I recently took a trip from upstate NY to VA. I noticed a pinging sound through some of the hills in PA. Knowing i only use
high octane fuel since buying the truck, it wasnt cheap gas. I pulled over at the closest rest area, only to find my oil down
over 2 quarts, which i checked before i left, was full. I refilled the oil, grabbed a few extras, and continued my trip, pinging was gone until i hit VA, then it was back. 2 more quarts of oil gone.

When i got to my destination, i pulled off the Air cleaner housing to see if i had oil in the plenum, or down in the intake, all is clear. i pulled out all 8 plugs and did not notice any burning oil deposits, they all were a light brown. Also no smoke whatsoever out the exhaust. i went through a total of 7 quarts of oil in 950 miles, and now when its full i get the same valve ping i noticed when it was low.

any ideas about this dilemma? i have noticed it running rough when its cold and lacking the power it once had. im sure i fried a valve, or bent a pushrod or something, maybe some cam damage, but im not fixing it if i dont know where my oil problems are.

thanks

 

The plenum is the only thing I can think of that would be causing your problem, but losing that much oil seems a bit excessive to me, and if the plenum looks clean to you, I dont understand how you could be losing that mauch oil anywhere else but the plenum. There is a TSB that tells you how to check the vacuum at the intake, and that tells you if the plenum is doing its job or not. I am not sure of the exact location of that TSB right now, if I find it I will post a link, or if someone else knows please put it up here. I hope I was of some help to you.

 

Rub your finger over the inside of the tailpipe. If there is goo over it could need new piston rings. I had a truck that burned 12 quarts of oil in a tank of gas and I had worn rings. Thank god I had the extended warrenty. cause this was a lemon off the dealers used car lot.



goodluck..

 

I had a similar situation. My 5.9L was going through a lot of oil (1qt+ a week, which is only about 100-150 miles for me). It wasn't smoking at all and it wasn't leaking. However, I did get a pinging noise on acceleration and especially up hill. I looked down in the throttle body and did see some clean oil in the pan. I also did the vacuum check and it registered some vacuum, so I decided to just go for it and change the plenum pan gasket. It fixed all the above listed issues. At the same time I did also clean the injectors and put new rings on (the injectors), also I changed the intake manifold gaskets, so I don't know how much of an effect those had in comparison to the plenum pan gasket. The Plenum pan gasket was blown when I got in there though. I will try to put the link for the plenum TSB http://dodgeram.info/tsb/2000/09-05-00.htm

hopefully this will help.

 

Plenum gasket... look down the throttle body and see if there is any oil on the bottom of the intake manifold, if there is, plenum gasket is leaking. buy an aluminum plenum kit from Hughs or APS precision to fix it.

 

Ok the plenum gasket is hosed, thank god its covered under warranty. thanks for your help guys!