5.9 has me stumped

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MrdrdC5

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Jan 21, 2022
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Location
Moses Lake, WA
Ram Year
1997
Engine
5.9
Okay so my best friend recently bought a 97 ram 1500 with the 5.9. Everything was good until it wasn't. It ended up spinning a couple rod bearings one day when he was going out of town. So, fast forward, he said screw it and just bought a new motor. Smoothe install. Everything bolted up correctly and what not. Now he goes to start it and nothing. Spark? yes. Compression? yes. Fuel? yes. Happy? No. Now I'm a chevy guy and could tell you exactly what to do on whatever chevy. But this dodge has my stumped. Does the pcm need to learn this new motor? Any advice would be very helpful.
 

frankinstienbuild

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Location
florida
Ram Year
2006
Engine
5.7l hemi
i have a complete service manual for the 3.7l 6cyl also the 4.7l 8cyl and 5.7l hemi 8cyl and the 5.9 diesel 6cyl ram megacab and quadcab the manual is too large to upload it is a little over 9k pages in total if u shoot me a email at [email protected] ill gladly send it to you..
 

Daw14

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2014
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5.7 hemi
He has spark , so it doesn’t sound like it’s a diesel .
 

pacofortacos

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Ram Year
2016
Engine
5.7
Compression? Spark at the plug and correct plug at that?
Was the distributor installed when you received it or did some install it? Could it be 180 out?
 

tjfdesmo

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"A motor is a motor", said my old engine rebuilder friend. Dodge is no different than Ford or GM. It has compression. How much and how equal? As mentioned, distributor 180 out is a common mistake.
 

dick strough

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Mar 15, 2019
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Location
IN
Ram Year
2001
Engine
5.9
No start on my 5.9, 01 1500 was the cam sensor under the distributor cap. My mechanic said you will have spark and power to igniter but no start because it will tell computer not to send fuel to injectors. He also put in a new distributor as with 160k mi. I needed it and by the time we replaced everything inside, a little more money was the thing to do.
 

MoparMayhem2500

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Sep 12, 2018
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Location
Wataga, IL
Ram Year
2001
Engine
Magnum 5.9
There's a sensor (can't remember the name) that sometimes gets pinched between the bell housing when installing a 5.9 gasser. Check there, I ran into that problem on my old truck.
 

bigdodge

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You will likely have to have a scan tool to tell you where the fuel sync is. When you turn the distributor on that engine it changes the timing of when the fuel injectors fire.
 

Theck4291

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Location
48760
Ram Year
1999
Engine
5.9L Magnum V8
As long as the old ECM was used, there should be no flashing required
 
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