4 cylinder down!

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Rampower

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Magnum 5.9
Hey guys I'm new to the forum. I am 16 and just bought my first truck 2001 1500 5.9 I love it but so far all I've done is have trouble with it:( so can anyone help me out or give me another option to try? Thanks

My check engine light came on and I took it in and it said it was the 4th cylinder missing. So I changed plugs and wires. Still missing so then I went to the distributer cap and roter still not it! I'm at a stand still and don't know what to do any suggestions on the next thing to check? Thanks
 

Bigtman07

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Welcome to the forum!! First things you already got. So good job on figuring that much out. I say double check how the plug is threading into the head. If it is missthreaded it may cause a misfire. Another thing to look at is to check the plenum gasket. Take the airbox off and use a flashlight to look down the throttle body for oil. If you see oil it is probably blown. If it is blown by the 4 cylinder it could cause a misfire. Lastly if you can get a compression tester see how much compression it has. May have a gasket leak.
 

Luke(MI)

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^Wut he said^ does it sound like it is missing? with ll this electric ******** now is could be a bad sensor
 
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Rampower

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^Wut he said^ does it sound like it is missing? with ll this electric ******** now is could be a bad sensor

O yeah this thing just shakes like crazy and idles rough. I have heard some stuff about the coil pack is that something I should look in the getting thanks!
 

blackout11

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u can go to like autozone and borrow a compression tester and try it out in the lot if you can get to the plug easy should only take like 10 mins
 

blackout11

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isnt there a timing sensor i know my mustang had one go bad and it felt like it was missing
 

RamTech

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You don't have individual coil packs like the newer engines. Your truck has a single coil that fires all cylinders, so any coil problem would effect all cylinders. You could have an injector problem and the easiest way to check this yourself is to swap the #4 injector with one from another cylinder and seeing if the miss follows the injector.

To do this you'll need to depressurize the fuel system by pulling the fuel pump fuse starting the engine and letting it run until it dies. After it dies crank it over several times to deplete the remaining pressure. Move any wiring, lines or cables that are in the way. Then remove the bolts holding down the injector rail and pull up on it until the injectors. You may need the aid of a small pry bar. Make sure the o-rings on the bottom of the injectors are still in place as they will sometimes stick and stay in the manifold. Remove the clip that attaches the injector to the rail and pull the injector out and swap it with another one.

When you go to reinstall the injectors into the manifold, it helps to spray the o-rings with some silicone or some other type of spray lube. Line up the injectors with the mainfold and push them down firmly to seat the o-rings and reinstall the bolts for the rail. Reinstall any wiring, cables or lines you may have moved to access the rail, plug the pump fuse back in and see what happens.
 
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Rampower

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Thanks guys I will go to auto zone today! ram tech the guy at o reillys said if it looks like the spark plug is burning some then the injector should be good is this true?
 

RamTech

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Thanks guys I will go to auto zone today! ram tech the guy at o reillys said if it looks like the spark plug is burning some then the injector should be good is this true?

No, you could still have a leaking injector or bad spray pattern. This is why that guy works in a parts store and not in a shop.
 

Luke(MI)

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No, you could still have a leaking injector or bad spray pattern. This is why that guy works in a parts store and not in a shop.

lmao...
 

nim81

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I've had this problem before .. IMO it sounds like you need to replace your pick-up coil .. It is a round piece of plastic with a sensor on it that sits under your distributor cap. They are fairly cheap and easy to replace.

Out of the 3 magnum engines I've owned, two of them needed this replaced. It's essentially a cam pos. Sensor.

Sent from iPhone-taptalk
 
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Rampower

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ok guys i took it to a small mechanic and he took a compression test and said it was real low and he thought thats why. then he took a test on the 2 cylinder and the compression was a little low on that one as well. of course it wasn't as low and the one missing. so what should i do next because he said he couldn't handle the problem.?
 

RamTech

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He can run compression but can't fix a simple engine like a 5.9? The next thing that needs to be done is to find out why the compression is low. The method I recommend is a leak down test. This will pinpoint the problem whether it's a blown gasket, burnt valve, cracked head or bad rings.
 
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