Had oil pressure guage dropping to 0 the other day only when coming to a stop, when in gear or if I rev the engine to at least 1200 RPM it stays dead center in normal range. Thought it might be the oil pressure sending unit . Replaced that after running some engine flush . drained oil and there was no metal or thick sludge just black oil. My brother is the original and first owner of this truck. He is also a mechanic in the Coast Guard so he maintained this truck pretty good and it only has 120k on it.

After replacing the sending unit and chnging the oil/filter same thing . So I am thinking either the guage or the oil pump. Took it to a local shop for a free look. They revved the engine some and pulled the baffle where you add oil and it looked pretty nasty on the other side. He asked me if I ever chnaged the oil... then went on to say that there was a slight rod knock and that he could drop the pan and if there was metal down there and it looked really bad clean it out and put it back on and hand this truck a death sentence.... I was beside myself. I figured that there should be metal in the oil as well when I chnged it or some thick sludge at least. He said that if there was sludge that high that he didnt have much hope . Got the feeling he was trying to make some dough off me .

So my question is : can I change this myself? If so can I do it without hoisting the engine ? How do I do it for an 03 ? It looks like underneath that the cross bar and there are some brackets to the transmission would have to come off. Any help GLADLY APPRECIATED!

Engine sounds fine when I normally drive it ,always did , I never dogged the engine past 4000 RPM's though was always smooth for me and sounded great.

 

also I do have the manual of course but they say you have to hoist the engine ,is this necassary ? I do not have a cherry picker . I have plenty of heavy duty floor jacks though. I read a few posts stating it was not necessary to hoist the engine but not sure if they were for an 03 or not .

 

yes you can change it yourself. Here is a thread that can help you out.

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/3rd-gen...on-a-hemi.html

Now obviously in that thread (for you) you will not have to break down the coils, plugs, VCs, springs, cam. But just about everything else you will need to do. Torque specs are at the bottom of the main posts.

You will need to put the engine timing back in place so pay attention to that. in all honesty, if you wanted to do cam, now would be the time to do so. You can also get oil pumps on Henson Motorsports site.

The 5.7 is located HERE and is $31

The 6.1 is located HERE and is $42

 

Thanks for the reply Weedahoe, unfortunately mine is the 3.7 6 cyclinder which is more than twice as much as those you listed.

Thanks for the link, I will use it . So , do I have to hoist the engine is my question???? This might be a problem because I dont know if I can borrow a picker. from underneath it looks like there is one crossbar with 4 bolts and then a bracket against the transmission with like 6-8 bolts. I am guessing this is whats holding my transmission up. If I jacked it snug could I just remove that crossbar and bracket? Thanks in advance-

 

as in when you said you took off the oil cap and found sludge on the other side of the "thing" it is not sludge.. its oil condensation.
did your mechanic put on a mechanical gauge to verify low oil pressure?

 

Nope , he didnt , also when I drained the oil prior although it was black there was no "chunks" or anything thicker than regular oil that drained and nothing metallic drained either ,just black oil. Going to attempt changing the oil pump today with some help of a buddy and then for check pressure .Do you have to drain the oil install the pressure guage where the sending unit was and then refill it ,or can you just hook it right in without loosing oil?

I think/hope that guy didnt know what the heck he was talking about .

 

OK, UPDATE-

Dropped oil pan to find it clean as a whistle more or less with one exc exception, a pig slug of metal gnarly sheared at one end was in my oil pan as well as a seal(which I am assuming is to the oil pick up tube) so I was kinda glad to see that and not a horrid mess of sludge and metal shavings.

The metal slug was about the size of a 12 mm socket and I have identified it as the magnetic cam sensor . Apparently when the dealership replaced this for my brother they some how broke it off and it feel into the pan and they did not retrieve it before sewwing her back up apparently.

So now I have removed everything all the way to the tioming chain . Removed the cover and Weedahoe this v6 aint like that engine in the picture you have . there are 3 timing chains and the primary sprocket/chain does not seem to be able to be removed without removing the other two chains as well although which seems excessive to me .

Also when I was pinning back the tensioner the piece of plastic snapped (was very brittle ) what part is this , I can 't seem to find a parts explosion anywhere ....

So I am hopeful that I have gotten this far but removing the timing chains has got me at a stand still. It says in the Haynes manual the you have to remove the valve covers to remove tension on the secondary timing chains but is this true . Do you have to pull em all out to replace the pump?

 

Maybe this link will help. Take the space out and out the link back together for it to work

http://www.dodge talk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=173699

 

Well, I got the oil pump installed and everything put back were it should be and still the guage is taching out and then dropping to zero.
So I dunno what now ..... it was really disappointing . Well, only thing left to do is do a manual oil pressure test to rule out a fualty guage. Can anyone tell me how to do this ? I am guessing a oil pressure guage would have to be installed somewhere..... ?

 

maybe it is the oil pressure sensor which is located right above or next to the oil filter. The P/N is 04868672AA. I cant think of anything else but IF you wanted to add an external gauge to check pressure, this is where you want to screw in your pressure sensor for testing.

The P/N number at autozone is PS535 and it cost $23

OIL PRESSURE SENSOR/SWITCH DESCRIPTION

The 3–wire, solid-state engine oil pressure sensor (sending unit) is located in an engine oil pressure gallery.

OPERATION

The oil pressure sensor uses three circuits. They are:
² A 5–volt power supply from the Powertrain Control Module (PCM)
² A sensor ground through the PCM’s sensor return
² A signal to the PCM relating to engine oil pressure The oil pressure sensor has a 3–wire electrical function very much like the Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) sensor. Meaning different pressures relate to different output voltages.

A 5–volt supply is sent to the sensor from the PCM to power up the sensor. The sensor returns a voltage signal back to the PCM relating to engine oil pressure. This signal is then transferred (bussed) to the instrument panel on either a CCD or PCI bus circuit (depending on vehicle line) to operate the oil pressure gauge and the check gauges lamp. Ground for the sensor is provided by the PCM through a low-noise sensor return.