My truck has a 96 5.2 Magnum, factory EFI, with an RE46 OD trans. The motor & trans both only have just under 68,000 miles on them. Both were installed in the truck with about 44,000 miles on them. The truck is driven all year around.

The last month or so, I have been getting an intermittent code for a misfire on #6 cylinder. I feel it on a cold start up then it goes away (I pulled the plug, it doesn't look too far out of the ordinary to me), It also has stalled a few times after it was partly warmed up during the really cold weather. It always restarted, but the idle was real slow and I often had to give it a bit extra gas pedal for a few minutes after it would stall. I am assuming its probably the Champion plugs that were installed about 2 years (and 24,000 miles) ago when the truck was built. The truck got the cap, rotor, and plug wires at the same time (for whatever its worth, the wires are suppose to have a lifetime warranty). The fuel pump was new with the truck build, but my son suggests I check the fuel pressure as well.

Stupid question #1: I know Champion plugs are not as good as they used to be, what is the recommended plugs these days?
#2: Should I plan on changing the cap, rotor, and wires again, or wait and see if the plugs solve the problem?

Just after I got the truck together, I blew a trans cooler line off and dumped all the fluid. The 1st time I was across the street from an auto parts store and was able to reconnect the hose, fill it with fluid, and it seemed to work OK. The second time (about 3 weeks later), I was 3 miles from anyplace and had the truck towed home. Then I dropped the pan, replaced the filter, and added a pan drain (that is dripping). Everything looked rally good, and very clean. The transmission works OK but after a few months, I started getting a 1763 code. I assume the loss of fluid damaged the Governor transducer. The transmission line issue has been solved and has not been a problem for 2 years and 20K miles.

My intention now is to drop the pan, fix the drain plug drip, replace the governor solenoid and the transducer, install a new filter, and fluid, and adjust the bands. The current fluid has around 24K miles on it.

Stupid question #3: I see the solenoid and transducer prices are all over the board. Is there a better brand, or one to stay away from?
#4: Are the ones listed at Amazon or E bay better or worse then what is available at the local parts stores, or at Rock Auto, or are they all pretty much the same?

I also intend to follow the wires from the relay and the computer to be sure the wiring to the solenoid & transducer are all good.

Stupid question #5: Should I be looking for anything else, transmission or ignition related.

My experience with prob #1 is a cracked cylinder head…. Pretty common back in the magnum era

Have you cleaned the throttle body?

What needs to be cleaned on the throttle body? My 1st Magnum.

Thank you. I will get on that real soon.
I suspect I will have to order the throttle body gasket, most of the local parts stores don't stock 20 year old Mopar stuff.

Also check the plenum gasket on the intake
Tore a few magnums apart they were all bad

Yup on the plenum gasket. Try to find a victor reinz intake gasket set as opposed to fel pro. Fel pros plenum gasket does not seal worth a shyt. Thin, with the raised bead, I got my victor gaskets from rock auto.
On #6 misfire I chased the same thing on my 01 Durango (360) and it wound up being an internal computer thing. I sent it off for repair and was told there was a chip that liked to become unsoldered and make intermittent contact. Computer repair place said it always real common on Dodge computers and the problems caused would vary depending on which legs on the chip were losing contact.
Another thought on the plenum leak issues are that (at least the ones I've used) if you buy the 1/4" aluminum plate to replace the stamped steel original one is the bolts they supplied were too short and barely gave me more than a couple of threads of engagement in the bottom of the intake.
On the cracked head idea I've taken several apart that ran fine with no indication of a cracked head, even though they were. Many say the typical cracks are superficial and don't mean anything. I don't know if that's true or not. I've never taken one apart because of suspected cracked heads but most of them wind up that way. "Surprise" both because the cracks found by the machine shop and also that they are despite how they run.

I used the Hughes plenum plate on mine. Should last forever....
http://hughesengines.com/Index/prod...mxvY2sgRG9kZ2UgTWFnbnVt&partid=30712

I did look into the intake before the motor was installed and the intake floor was dry and clean.

I'm going to clean the throttle body as soon as I can, I'll look into the intake for signs of oil again then. I am not too concerned about the head cracks, I have heard most don't have any effect on the motor's running.

Not that I'm thinking I need to do it, but where would a guy sent the computer to to get it repaired? I can actually feel a misfire at times on this motor, mostly when its a cold start up.

While you're digging around, make sure your injector seals are good too.
I had a misfire and random misfire codes on a non-mopar mini van years ago. Injector seals were the culprit.

I got an imposter, that came with bolts which were shorter than originals/ beside the fact that the plenum plate is thicker then original.

