91 Ram 50 Not Starting

[abeemanator]

So I just picked up a 91 Ram 50 2WD with the 2.4 in it, well I had a friend drive it from downtown Boise to where i live (About 50-60 miles), I drove a vehicle in front of him and he was behind me, after I got it home I drove it non stop for about 3 1/2 hours, I noticed that when I tested the acceleration of the truck, it began to stumble and back fire real bad at high RPM, so I kept the speed down, after about 1/2 hour it started to jerk really bad when accelerating, I mean the whole truck just lurching back and fourth, and eventually it did not want to run very well at all and drove it home doing 15 mph, it was backfiring very loudly as I was driving it home. I hooked up a timing light just to see if the coil was missing or not, and it seemed to do fine, it very slowly got harder and harder to start, and now I can only get it to start on ether.

My question is, should the high pressure fuel pump run for a few seconds when I turn the key to ON, if so I cannot hear it, and the truck is low on gas, but I don't think its out, I would figure the pump would just keep running because it cant reach operating pressure if it was out of gas.

Other than that this truck is great, the interior is immaculate, and there is just one tiny tear on the drivers side of the seat and the headlight switch is broken so I have to pull the head and taillight fuses to turn them off.

[turbomax]

Do a compression check.

[abeemanator]

I was an idiot, and I actually ran out of gas, took me about 3 1/2 hours to find that out, I just have never ran out of gas in a MPFI vehicle before, was very different than running out of gas in a carbourated vehicle

[turbomax]

Good to hear. I was afraid you might have damaged your motor if you were too hard on it.

[Fordubishi]

E means Empty.

[abeemanator]

God I know,I had just gotten the truck and my Toyota could go about 50 miles after it hit E, but this truck doesn't go as far on E I guess. LOL

[pennyman1]

You should never run efi vehicles to e unless you like replacing fuel pumps on a regular basis - the pump needs the fuel to cool the pump. Refill when the tank hits 1/4 tank.