I have a 97 2500 w/ V10, about 208k miles. It has not been well cared for by its previous owners, but I don't need it to go further than a few miles from home. It is not my daily driver.

First, the whole passenger side of my engine is basically covered in oil. It has been for as long as I've owned it and I think that head gasket leaks. I have never seen foam/discoloration of the oil, but it uses oil about 1qt per 500mi. I don't know how to tell if oil is getting into the water (I've seen a tool and a dye but never done this.) The truck doesn't consume water, though.

It has just started losing oil pressure for no obvious reason. It is not an instrument problem -- the engine started ticking after 30 or so seconds of sitting on 0 PSI. After changing the oil filter & oil it seemed fine for 10 minutes or so (ticking went away, too) but the oil gauge started going down to 0 then back up to ~40 in the span of a few seconds. This is with the truck idling in my driveway. After it did that a couple of times I shut it off again.

I also noticed a small puff of smoke come from the area of the passenger side head. It's not constant; I just happened to notice it today. I assume it was exhaust gas.


My question is this; is the oil pressure symptom probably caused by a busted head gasket, or is it more likely the head itself is cracked, or some other problem?

 

On the V-8's, there is no pressurized oil galleries that are sealed by the head gasket, I am not so sure on the V-10's.... but, I suspect there isn't. A pic of the oily area sure wouldn't hurt.

I suspect that you do indeed have an oil pressure problem there, and advise that you fix it before driving the truck any more...... an oil pump, and pickup, are a LOT cheaper than another engine...... If it's a 4x4, good chance you can drop the pan without having to do much else, that may be enlightening in and of itself. If you don't see an obvious cause there, I would put a new pump in it. Not fun, but, again, cheaper than a new motor......

Welcome to DF!

 

Basically the front half of the passenger-side head and that entire side of the block and oil pan is covered in oil.

Unfortunately it's 2x4 but I might be able to get the oil pan out anyway. I already ordered an oil pan gasket and plan to try removing it next weekend.

Accessing the oil pump might be more work than I am willing to put into this truck. If it comes to that I might just get rid of it.

 

Yeah, your oil pump is up on the crank snout, part of the front cover, is it not? A fun job to get to..... Still and all, cheaper to repair what ya got, than replace it.

You will probably have to lift the engine some to get the pan out........ Good Luck.

 

You do not have to lift the engine to remove the oil pan. Loosen bolts and drop the pickup tube into the pan. It will slide out from the cross member. There is a gasket from the pickup tube to the engine and it doesn't like to come off in one piece.

Check the screen in the pickup tube. When I did mine it was partially clogged.

Oil all over the motor higher up could be valve cover seals. It will smoke something furious when they leak onto the manifold and the oil burns off.

Yeah, oil pump is part of the timing cover. If you pull it, check the screws on the back of the pump housing. They like to back off and mess with pressure.

 

This truck has some other problems, too. If it was just one or two things I would definitely repair it (I spent some money on front-end wear parts and typical tune-up when I bought it) but it might be at the point that it's worth more in parts than as a whole. That's why I am thinking about getting rid of it.

• auto trans won't shift; just stays in 1st gear always
• driver door won't close tight due to a break-in (wish the thief would have just broken a window)
• often won't idle on its own
• heater doesn't work

Yesterday I ran the truck for ~30m or so while watching the oil gauge and the pressure problem didn't happen again.

I will still check the oil pan after reading your post that it should come out easily; that's really encouraging.

I lent this truck to a friend for a long time and he didn't maintain it like he agreed, so, that's why I am stuck with so many outstanding problems (not to mention the break-in while he had it parked in the ghetto.) It's pretty frustrating. :/

 

With friends like that, who needs enemies?

 

Seems like a lot of stuff doesn't work, repairs will quickly exceed any monetary value of the truck....

Might be better off to part ways if you can.

 

I recently encountered the low pressure on gauge plus dropping to no reading on gauge at idle. I installed a new oil sensor which did not solve the problem.
The motor has had good care and has 180,000 miles on it. It turns out that a simple fix, one that costs less than $ 35.00, a simple oil change USING the correct recommended weight oil 10/30. It has been all to common to buy into the high mileage oil ad's that sell you on 5/30 viscosity to improve mileage and better lubrication. My gauge has not been north of 40 lbs in 20,000 miles, I can guess most will doubt this but it is worth a try before spending money on a problem that does not exist.