i have a 1996 dodge ram 1500 4x4. i bought it for 500.00 with a blown headgasket. we pulled the engine out and fully intended on just replacing the head gasket. my brother being the huge gear head that he is started with a whole lot of "while its out". so around 4000.00 in parts later... it sounds like a top fuel drag car and has a beautiful lope in it.

first the parts.
stock crank
probe forged .40 pistons (machine cshop bored and balanced)
.54 lift cam
ported/polished stock heads
m1 intake w/red injectors
52 mm throttlebody
k&n air intake/filter
pace setter long tubes (havent put rest of exhauston yet)
mopar high performance computer
high flow oil pump/water pump
electric fans
a whole slew of new oem parts for engine

now the problem.
when we put the engine together we had the dist 180off, we corrected it and it fired up. it wont go over 3,000 rpm with a load on it. we thought the timing might be off. we cant correct it tho, the computer keeps doing that. sometimes its hard to start. at idle it will rev fine. it has good compression. no check engine light. o2 sensor isnt connected yet. timing light is showing 10-12 degrees btdc.

is there a way to manually set base timing (bypass or something?). is there anything that has to be synced with a certian scanner? the truck was running (just hot) when we bought it. after a month im anxious to make this beast run.

any ideas/input would be appreciated

 

Are you still running the stock brain box ?

 

I'm using the mopar performance one

 

I'm not familiar with how the mopar performance computer works, but is it programmable? Hook up the o2 sensor. The comp needs to see all the inputs it asks for, if not, it can go into a "limp-home" mode. The cam may be outside the parameters that the computer can compensate for. You may need a completely programmable computer, and create a custom fuel and timing map for it. I'll do some more digging.

 

i hooked the first o2 sensor up. i havent had the remainder of the exhaust made yet (cant drive it to the exhaust shop) so i dont have the second hooked up since there is no cat on it. the mopar site said the computer is good for up to 400hp. thanks for the help so far, any other info would be helpfull