Recently bought a 1998 dodge caravan, 3.8L v6, van was overall in exellent condition, it ran and drove great! After about 3 weeks of driving , it started missing badly and about a mile later it died. Left my wife and new born baby stranded. Well when i checked it out, the fuel filter was clogged so badly it would hold fuel on the tank side. So I replaced the fuel filter. It would start after this, but it was running terriable, like it had jumped time. Given the miles on the engine this is exactly what i assumed. So after getting the van back to the house I pulled the timing chain cover off, indeed the timing chain was bad (over 2.5 " play) so i replaced the timing chain. After i got everything back togather(im pretty darn shure i got the timing chain installed properly), it still ran horrible. So, i replaced the plugs to see if this would help(it still had the origional champion plugs in it). Replacing the plugs did not help, so i pulled the new plugs back out one by one, and #2 covered in soot, #3 soaked in gass, #4 covered in soot, i've not checked the back ones just yet. but to me this is a good indication that the fuel and the ignition timing is off( as all plugs that i pulled fired just dandy pretty blue) im wondering if either i got the cam timing off ( the cam and the crank timing arrows were pointing in the propre positoin, with the keyway on the crank pretty much inline with #1) , or if the ECM by the battery could be confused, or it's timing module is way way way way off base... i'd kinda like an opinion before i go tearing that engine back apart....again..
May 18, 2009 at 5:16 PM