Oh, you actually do feel a misfire. Thats different as mine kept showing the code but actually it wasn't.

check down the throat again. you say it was dry but that was 20-some thousand miles ago? The Victor brand intake gasket set (better than Fel pro for that application) which comes with the belly pan gasket, is only $27 as of yesterday at Rock auto.
Something else I remember hearing that can cause a miss with a Magnum was weak valve springs. I forget whether it was intake or exhaust but I seem to remember a TSB about this very thing, from years ago.
If not an actual TSB it was an article from "Motor Age", or Undercar Digest, one of the trade magazines we used to get at the shop.
Ive done that job on several, and every time I use the Fel Pro gaskets it seems to bite me. Hold up a Fel Pro to a Victor and you'll see why.
The last factory ones I used were designed like the Fel Pro. I like Fel pro for most things but for "this application" the Fel pro is junk.
The place I used for my Durango for computer repair was (something like) SIA Electronics in Southern IL (Cobden?) Its been a few years since then.... memory is a bit foggy.

Maybe try moving the spark plug in the #6 hole to #8 hole and see if the misfire code moves with it. I started having a misfire code on a cylinder in my 2004 Dakota with a 4.7, so I simply swapped coil packs from that cylinder and another one. I got lucky and the misfire code moved with the swap. I replaced all 8 of them and have 7 spares on the shelf in a box! As far as the transmission goes, I'm no help. A guy at the transmission shop I trust said the shift solenoids in 46RE's and 545RFE's had problems and sometimes need replaced. I had trouble with the 545 in our Dakota and went thru hell and back figuring it out. Had a new transmission put in and it worked fine for about 2 months, then went to limp mode again. I swapped out the computer out for a rebuilt one....not another problem 2 years later! When I sent the old one back as a core, I included a note to e mail me what problems they found in it when they went thru it. A few months later, I got an e mail from a guy who said it had several problems in the TCM portion of the computer. I had not told them what problems I was experiencing, so that was my problem all along. Link below is where I got the computer. If you buy one, order it for the donor vehicle that the 5.2 and transmission came from. Good luck to you.

https://www.autocomputerexchange.com/

Volaredon It has been about 24,000 miles since I looked down the throttle at the intake floor, but that 24,000 miles was only 2 years and a few months ago. The truck sees nearly 10,000 miles a year. This motor only has 68,000 miles on it.
I will pull the throttle body off and clean it up, I suspect that and the 24,000 mile plugs are likely the issue. The motor is strong (other then the slight misfire occasionally on cold mornings), doesn't use any oil, and doesn't have that Mopar puff of blue smoke on start up like the older high miles motors have. The drive train came out of a 96 Dakota that had 44,000 miles on it. The 4x4 truck had a rotted frame and came out of the Dells area in WI. There was a Harley sticker on the back window. I suspect the one owner truck was the winter ride of the Harley guy that only drove it when the roads were crappy. other then the rotted out frame, the rest of the truck was really nice, there was no doubt about the low miles.

Do I stick with Champion spark plugs?

The plugs and wires last forever on the Magnums. My experience with misfires was Cap and Rotor; 9 times out of 10 it's the Rotor. Follow the suggestion above about swapping the plug and/or wire to see if the mis-fire follows it.

Plenum blow-outs are grossly exaggerated, oil on the floor of the intake is usually coming from the PCV. I've owned eight 2Gen Magnums and never seen a "blown plenum", nor have I ever seen one on anyone elses', take that for what it's worth.

Can't help you with the transmission issue, but, I understand 3 things about band adjustment: 1. It rarely, if ever, needs to be done. 2. If done incorrectly you can eff up the transmission, and, 3. It's easy to do it incorrectly.

Definitely
That's all I ever use.
On the "only 24000 miles since" I've seen them blown with less than your 60-some000 k that you have on your engine. If it isn't using oil that's a hopeful sign that it isn't a problem. But for ~$30 and an afternoon worth of time, it would be piece of mind at least and eliminate the possibility for sure.
Take another look down that throat and at least see if it looks like it did the last time.

I'll look, I will have the throttler body off anyway.
To remove the intake, I need to remove the hood on this truck. This truck has a 3 piece hood and the center does not open, all 3 pieces need to be removed as one piece. That takes 2 people, or 3x the chance of scratching the paint.
3 pictures:
1) The hood in primer before the blue paint was applied. The entire thing bolts to the firewall and the front nose piece at only the center.

2) This picture was before the gray primer, you can see there isn't much clearance between the air cleaner housing and the bottom of the center of the hood. The hood center is 8" wide.and there is only 4" of clearance between the top of the filter housing and the bottom of the hood. The 3 pieces of the hood can only be separated once its off the truck, and can not be rejoined once the center is bolted back on. The 3 pieces weighs nearly 100 lbs, and is about 4' long, front to back. To remove it, you lift both sides, remove 3 bolts on each side (one for the hood support, and one each at the firewall mounting point, and one into the radiator support). Then you lift both sides to the top, and lift the entire thing off the truck. The hood sides, lifted up are nearly shoulder height. To put it on the truck by yourself, you lift it up and aim it as best you can and more or less throw it up onto the firewall and hope its in the correct position. Once its resting on the firewall, you can slide it into position to start bolting it on.

3) This is a current picture of the truck, a couple weeks ago. I would prefer not to scratch the paint.

On a different note, does anyone have a current Rock Auto discount code?