I have a 2006 Ram 3500 CTD with the automatic, it has right at 103,000 miles on it now. Last week when it was cold here, -5F, I had the block heater plugged in and started it up, it ran real rough for a while, the check engine light was on and it then clear up once it warmed up a little and ran like it normally does. I drove it into town and filled the tank up, before filling it up I did add around 12 OZ of Howes diesel fuel additive, I drove it some more and the check engine light went out. I drove it again yesterday, not since the last time earlier in the week, and it started running real rough again. The check engine light came back on I stopped at a NAPA store and bouht some more fuel additive that is suppose to increase the C tane and clean the injectors, drove it home, 3 miles or so and parked it. I had tried draining some of the fuel out of the fuel filter with the stock drain the first time it started acting up. I took the fuel filter out of it today and suck most of the fuel out of the filter housing, it was full of very small gunk, the filter is black looking and when I drained the remaining fuel into a container it looked like it was full of gunky debris, black dirt looking. I try flushing the fuel filter housing out with some clean deisel fuel and installed a new fuel filter, I filled the fuel filter housing up with clean diesel fuel and cycled the key multiple times to make sure the fuel filter was full, it was leaking I finished tightening up the top to stop the leak,the new O ring had not seated properly , evidently I started it up and let it run, it seems worse now (it was up to 45 F here today ) and I checked the exhaust manifold ports with a infra red temp. sensors and the front two cylinders are not making any heat in the exhaust manifold ports, the other four had between 185 F to 285 F and the front two had 85 F Any suggestions, help or fast fixes will be greatly aprreciated Thanks in advance for the help


UPDATE, 12-27-13 I've been out of town since the 23rd, I started the truck up before I left and it seemed better as far as the idle. It was warmer that day but I did not drive it. I started up again today and drove it, it was above 50 F and it runs fine now The check engine light was on before starting it but it went out after driving into the gas station I bouht the fuel from and starting it several times before I got there. I had several other stops before the gas station so I think it got warmed up and then on the last restart it did its self diagnoses, if they diesels ECM do that, and the light stayed off I did take it to the loal NAPA store to see if they would look at the engine code but they say they don't do that I'll take it to a good shop on Monday and ask them to down load the history and see what the code was or is, I'll post the results from that then Thanks to all of you who chimd in for the help

fouled injectors

Debris is never good to hear associated with a common rail... you do change you fuel filter at least every 15k correct??

With no scan tool and fuel return flow tests tools the best you can do would be wiggle/pull each wire at the valve cover gasket harness while running and see if it changes. Next I'd pull the valve cover and ohm out each injector.... might as well start up front since you suspect that area. Also....pay close attention to the valve cover gasket/wiring harness as the crimps where they exit like to fail. I'd ohm those circuits on the bench making sure none of them have high resistance or are shorted.

Jay

unfortunately you more then likely have worn injectors. These unlike a gas injector are usually shot, and don't "clean up" the injector pintle is worn. I personally would recommend a return fuel test, and see if the injectors are returning the fuel rather than holding and letting the fuel rail psi to build. These shouldn't return much at all, but if they do return a good amount, like 300ml in a 20-30 second count they are usually shot.

Go online and look up this test. Its very easy to run. Also do you have a scan tool, if so, check desired, and actual fuel rail pressure. it should be well over 6000 PSI. Minimum psi for the injection system to run is 6000 IIRC. should be about 26-35000 psi.

I can send you all the test info from dodge, I can copy it and send it toya, or I can copy it to an email and send you it.


My numbers might be a touch off, as I don't do this test every day, but they are close.

Kasey

Take it from a guy who blew up two Cummins engines that were both injector related, time to bite the bullet and buy a full set of injectors! Do it now before you become like me... At this point I would drain the fuel tank and flush the lines.

Rhino is correct,

Do not let some side show shop let you replace only the bad 2 or 3, do them all, make sure the lift pump is up to par, make sure the fuel filter is new, and also make sure that none of the fuel lines are bound up, or cracked. On the 5.9 I also replace all 6 transfer tubes along with the job.

I would also remove the tank and clean it thoroughly as wall as flush out the lines before you start it up with new injectors. The black dirt sounds like algae build up and it can take out the new injectors before you know it.

Common rail engines needs super clean fuel. If you change new set of injectors. Flush the lines, also high pressure tubes.

Then i would install extra fuel filter. Like this one

http://www.cumminscatfuelfilter.com/

Cost of the set is cheap compared to new injectors. I change my filter once a year or every 15-20k miles. Also remember to drain out water from the stock separator frequently.

I`ve seen this same 5.9L engine in buses here, their injectors survive 400-500k miles of hard driving. They use dual canister donaldson filters.