I have a 99 dakota with a 3.9 and i am having oil pressure issues. when i am driving down the road i have great oil pressure. sometimes it will just go to zero and the bell goes off. i keep driving with no issues except after a while the lifters on the passenger side start to peck and after some time it gets kinda loud. my dad put a new oil pressure sending unit in it and it still does this. the lifter thing just started today. now after some time and letting it cool down quiet a bit the oil pressure jumps back up to normal. now dad is getting really mad about this thing and i need some help so he dont junk my truck. the overheating and heater problem he fixed with a new water pump. now this is going on, have any of you guys had a problem similar to this? thank you for the help.

 

I had a problem like that on a 5.2 once. Turned out that the pickup screen on the oil pump was all clogged up with junk. I'm surprised any oil was able to get through it.

I had to pull the pan and clean the screen. I also put a new oil pump on it while I was in there.

Probably not the answer you were hoping for...

 

no that not the answer i wanted to hear, but it is a place to start. does the motor have to be pulled out to check that? dad will not be happy but i will help him all i can, he was talking about that earlier tonight but he never said if he was going to do it or not. he is pretty aggravated right now. thank you for the input

 

You could try mmo in your oil and see if things improve

mmo = http://www.marvelmysteryoil.com/index.php/site/marveltales/

In your oil it will clean things up

 

we put some trans fluid in it because we have had to on other vehicles but it never done anything. we just quit on it for the night. dad had a tractor that was all clogged up one time and he filled the motor up with kerosene and let it set over night. the next day he drained it all out and put oil in it and started it up. that fixed it do you think we could try that?

 

I had this problem too. You have to remove the oil pan to remove all the crap that is there. Trust me It will probably be easier to pull the engine than leaving it in place and jacking with it. New oil pump but keep the pickup and tube and just clean them.

 

I'm with them. But I bet you could leave the motor in the truck, just pick it up 2 or 3 inches with the hoist (unbolt the trans crossmember), and just drop the pan out. There's nothing really in the way as long as you lift it a little.

 

The oil pan is rear sump and even with the engine and trans jacked up there was not enough room. We ended up putting a come along on the tailshaft and rear end and winching it back and with more work it came out.

 

The one I did was in a full size truck, so it wasn't bad. Sounds like the Dakota is a lot more work.

 

What does it hit? I would think the only thing even close would be the exhaust cross pipe (easily removed) or the front of the pan on the main crossmember. I had my motor up 4" when I knocked my freeze plugs out, the pan looked like a straight drop.