lope, then dies
 

i have a 98.5 cummins. The truck starts great the first time in a day. but as soon as i shut it off, its game over. When i go to start it back up, it lopes extremely bad at 700 rpms, for about 5 seconds and then dies. If i give it gas while its running and loping, it does absolutely nothing, it acts as if im not even touching the pedal. But...the next day i can go out and it starts right up with no hesitation......until i shut it off. so basically the truck moves once a day. Any ideas?

Most likely a failed injection pump / lift pump. You'll need to do a little diagnoses to know for sure. Do you have the ability to diagnose the truck and the tools to do so? (scan tool, Basic hand tools, etc?) If you have no experience in this field it's often the best choice to find a competent shop/technician and have them diagnose and possibly repair the truck. 90% of the time it's fast, better job and less aggravation on the owners part. Not trying to be rude just saying it often works out cheaper!

well, the thing about getting a diagnostic is that the check engine light has to be on, and for some odd reason, mine is not. i was also wondering if it could be a computer module problem?

Thats not the case. ObdII allows us to see much more than obd1 allowed. It is a common myth that the mil must be on. We can still evaluate live data and many cases there are soft codes present which give us direction as well! This is why I recommend finding a competent technician, if you find a tech who tells you he can't do anything without a check engine light. RUN! He's a parts changer, reads the code changes the part.

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Also wanted to mention that diagnostics are not limited to a scan tool. When we talk about diagnosing a vehicle performance issue we look at all aspects of the vehicle and its issues. Checking fuel pressure and running the pump in standalone would be the first items checked if your truck was in my shop. That's still diagnosis and you would receive a 1.5 hr bill for me to tell you the pump was dead.

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Yeah recently lost my injection pump didn't do the exact same as yours but close. Never threw a code but my mechanic plugged it in and it was showing what he called the vp44 death code.