Dodge 440 struggles uphhill

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Dodge 440 struggles uphhill

Home > Discussion Forum > Mechanic's Corner - Engines

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All Messages in Thread	Author	Date
Dodge 440 struggles uphhill	Bob Cooper	8-26-01
I have a 79 Dodge 440 that has been hesitating going uphills. It seems to run ok on flat streets for awhile but not uphill. I have replaced the Thermoquad carb. the flue pump and filters the PCV valve the dist. vacumn valve and the vacumn relay and both charcoal canisters and the spark plugs. I have changed out the gas thinking it was a bad batch but I've run out of ideas. Any Help would be great.
Re: Dodge 440 struggles uphhill	Bob Cooper	8-26-01
I have a 79 Dodge 440 that has been hesitating going uphills. It seems to run ok on flat streets for awhile but not uphill. I have replaced the Thermoquad carb. the fuel pump and filters the PCV valve the dist. vacumn valve and the vacumn relay and both charcoal canisters and the spark plugs. I have changed out the gas thinking it was a bad batch but I've run out of ideas. Any Help would be great.
Re: Dodge 440 struggles uphhill	Bob	8-29-01
I have a 79 Dodge 440 that has been hesitating going uphills. It seems to run ok on flat streets for awhile but not uphill. I have replaced the Thermoquad carb. the flue pump and filters the PCV valve the dist. vacumn valve and the vacumn relay and both charcoal canisters and the spark plugs. I have changed out the gas thinking it was a bad batch but I've run out of ideas. Any Help would be great. I pulled the plugs and put them at 25 It also struggles on the freeway after it warms up. It is running at normal temp.I have replaced some of the smog thinking that was it. Any other ideas would be great!!
Re: Dodge 440 struggles uphhill	Kent	8-29-01
I have a 79 Dodge 440 that has been hesitating going uphills. It seems to run ok on flat streets for awhile but not uphill. I have replaced the Thermoquad carb. the flue pump and filters the PCV valve the dist. vacumn valve and the vacumn relay and both charcoal canisters and the spark plugs. I have changed out the gas thinking it was a bad batch but I've run out of ideas. Any Help would be great. I pulled the plugs and put them at 25 It also struggles on the freeway after it warms up. It is running at normal temp.I have replaced some of the smog thinking that was it. Any other ideas would be great!! When you say it "struggles" do you mean it lacks power? You also state that it seems to run OK, (doesn't struggle), until it warms up. That's when several things happen, the choke opens, the secondaries lock-out is disabled, and EGR action is enabled. It's easy enough to check the secondaries under load. Remove the engine cover and air filter, plug the heated air control vacuum hose, have someone drive the rig while you watch the secondary air valves in the carb. If power /engine speed doesn't increase as they open, then there is no fuel being supplied by the secondaries. If that checks out OK, then disconnect and plug the hose at the EGR valve and see if performance improves. If all externals are working OK, then it might be camshaft timing. To check this you need the valve timing specs. Then it's just a matter of removing a rocker arm cover and turning the engine over slowly while comparing the valves opening and closing in relation to crankshaft position. Some of the Chrylser harmonic balancers would suffer "creeping" of the inner and outer portions due to aging of the rubber that joins them. Because the timing marks are on the outer portion, you'd lose your timing index. Check these out and then come back with your findings.
Re: Dodge 440 struggles uphhill	Bob	8-29-01
I have a 79 Dodge 440 that has been hesitating going uphills. It seems to run ok on flat streets for awhile but not uphill. I have replaced the Thermoquad carb. the flue pump and filters the PCV valve the dist. vacumn valve and the vacumn relay and both charcoal canisters and the spark plugs. I have changed out the gas thinking it was a bad batch but I've run out of ideas. Any Help would be great. I pulled the plugs and put them at 25 It also struggles on the freeway after it warms up. It is running at normal temp.I have replaced some of the smog thinking that was it. Any other ideas would be great!! When you say it "struggles" do you mean it lacks power? You also state that it seems to run OK, (doesn't struggle), until it warms up. That's when several things happen, the choke opens, the secondaries lock-out is disabled, and EGR action is enabled. It's easy enough to check the secondaries under load. Remove the engine cover and air filter, plug the heated air control vacuum hose, have someone drive the rig while you watch the secondary air valves in the carb. If power /engine speed doesn't increase as they open, then there is no fuel being supplied by the secondaries. If that checks out OK, then disconnect and plug the hose at the EGR valve and see if performance improves. If all externals are working OK, then it might be camshaft timing. To check this you need the valve timing specs. Then it's just a matter of removing a rocker arm cover and turning the engine over slowly while comparing the valves opening and closing in relation to crankshaft position. Some of the Chrylser harmonic balancers would suffer "creeping" of the inner and outer portions due to aging of the rubber that joins them. Because the timing marks are on the outer portion, you'd lose your timing index. Check these out and then come back with your findings. What I mean by struggles is that after it is warm the engine hesitates, coughs and sometimes backfires. Stutters is probably more like it. I have recently heard that there were problems about the dist. I am checking on that. It seems as if something is choking the engine and not letting it run properly. Thanks for the recent information.
Re: Dodge 440 struggles uphhill	Bob	8-30-01
