98 AWD v8 Sluggish?

[rtbrjason]

I might be wrong, but it seems the last few days my 98 x has been feeling kind of sluggish. I might not have noticed before so I'm not sure how long it was going on.. I was away for about 10 days and it just seemed to run kind of crappy since I've been back..

I did throw some cheapish platnium plugs in a few weeks ago.. My friend that did the plugs for me told me that i needed wires more as there was some rust on a few of them. Aside from the sluggishness, it has skipped or hesitated a couple times.

I've done a seafoam cleaning as well as a quick steam clean and run some berrymans through the gas tank. I've also replaced the fuel filter and the air filter with a k&n. I replaced the pcv valve also, but it was possbily not the best replacement pcv valve.. It fealt cheaper than the one that came out. I cleaned up the maf sensor as well as sprayed a bit deep creap into the intake and iac.. Any more ideas? I'm leaning towards better plugs and new wires, but I'm not sure that is going to solve anything other than the hesitation. It feels suddenly like i have to give it more gas to make it go and even then it doesn't really want to.. I also have run 93 the last couple tanks, which maybe has made it worse?

 

[exploded99]

I have had sluggishness and hesitation in my V8 - pull the throttle body and clean it out - the back of the throttle plate gets really gummed up.

Cleaning the fuel injectors got rid of most of my sluggishness. My fuel injector cleaner of choice is BG44K - most NAPA's have it. Its about 24 bucks a can (!!!!)- but it works.

And if you have not changed your tranny fluid in a long time, I would recommend a fluid / filter change. The 4r70w is a good transmission, but in my experience it gets a little sloppy with old fluid. I changed tranny fluid and what I thought was an engine hesitation went away - the tranny was just not 100% with the old fluid.

Hope that helps!

 

[rtbrjason]

I have had sluggishness and hesitation in my V8 - pull the throttle body and clean it out - the back of the throttle plate gets really gummed up.

Cleaning the fuel injectors got rid of most of my sluggishness. My fuel injector cleaner of choice is BG44K - most NAPA's have it. Its about 24 bucks a can (!!!!)- but it works.

And if you have not changed your tranny fluid in a long time, I would recommend a fluid / filter change. The 4r70w is a good transmission, but in my experience it gets a little sloppy with old fluid. I changed tranny fluid and what I thought was an engine hesitation went away - the tranny was just not 100% with the old fluid.

Hope that helps!

I did get the throttle body cleaned out real well with a combination of berrymans and deepcreep.

The injector cleaner in question is something you run through the gas? Or does it get poured through the injector itself?

I've not changed the fluid in the tranny and not sure when/if it was ever done.. Only had the truck a few k miles now. Do you do a full empty of the fluid including the torqe converter, or just a drain and refill?

 

[exploded99]

The people that make bg44k make some stuff that the shops use to do a professional injector flush, but the 44k is poured in the gas - I used a can to a half tank.

The tranny takes about 12 - 13 quarts if you do a full flush, including draining the converter, which holds 2 gallons or so. There is the old debate about doing a full tranny flush on an older tranny - it sometimes can cause problems if the fluid has not been changed like it should be.

I would say unless your current fluid is really scummy (burnt, blackish) do the full flush. It will "tighten up" tranny performance.

Not sure that will fix all your problems, but it sounds like it's due for it anyway.