Ive got a 2001 Dodge Ram 1500 2WD 318 auto with about 135K miles. At about 130K I did the Hughes Plenum Plate Fix on my truck and that fixed the Oil Pressure guage dropping at every light. My engine had a good about of gunk in the areas I could see around the push rods when I had the intake off. Well.. Ive noticed in the last 3 oil changes that when I take the Oil filter off there is no oil in it!!! when I go to flip it over.. maybe a couple drops. Its really scaring me that something is blocked or whatever. The filter is heavy though like its got alot in it, so I dont know if after each oil change its really doing its job and getting alot of the sludge causing it to become blocked or what. Any ideas?? I did one motor flush a while back running in it for 15 min and doing an oil change. Not sure if it moved some sludge around but the engine runs fine though. I'm just wondering if I should do another flush or just keep doing the normal oil changes to clean it out slowly.

Oh yeah.. Looks like ill be having to go back into the plenum again I guess the Hughes supplied gaskets didnt do their job or I didnt do something right because the truck is doing the same oil pressure pinging again. Guess Ill get a Felpro kit this go around!

 

If you have good pressure on a mechanical gauge.... (I wouldn't trust the electronic one... mine is notoriously fickle.) I would guess there is some blockage in there somewhere. You should get more oil out of your filter than that. Might just be the filter is getting filled with crap that was broke loose when you did your engine flush......

Plenum has nothing to do with oil pressure. (aside from causing your engine to burn oil.... thus lowering the amount of oil in the engine...) If you are having pressure issues, and the oil level is correct, time to drop the pan, and have a look in there.

 

The plenum gasket should not cause an oil pressure drop. It will cause a sound like marbles in a can when accelerating. It concerns me that you are not finding any oil in the filter. It should be full, even if it were stopped up the bypass would open and it would still have oil in it. If your oil pressure is dropping at idle I would get a remote gauge and install it to monitor pressure, dash gauges a notoriously unreliable. I do think you have something else going on though with the filter being empty.

As for what I really dont know but I I would suspect blockage.

EDIT: HeyYou is right on as usual. My net at work is slow so it took forever for my reply to appear. Darn interweb thingy.

 

thanks for the reply's.. I forgot to mention that before the plenum fix at 130K miles.. I had that marble sounds on acceleration and was consuming oil..etc My guage would drop to zero at the stop light.. then I give it gas and it would pop back up. Right after I changed the plenum pan with the Hughes, it corrected all of the problems.. no more pinging/tapping on acceleration, no oil pressure guage dropping, and picked up in gas mileage and power. But.. after about 5K miles.. those symptons started again.. AHH!! its driving me crazy. But at around 125K miles before the plenum fix I dropped the oil pan and replaced the oil pump with a melling pump. Crazy thing was it was spotless!!! no sludge anywhere, nothing blocking the pickup either.. so Im kinda confused. The truck runs pretty good though but those few things are bothering me.

 

The no oil in the filter would bother me. Provided your oil level is fine I would pick up a mechanical oil pressure gauge and use that to check pressure. If you have low pressure and no oil in filter I would lean to a blockage somewhere. You could drop the pan and take a look. I have heard someone here say they were loosing pressure and dropped the pan only to find a rag over the pickup.

 

well i can solve you issue i have a freshly rebuilt 318 sitting in the garage for sale. when the motor came out for the 360 swap it had 70k on it and ran like a top. i rebuilt it. thinking i was going to put it in my 2x4 but i never got around to it before now i need some cash. lol

other then that all i can tell you is that the sensor for the gauge in the dash is bad cause the pinging. and the motor flush idk if i would be using had bad luck in the past with it. but try running a few oil changes with 15w 40 fleet oil its great for oil pressure

 

Im about to do another oil change real soon, so should I go to a full synthetic? I heard that cleans sludge better than dino oil. I just run 10W30 in it now.. I live in HOT Mississippi and it seems to do fine. Your saying I should run 15W40? My oil pressure does seem low compared to a friends identical ram.. Mine is just under 40 psi when warm (according to the guage, which like you guys are saying, not real accurate) But my friends always stays north of 40.

 

I run 10-30 just as you do. I'm in Arkansas and today it's 99. i have had no prob. When engine is warm at idle my oil press according to the gauge is just under 40 which is perfectly fine. How many miles on your truck? I have had issues with full synthetic in high mile engines. It's molecular size is smaller and if you have any leaks it will find them as well as you might find some new ones.

At the moment with oil pressure issues I would stay away from synthetic.

Does yours go any lower then just under 40 or is that the lowest it gets. If that is all the lower it goes than it is fine IMO.

If you are still concerned go with a mechanical gauge.

 

My truck has 135K on it now and Doesnt leak oil one bit. Motor is actually very clean on the outside. Your right now that I think about it. Synthetic is alot thinner and probably wouldnt be good for the issues Im having. My oil pressure guage stays just under 40 like yours does and never goes lower when hot.. Cold start its pretty high around 50-60

 

Thats completely normal for hot and cold. I still would be concerned with no oil in the filter. Might be worth dropping the pan to have a look. You may want to look at the screen on the oil pickup. I know you have a newer pump and good pressure.

Has the pinging sound returned on acceleration or your oil level been dropping any?