Hiya Everyone.. have an 01 Ram 2500 purchased new and has 275K flawless miles..

Decided to finally get to some of the dreaded & much neglected maintenance items IE heater core and a few pesky oil leaks. I replaced the VP44 and the lift pump last year and it has been driving & running without fail. While I did not have the oil leak at the time, I believed that I had damaged the o-ring on the VP which caused my leak..so I fixed it. I also installed a new heater core at the same time... and all of you know what a PIA that is. I put everything back together.. started it up and it has been missing and blowing white smoke since. It is so bad, it cannot get out of its own way.. all the power is gone. It ran perfect prior to repairs. So I found the real oil leak ( tappet cover) took everything off again reinstalled and checked.. still ran bad.

What I have done since:
No error codes
Replaced the VP44, filter, adjusted valves, disassembled and cleaned the injectors ( which looked really good with min. wear) looked for air leaks, reset apps.. etc..
I even swapped out the turbo to see if the new one I put in might be defective.

I did find that the No. 6 lower exhaust bolt had decided to leave the confines of my engine compartment, so I fixed that.

some folks have suggested injectors.. but I have a hard time believing the it would be a problem from one day to the next.

Any ideas would be great

 

Update, found an extremely small stream of air bubbles entering the fuel after the lift pump. Plan to replace seals on the fuel lines. Thoughts on FASS or AIrdog? ( incase the problem is larger)

 

I was gonna guess that might be your problem before I saw the 2nd post.

 

Cam sensor or wiring, Air in the system,no reference signal for timing to the VP44 from the ECM.

 

OK Been over this thing 6 more times, still no change.
Not throwing codes.. would there be code if ref signal was missing?
cam sensor ( one below the VP) seriously.. crap thought I just replaced that one.. its not throwing a code but it does act like the timing is off . I know the signal is for reference only. No code possible?

 

So I know a guy... with a super scan -tool one of those expensive Snap-On flavored ones.. turns out its all fuel injectors.. shut em down individually and low and behold. 356 toast.. running rich as hell... (you can tell by the little perfect burn sound made before each cylinder went dead.. so new ones are on the way. I am going to stay with the stock flavor as I am getting ~26 MPG on the freeway...thanks in large part to that 1000Ft lb billeted converter I put in. Will keep you posted when done.

 

OK.. so new injectors, VP44, cam sensor, and the new Airdog did not help...So a question to all...
Is it possible to misalign the timing gear for the VP44 during install? Move it over a tooth? My understanding is there is not enough clearance for that to happen.. any thoughts???

 

So my we finally got a P0602 code out of the ECM.. After I took it to a shop.. Not sure why it's just now showing up.. Going to check grounds and reprogram to stock.. see if that helps