I have had to replace 5 quarts of oil in my 3.9L V6 dodge dakota in the span of a week,is there any place I could look at to see if there is a leak or if it's burning off the oil(It has 120K miles on it)?

 

Take off the air hat. Open the throttle blades and look into the manifold. If you see oil, you've found the source. It may be the infamous "plenum leak."

 

Losing that much oil you either have a very Smokey Truck or a big oil slick under every place you park.

Are you smoking down the road?

 

I used to have a car that burned so much oil it looked like a mosquito fogger. It didn't go thru 5 quarts in a week. (I got an excessive smoke warning on the way home from buying it.)

First place I'd look is at the drain plug and the oil filter. I had a Nova that once dumped all it's oil after an oil change out an improperly installed filter. In less than 15 miles! The other places it's likely to dump oil is out the oil pressure sender (and that's oil under pressure,) out the end & corner gaskets on the plenum, from the rear main seal, and suck oil in if the plenum valley pan is leaking.

I don't think the valley pan is sheet metal on a 01, I just did a plenum on a 98 and it looked like Mopar improved the thickness of the pan. You may have a blown gasket, tho, I'd repair it using a new gasket and copper RTV goop.

 

My 1990 3.9 dakota had a problem losing lots of oil once. Turned out the oil pressure sender unit had rusted through and oil was spewing out all over.

 

5 quarts in a week, is a LOT of oil. How many miles did you put on in that span? 2-300?. I feel like you'd have to notice a lot of oil under the truck or smoke coming out the back to lose that much oil. I don't think a plenum leak would suck up that much oil.

 

There can be a leak and never see anything great under the truck it’s a leak that only occurs as you drive or you could say as the engine is running is when it leaks but not just sitting in the driveway.

So its pumping oil out as you drive around but not on the driveway