, Chevy's, ect....

I drive over there, preparing to drop $550 to get a custom on the spot tune and not use HemiFever who I'm invested in already and they do not do older dodges, just 2005 and up Hemis. Which once again shows the lack of support for the 1st Gens. We talk about my options due to the lack of support. He recommended a Holley Piggy Back Tuner. Basically it self tunes the D once all hooked up. He said to go research it, plus MSD makes on as well as others. They then send me down the street to Dirty Diesel to see if he could help me. He makes a few calls to no avail as all the guys he knows who writes tunes, cannot write them for mine. He did recommend Hennessy Sports to see if they could help as they are the best in Texas.

So once I got home, I called JET tech support about their product. The tech asked me wire I put where. I told him and he said to swap them as the directions are wrong. So I did and now my speedo works. I calibrated it to my GPS and it is dead on. I did this with the stock tune on it, so once done I put the HemiFever tune back on it.

On the running lean issue, the D falls on its face when I floor it from standing still. It will backfire sometimes also. Same when I am already moving, but no where near as much. But once it stumbles from take off for about 10 feet or so, it takes off like a rocket, laying you back in all gears.

I did notice that with the stock tune it doesn't fall on its face as much as it does with the HemiFever tune also. So I emailed Sean about all these issues and am waiting for his reply. I called HemiFever themselves and they said Seans tune should take care of all the shifting issues, running lean and any other issue. That maybe there is a glitch in the tune.

It does seem that I am almost at the top of the ladder with this motor build. It's close to being right, so hopefully Sean and one more time on the dyno will get me there.
 
#70 ·
Wow, that's a lot of steps to get up that ladder! Sorry this isn't going smoother for you, but agree you are likely not far off and will get it sorted out soon.

On my stock 5.9 (just headers and bigger TB, no tune), when I went to bigger tires the shift points were still OK, wasn't a huge jump, but did notice the lag until I got some rpm. Same towing, in truth was never quite happy with the towing power, especially from a stop. So, I wonder if 90% of your power issues will be fixed when you get the shift pattern set up correctly.

The lean issue should be able to be programmed away I would think.

Good luck!!!
 
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Discussion starter · #71 ·
Here is his reply.
I can't even begin to go through all of the engine pieces that have to be right for the tune to work correctly. pops and backfires can be a ton of things mechanic's wise. Fuel sync, distributor rotor direct, rocker adjustment, fuel pressure, etc. The cam with the 35's isn't a tow cam by any means and will suck up gas. the entire tq output of the engine will alter the trans shift demands. Only thing that the tune can work is the upshifts. All the downshifts is mechanical with the tv cable and the valve body. It not coming out of 3rd gear and having to give it a lot of pedal pressing is mechanical, nothing I can do there.

Its rare that I see a backfire be fuel related from a "mis tune". I would say 99% of the time its in the fuel sync/distributor rotor/fuel system.

If you can get me the full throttle afr #'s I can work on those some more. This is the part that gets a little hairy as a tuner, if we get to far into things and it ends up being mechanical then there can be additional fee's in the tuning process.
Click to expand...
So now I will work on the mechanical issues, then once they are done, go back to the dyno and get him new numbers.

Here is the cam that is in it. I might have to change out to a better cam.
 
#72 ·
But here's what I don't follow in his answer. He says he can't control downshifts, they are mechanical, which I agree with. But he does say his tune controls upshifts, and your upshifts are not correct. You are going 1-2 without building any revs, you are going 4-lock without any delay. He shouldn't just gloss over that, I think the shift pattern may have a lot to do with your issues.

As for cams, I have no knowledge to guide you there, except that towing may want a different cam than one you might use to max out dyno power.
 
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Discussion starter · #73 ·
I might (fingers crossed) be almost there now.

While at my part time job, we really looked over the entire Throttle Valve Cable today. The lever down on the transmission was not being pulled back all the way by the throttle body movement.

I looked at the bracket that holds the cable in place down there right before the lever. The cable comes down and back and then loops around to clip onto the bracket before the end of it clips to the lever right above the shift lever.

The bracket looked like it had gotten bent forward, possibly from when I stuck the engine/transmission and transfer case into the Durango. After looking at pics of it online, I bent it back slightly to match them.

Then we adjusted the TV Cable to pull all the slack out of it. After doing both of these, the TB pulled the lever all the way back. So when I left at knock off and drove home, it was taking to long to shift as we had the cable to tight.

So I pulled over and moved the adjustment at the TB forward about an 1/8 of an inch. I took off again and shifting seemed back to normal finally. So I slowed down to see if it would go from 3-2 without stopping. Yep! I did this a few times, slowing down to 15, 10 and 5 MPH and each time when I stepped on it, it downshifted to 2nd and took off.

So once home, I put the HemiFever tune back on it and will test it out again in a bit. But so far it seems I got over another hurdle. I've been messing with that TV Cable for awhile now off and on as well as talking to transmission guys, searching Google to try and figure out the shifting issues.

The whole time it was a bent bracket. Plus I adjusted the TV Cable from the directions a transmission guy told me today that I was referred to.

In the morning, I head to a local mechanic shop I use so they can adjust my Fuel Sync to +4 as Sean requested, then hopefully back to the Dyno this week, get the new numbers to Sean and have the HemiFever Tune tweaked.

Sean suggested I go back to a stock cam as the one I run now will eat gas. Though from showing my Cam Spec Sheet around, there are mixed opinions about that. I'll have to compare the stock cam specs to this one to see.

Once tuned properly and running properly, I'll look into that issue. We will go camping again for our annual Labor Day trip, so I will see what the gas mileage is towing for 3 1/2 hours.
 
#75 ·
Glad to hear you are making headway
STEVE
 
#76 ·
That's great news, nice work on your part figuring it out, that's some solid troubleshooting skill!

I bet it would tow better with the stock cam, too. Or, you may want to see if there's a towing cam option.
 
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Discussion starter · #78 ·
Well I figured the last gremlin in this motor build before I go back to the Dyno.

The bogging down or falling on its face issue when I stomped on it at take off was caused by a faulty pressure regulator.

The regulator could not maintain enough pressure at take off before vacuum from the motor took over.

I used a fuel pressure regulator tester on it earlier today here at the FD.

I turned the key on but didn't start it and the pressure went to 30 PSI slowly.

So I turned it off and shot a video. You can see the pressure climb up to about 45 PSI this time and them drop some.

Once I started it, the needled fluctuated a lot at idle. Stomping on the pedal caused it to drop each time. A few times it drop down to 30 PSI.

After the video I did it again, but this time I tried to power brake it. The needle really dropped down then before trying to climb back up.

So what happens is once I stomp on it initially off the line, it takes about 10 feet before the vacuum from the motor takes over and pulls the fuel.

Plus once cruising at speed, it can feel the motor bogging, picking up, bogging, picking up and so on. I see it on the tach also as it fluctuates up and down.

It was actually doing this before the build, but being stock, I really didn't pay attention to it.

So I ordered a new fuel pump from Amazon for $95.00 including overnight shipping.

Tomorrow I'll put it in since I'm down to a 1/4 tank. Then back to the Dyno Sunday.

 
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