I have a 79 Dodge 440 that has been hesitating going uphills. It seems to run ok on flat streets for awhile but not uphill. I have replaced the Thermoquad carb. the flue pump and filters the PCV valve the dist. vacumn valve and the vacumn relay and both charcoal canisters and the spark plugs. I have changed out the gas thinking it was a bad batch but I've run out of ideas. Any Help would be great. I pulled the plugs and put them at 25 It also struggles on the freeway after it warms up. It is running at normal temp.I have replaced some of the smog thinking that was it. Any other ideas would be great!! When you say it "struggles" do you mean it lacks power? You also state that it seems to run OK, (doesn't struggle), until it warms up. That's when several things happen, the choke opens, the secondaries lock-out is disabled, and EGR action is enabled. It's easy enough to check the secondaries under load. Remove the engine cover and air filter, plug the heated air control vacuum hose, have someone drive the rig while you watch the secondary air valves in the carb. If power /engine speed doesn't increase as they open, then there is no fuel being supplied by the secondaries. If that checks out OK, then disconnect and plug the hose at the EGR valve and see if performance improves. If all externals are working OK, then it might be camshaft timing. To check this you need the valve timing specs. Then it's just a matter of removing a rocker arm cover and turning the engine over slowly while comparing the valves opening and closing in relation to crankshaft position. Some of the Chrylser harmonic balancers would suffer "creeping" of the inner and outer portions due to aging of the rubber that joins them. Because the timing marks are on the outer portion, you'd lose your timing index. Check these out and then come back with your findings. What I mean by struggles is that after it is warm the engine hesitates, coughs and sometimes backfires. Stutters is probably more like it. I have recently heard that there were problems about the dist. I am checking on that. It seems as if something is choking the engine and not letting it run properly. Thanks for the recent information. Kent I found out that Dodge had troubles inside the dist. with the stator and also the bushings on the dist. shaft. I've looked in some books and can't find the Stator, what is it and what does it look like? Thanks
Re: Dodge 440 struggles uphhill	Kent	8-30-01
I have a 79 Dodge 440 that has been hesitating going uphills. It seems to run ok on flat streets for awhile but not uphill. I have replaced the Thermoquad carb. the flue pump and filters the PCV valve the dist. vacumn valve and the vacumn relay and both charcoal canisters and the spark plugs. I have changed out the gas thinking it was a bad batch but I've run out of ideas. Any Help would be great. I pulled the plugs and put them at 25 It also struggles on the freeway after it warms up. It is running at normal temp.I have replaced some of the smog thinking that was it. Any other ideas would be great!! When you say it "struggles" do you mean it lacks power? You also state that it seems to run OK, (doesn't struggle), until it warms up. That's when several things happen, the choke opens, the secondaries lock-out is disabled, and EGR action is enabled. It's easy enough to check the secondaries under load. Remove the engine cover and air filter, plug the heated air control vacuum hose, have someone drive the rig while you watch the secondary air valves in the carb. If power /engine speed doesn't increase as they open, then there is no fuel being supplied by the secondaries. If that checks out OK, then disconnect and plug the hose at the EGR valve and see if performance improves. If all externals are working OK, then it might be camshaft timing. To check this you need the valve timing specs. Then it's just a matter of removing a rocker arm cover and turning the engine over slowly while comparing the valves opening and closing in relation to crankshaft position. Some of the Chrylser harmonic balancers would suffer "creeping" of the inner and outer portions due to aging of the rubber that joins them. Because the timing marks are on the outer portion, you'd lose your timing index. Check these out and then come back with your findings. What I mean by struggles is that after it is warm the engine hesitates, coughs and sometimes backfires. Stutters is probably more like it. I have recently heard that there were problems about the dist. I am checking on that. It seems as if something is choking the engine and not letting it run properly. Thanks for the recent information. Kent I found out that Dodge had troubles inside the dist. with the stator and also the bushings on the dist. shaft. I've looked in some books and can't find the Stator, what is it and what does it look like? Thanks Bob, what they call the "stator" is the pickup coil, the toothy thing is called the reluctor. When a tooth is passing very close to the pickup coil a small amount of current is produced which triggers the ignition module to "fire" the ignition coil. The gap between the coil and the reluctor is very small,(.006"), and if there is appreciable bushing wear, the tooth may hit the coil. I would replace the ballast resister, that white ceramic object with a small green and a larger pink wire at each end, 90% of performance problems are caused by it. To check for bushing wear just push the reluctor from side to side, or use a timing light, first on #1 and then #6, worn bushings will cause an appreciable difference in the timing indication.Let us know what you find, I've got the ohm reading tests for the various components if you want to test them.
Re: Dodge 440 struggles uphhill	Kent	8-27-01
I have a 79 Dodge 440 that has been hesitating going uphills. It seems to run ok on flat streets for awhile but not uphill. I have replaced the Thermoquad carb. the fuel pump and filters the PCV valve the dist. vacumn valve and the vacumn relay and both charcoal canisters and the spark plugs. I have changed out the gas thinking it was a bad batch but I've run out of ideas. Any Help would be great. Just to check something, pull and regap the plugs to .025" and see how it runs there. Come back to this board with the results.
Re: Dodge 440 struggles uphhill	FAST FRED	8-27-01
You might consider checking the fuel PRESSURE when on the hill. Temp install a gage in fuel line , but be carefull. A vacume gage would also be a big help in diagnosing the problem , and can help you get better fuel milage in future. FAST FRED