Good morning y'all,

I have been trying to find a thread that has the answers to my issues but I haven't been able to find one that fits perfectly. Here it goes....

Problem 1: I am losing oil pressure when I am driving and I have to slow or come to a stop. When the RPM's get to around 1000 my oil pressure drops completely. As soon as I give it some gas the pressure rises back up. I have replaced the oil sending unit and it seemed to help at first but after a trip to Lowes, the ride back home started to have pressure issues again.

Problem 2: Oil is getting into the intake somehow. After a 10 plus minute drive, smoke starts to come from the engine area. I open the hood and oil is splattered all around the engine bay. I can also see oil dripping out of the air filter housing. For added detail, when I bought the truck the PCV valve hose was running to a catch can. The catch can outlet was open with no hose. The hose that was supposed to run from the PCV to the intake was attached to the intake on one end, and was plugged with a bolt on the other end. I don't see any oil dripping from the catch can outlet so not sure where it's coming from.

Also.... I tried to route the hoses the proper way from the PCV to the intake but that immediately caused loss of oil pressure and overheating on the engine so I put it back how I explained above.

Any help or tips will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

How many miles is on this engine, as you may be experiencing blow-by from the piston rings from age and engine wear? You can connect a mechanical oil pressure gauge to check the oil PSI, as the factory gauge is notorious for not being the most accurate. It's also not uncommon for sludge to collect around the oil pickup in the oil pan and cause oil PSI issues. It could also be that your oil pump is shot. They do make high volume replacement oil pumps that may help, too.

 

The truck has around 230k miles on it. I spent some of yesterday trying to get the oil pan off to check for sludge in the pickup but found myself unable to remove the pan after getting the bolts out. Might be missing some brackets or something holding it in place as it feels wedged in there. I had to get things ready for work today so i couldnt keep working on it.

 

Jack it up from crossmembers so the front tires sag. Pull the starter, inspection plate, and dip stick- pan should drop right out. I’ll echo the others, install a mechanical oil pressure gauge. Sounds like at the very least, your plenum gasket may be shot.

A high volume oil pump won’t solve anything- it’s a temporary fix. The weird pressure readings could be as simple as an inaccurate stock gauge to worn bearings and/or crankshaft. Literally just had the same issue, replaced the pump and rear main seal only to have my mind put to ease with a mechanical gauge.

 

The starter should not have to come out to pull the oil pan. You may need to remove the two stiffener brackets that run between the transmission and block on each side of the rear of the motor. They are bolted to the block and front of the transmission.

As for the oil being sprayed around the top of the motor, it sounds like your engine may need rings, given the mileage on it and the symptom described, which sounds like oil blow-by. Might want to perform a compression test and leak down test to verify. If the oil is being consumed/seen inside of the intake, that is likely caused by the dreaded plenum gasket - you can read over the sticky thread about the plenum gasket repair here - https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...um-thread.html

 

That may be the case, but removing an extra 5 bolts to get additional clearance from taking off the inspection plate was very pleasant. But yeah, don’t forget to take off those brackets!

 

I suspect the brackets are keeping the pan from dropping out. Been there, done that...

 

Wasn’t busting your cajones! Your insight has helped me a ton!

Just recently dropped my pan (I think you commented on my thread). Haynes says to jack the engine up- but I didn’t. Just made space by pulling extra easy stuff. I can definitely see those brackets holding it all together

 

Surprisingly enough, I went into it knowing the dip stick needed to come out. Guess who fought the pan because they forgot to take the dip stick out?

 

Yeah, pulling just the dipstick should be done, not the entire dipstick and tube. I believe the tube goes into the block..