1997 Chevy Truck Truck bogs down and/or dies from a dead st

DFWYARDSELL2009

MEMBER
1997 CHEVROLET TRUCK
V8
2WD
AUTOMATIC
161,000 MILES

I have replaced a few items as of late including: plugs, wires, fuel filter, thermostat, spider fuel injector kit, cat converter. I had error codes saying two cylinders were not running full/miss firing, thus replacing the injectors and above items, cat was rattling and bad. Replaced. Now the truck idles not so perfect, and when giving it gas in park, drive, etc it bogs down bad, sometimes dies. While driving, it's fine, shifts fine. Could this be the new cat converter, o2 sensor, hose? I am at a loss, and no new check engine light signal comes on to help diagnose the problem.

3 Replies

2CARPRO JACK

MECHANIC
11,533 POSTS

So it is basically misfiring at idle? But smooths out once you are moving?I want to clarify so we can figure this out. If so, use a water sprayer to carefullt spray the exhaust manifolds at each cylinder to see which one/ones are cold (not firing) then pull those plugs to see what they look like. Were the previous misfire codes for cylinders next to each other (1, 3, 5, 7- 2, 4, 6, 8)?

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Thursday, August 5th, 2010 AT 8:42 PM

DFWYARDSELL2009

MEMBER
3 POSTS

Please explain the water sprayer technique. I believe the code before replacing the spider injection kit was for cylinder 3 and 7. Now, it starts right up, then idles a bit off, if you give it gas in park it boggs down bad and then it accelerates, and every once in a while will slightly backfire. Itdoes the same thing when trying to drive - if it does not die completely. If you can get the truck going (more rpm's) the truck runs and shifts fine. It seems to only do this at initial takeoff. If you stop and go and the rpm's are still winding down, it seems to do better. But when you stop, let the rpm's go all the way back down and then go, it boggs down badly.
Thanks for the help. At the time I had the codes read, it also said there was an o2 sensor that needed to be replaced, but the mechanic lost that paperwork! I thought maybe since the cat converter was rattling, maybe after replacing the cat, it would read correctly?

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Friday, August 6th, 2010 AT 12:15 AM

2CARPRO JACK

MECHANIC
11,533 POSTS

Use a spray bottle and lightly spray the exhaust manifold right where it comes out of the cylinder head at each cylinder, if one is misfiring the water will take longer to evaporat (colder due to no fire). As far as the o2 sensor, you may have had a "cat efficiency code". Double check the firing order, it is easy to mix up 5 & 7 as they are next to each other on the engine and in the firing order, so if they are mixed up the engine will run rough at lower rpms but will actually smooth out abit once going.

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Friday, August 6th, 2010 AT 8:12 AM