after drivin for about 20-30 min or just enough for the oil to heat up i come to a stop light or compleat stop period the oil light comes on an the oil gauge drops to 0. any ideas?? iv replaced the oil sendin unit still didnt help. not sure where to turn or what could be the problem cuz when i give it just a little gas it shoots rite back up to normal.. not to mention my harmonic balencer has slid back into my timing cover an grinded a nice little chunk out of the cover, an its a metal cover also. its on a 95 ram 1500 5.2 318 2wd.


also what would be a good lift kit for it? nothin much just a few inches??

 

Install a temporary manual guage to verify your oil pressure, fix that problem then replace your harmonic balancer asap.

 

I second that, a manual gauge will give you those most accurate read. If the oil pressure is in fact dropping as you described, it could be a worn oil pump or bad PRV on the oil pump itself.

As far as lift kits go, I don't know that they make a suspension lift for a 2wd. You would put blocks in the rear and upgrade to 2500 springs in the front. Or a body lift would work as well. They don't list a body lift kit for a 2wd, but the bodies don't change from 2wd to 4wd so a 4x4 body lift will work.

 

mine did this completely out of the blue a week ago. the gauge didn't just drop a little low, it went all the way to 0.

i changed the oil and filter and the did the cluster test thing (98-01) and it seems to have recalibrated and/or fixed itself for now. cluster test is to turn ignition to on while holding odometer trip meter in. i don't know if this is valid for 94-95 or not. i doubt it.

what part of your HB is hitting the timing cover? the center hub or the outer ring. if the outer ring is coming loose from the center hub... you might try pressing it back together, or just replace it. center hub should be against a shoulder on the crankshaft (i think). crankshaft should not have excessive in/out play allowing that shoulder and hub to move.

 

My dads 2500 does this too. We have put 2 new sending units in. The last one we put in we took back out because it was still happening so i figured it was a bad harness connector (the clip that holds it in was broke) and while taking the S.unit out the black cover piece came off the S.unit.. im thinking his still comes on because that cover came off and now the connections inside loss contact due to the loose cover piece.

But just like others, his only comes on while idling as soon as you touch the gas the oil pressure gauge goes right back up.

 

It may not be a bad idea to drop the oil pan and check the pick up tube for any partial blockages.

My truck had a gob of RTV blocking about half of the screen within the pick up tube.

It really messed with the pressure gauge until I cleaned it.

 

Putting a mechanical gauge on it, and seeing what it is REALLY doing would be a good idea.... (mentioned earlier in this thread.)

 

From experience with my sister buying a bum motor from a dodgy craigslist guy (no pun intended), always trust that the gauge is right, if the sending unit does not fix it, drop the pan & change the oil pump before its too late, its $24 for the pump & $11 for the bigger oil pickup tube from Autozone. You can get lucky with the pan gasket sticking to the bottom of the block so you won't have to buy a new one.

Anyway the motor she bought was $600 from a guy on craigslist, I put it in, it was supposed to be a 97 360 with 70,000 miles on it, turns out from the electronics on it, it was an earlier magnum 360 as I found out recently none of the spare electronics worked on my 97 lol. But anyway from almost day one her oil pressure would randomly drop after warming up. Her friend whos a mechanic for a living told her it was a "common faulty Dodge gauge cluster mis-reading" and to buy a new cluster haha (gotta love career shop techs!). So my sister never called me up until it started knocking. I looked at the truck and she idled fine,but during driving I could tell she was having pressure issues as the lifters sounded like they were floating but no hard knocking. I told her I'd replace the oil pump before its too late. 2 weeks later I pulled the pan off and found a completely clogged oil pickup! it had permatex and all sorts of balled up sludge & gasket meterial in it. It was like the guy who sold it to her used it as a cumdumptser for cleaning his shop floor.

So after doing the pump and changing the lifters out all in the same day, my sisters husband tells me that she got mad at him on the way to bringing the truck to my house to fix it and floored it and it was knocking really bad....nice to find that out after I put a new pump and lifters in. She pretty much blew it up on the way to my house. This motor was a complete pooch off the line, I'm not even sure if it really was a 360, seeing what a bs'er the guy who sold it was.

So right now that engine probably has a legit main bearing gone on it, I haven't taken it apart as its better to have the truck running somewhat than not at all so I'm basically waiting for winter to warm up a bit before I put her original fresh 360 I rebuilt back in. Since my sister beats the crap out of her vehicles I made sure I went with the ultra high strength Fedral Mogul "Nascar tested" main bearings like $100 for the pack and then I had it completely race balanced to weed out any potential vibration issues and then I went with a high flow oil pump & modded her oil pan for more capacity. Should be a very smooth engine once its in the truck.

 

+1 a couple of times..find out what it is really doing, and forget lift until that and the harmonic balancer issue (and any damage done to timing cover) are resolved. A lifted truck that won't run is like a .........

 

thanks everyone for all your advice. as for the HB its the outter ring. it hasnt came aprt anywhere that i can see its like the balancer itself is sliding around on the shaft.i can wiggle it back almost into place but as soon as i got to drive it slides rite back into the cover. an theres oil bein thrown from it. thinkin of doin a cloes double roller timing chain an a new cover when i replace or repair the balancer. an as the lift goes, i was just wanting a small body lift, nothin real big bein that iits only a 2wd. how would i go about fixin the balancer is my main question???? thanks guys for the info. would like to put a pic of my truck up soon but unsure exactly how to..