My truck is a 1997 ram 1500 5.2 4x4. I am having a oil leak that looks to be around my oil pan, but it is also showing oil above the pan. There is no oil visible from the top of the engine but it looks to be dripping down onto the axle and front of transmission. If it is the oil pan, do I need just a new gasket or the whole new oil pan?

 

The first place to look for an oil leak is the valve covers. You could clean the engine and keep a close eye on where the leak is coming from.

 

I'd get a UV dye kit for oil systems and pour the small bottle in your engine. Drive it for a few days then use the black light pen (WITH the yellow safety glasses on) to look around on the engine. There will be a yellowish green streak that you can follow back to the source. I checked an engine once that was using a lot of oil and both valve covers, as well as the oil sending unit were all leaking. When the owner fixed everything,his oil consumption was gone. He thought the engine needed a rebuild but it was just running out.

 

A potential is the back edge of the keg...

 

Looks exactly like a rear main seal leak to me. If it's dripping in front, it would also be the front seal.

 

I second this. Might want to take the cover off and have a look.

 

I had a leak that looked like that and it was a combination of my oil pan bolts being loose and parking my truck on an incline over night. Tightening the bolts only helped a little, but the leaked stopped after I changed the pan gasket.

 

My truck has had two oil leaks in it's lifetime and both leaks caused oil to run down the back of the block and bellhousing. The first time it was the oil pressure sending unit. The second time it was the valve cover gaskets. It actually could have been because the valve cover bolts were loose, but I replaced the gaskets anyway since I had already bought them.

 

I've never seen tightening bolts stop a leak. Slow it down, but not stop it. Once oil starts leaking, you now have a passage for it. The only way to really stop the leak is what you did, replace the gasket. On valve covers, I'll usually check them with a straight edge and maybe tap them back flat. This keep past over tigthening from causing another leak with bent metal.

 

And I've never replaced a leaking seal that didn't leak again the exact same. Case in point: my rear main and front main.