Hey guys I just bought a 97 Ram 5.2 2WD about 3 months ago. It just turned over 40,000 miles and it is a very nice truck from what Ive seen out of it so far. I just have one concern about it - it consumes oil, a lot of it. There are zero leaks, and the truck is very tight. I just dont think the engine should use two and a half quarts of oil in 4,000 miles. Could this be the valves? Im going to see if the dealer I bought it from will do a compression check on it for free since the salesman was generous with a powertrain warranty on a ten year old truck.

 

 

truck looks pretty clean. nice buy.

check your plenum by removing your throttle body and looking into the intake manifold. leaking plenum gaskets cause oil to be sucked into the manifold it tends to pool up in the corners. it makes it easier to stick a mirror in there. real common problem.
http://www.hughesengines.com/partDet...698&eTypeID=15

 

i pretty much told you what to look for but if you want more info do a search. there has to be 1,000,000,000 threads here that talk about the plenum problem

 

Thanks, I'll look into that when I get home after finals.

 

I agree it is probably the plenum. If you dont mind me asking what did you have to give for the truck? It is a super nice clean truck. What a find. Good luck

 

I paid $8,900 I believe. It was a one owner truck, and he traded it in at the dealer he bought it from for a new truck to pull the large camper he bought. The only wear spot on the leather is on the side bolster, probably from his old-man suspenders.

 

99.9 percent of the time its the intake plenum i have done 4 of them, if you put a m1 manifold you wont have to worry adout it happening again, being it doesnt have a plenum on the under side of the intake. good luck!

 

That's almost exactly the symptoms my truck had when the Plenum was leaking. I got lucky as the gasket went bad within a week of buying my truck and the dealer replaced it at HIS own expense.