I need help with my pos dakota

[Xdisaster240sX]

First off, Its a 99 Dakota V8 5.2. Its idles fine but when you push the gas it sounds the the 4th of July. So much backfiring. The gauge I used said it was a timing issue but apparently you cant mess with the timing since its controlled by the ECU. I changed the plugs and wires. Next Im going to do the distributor and rotor. Im also doing a pressure check in the am. Any other suggestions?

[MinisterofDOOM]

You can't mess with the timing TOO much on modern cars. I wonder if there's any adjust in the distributor rotor on yours, though... Usually you can make a few degrees of timing adjust at the rotor. But modern OBDII-equipped cars with mechanical distributors are weird, so I'm not sure. I've spent a lot of time working on 5.9 LA V8s (same basic engine) but I've never replaced a distributor rotor, so I'm not sure.

One other thing to consider is that the distributor is also the cam angle sensor (similar to late-90s Hondas with mechanical distributors). That means it controls fuel timing as well as ignition timing. So if your distributor's bad or out of time (or reading the wrong timing) it might be causing more problems than just mistimed spark. And I'd suspect fuel problems before spark problems if you're getting serious backfiring.

What "gauge" did you use to determine the timing was off?

[Xdisaster240sX]

My pressure tester wasnt long enough so my Grandfather had a gauge you plug into a vacuum line.

[Xdisaster240sX]

Put if its backfiring, doesnt that mean theres a open cylinder? I feel like fuel isnt an issue. But I could be wrong

[MinisterofDOOM]

A backfire is unburnt fuel igniting in the exhaust. Which means the fuel either isn't getting burnt when it's supposed to (perhaps due to lack of spark), or the engine's getting too much fuel and it's not all burning.

If you're getting KNOCK (detonation or pre-ignition) that's another story. But knock isn't loud like backfire (and if it was it'd destroy stuff).

[Xdisaster240sX]

You can check the fuel injectors by unplugging them and seeing if the engine "misfires" right? I did this an noticed that when I unplugged the frot passenger side one nothing changed.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Yes. If you unplug an injector or a plug wire on a cylinder and nothing changes, it can be a way to narrow down a misfire.

Do you have any CEL/error codes showing?

[Dattebayo]

when I unplugged the frot passenger side one nothing changed.

Well, it is a V8, it might not change much with one cylinder. I'm think that you should check the plug for that cylinder anyway and see if it's saturated with fuel or damaged. Hopefully not the latter.

[MinisterofDOOM]

I'm think that you should check the plug for that cylinder anyway and see if it's saturated with fuel or damaged. Hopefully not the latter.

Agreed.

And yeah...that's a great point. Generally at idle, one or even two bad coils or injectors won't be noticeable--especially on the LA, which has a pretty lopey idle for a modern engine. Under load, though, it can definitely make a difference.

[Xdisaster240sX]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9aK0Pd1 ... e=youtu.be

[MinisterofDOOM]

Hmmm...

Does it lose power when it backfires? Or just make noise?

And does this happen when driving, or only when parked?

[Xdisaster240sX]

Yes and driving

[Dattebayo]

Good answer. lol

[Xdisaster240sX]

haha It loses power

[Dattebayo]

Well there ya go sweetheart. Go get your socket wrench and pull that puppy and post it.