I have an 89 Dodge Ramcharger 360 cid.

RUTHERFRED

MEMBER
1989 DODGE RAMCHARGER
107,000 MILES

Hi, I have an 89 Dodge ramcharger 360 cid, throttle body injected. It's a bit hard to start in the mornings but it's predictable. Always on the third try. It starts fine when it's warmed up as long as It doesn't sit very long. If it sets a half hour it just doesn't want to start. It hits once in a while but woln't start untill it gets ready to, then runs perfect. I have replaced the fuel pump, engine temp sensor and fuel preasure regulator with no change. HELP !

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,873 POSTS

Sounds like a leaking injector is letting the fuel pressure bleed off. My '88 Grand Caravan has been doing that for the last ten years. I've had a fuel pressure gauge on it for a different problem but it's easy to see the pressure drop after the engine has been off for a few hours. In this case it starts instantly first thing in the morning due to the raw fuel sitting in the intake manifold, and the pressure comes back up by the time that fuel is burned off. It's when the warm engine has been off for 15 minutes and the pressure is still up that it has a long crank time. I think that's due to it being in a flooded condition.

Your pressure should come up from the one-second the pump runs when you turn on the ignition switch but that may not be fast enough if you crank the engine right away. A lot of people have said their engines start faster when they turn on the ignition switch and pause for one or two seconds in the "run" position before cranking the engine.