Hey all, I have noticed a problem with my ram lately. About a month ago I was randomly checking my fluids, and found that I had no Oil. Took it to a dealership and had a guy look at it. He checked the exhaust to see if it was burning it and said it wasn't. I'm not leaking oil anywhere. They did an oil change, and I checked it yesterday and looking at the dipstick, i see about a quarter of an inch of oil on there. So the Oil is gone again. Back in February I had Goodyear put the special engine coolant from Mopar in it. Could they have mixed it wrong, or put it in at wrong temps to cause an internal crack or damage? I guess I have been lucky. I have had the truck since Aug '04 and never had a problem, now im at 110k miles and seems everything wants to go bad. Oil, power steering, windshield wipers, recirculation door, etc. Anyways if you guys can suggest what to check for to see if this is a major problem or anything I would greatly appreciate it. I am gonna change the oil in it tomorrow, do you suggest a certain type/brand of oil for it?

2004 Dodge ram 1500 quad cab 5.7L

 

Do a good visual inspection for external leaks. Fill with the same type and weight of oil engine has primarily used . ( dont switch types of oil ) Once a engine ,seals,ect gets conditioned to a certain oil changing does more harm than good . IMHO . Check oil level often enough to hammer down a good idea of oil consumption . 1 qt 500 miles .or 1qt 1000miles ect . My hemi consumes 1qt every 1000 miles.
Has 63,000 miles on it and valve guide seals did nothing to slow consumption . 2 gallons of Mobil 1 10w30 gets me aprox 5,000 depending on how heavy my foot is . Even though it eats a lot of oil it's really not widely of of spec . Good luck

 

My 03 does exactly the same.
I seem to be low on oil, particularly whenever I have put the engine under very heavy load, as in lots of heavy throttle use as Joebaum also finds.
I appear to have zero burning, zero blue smoke and zero leaks.
It just uses oil.
I have noticed however that on my last service when I replaced my PVC valve, the oil usage has reduced considerably. Same oil, weight and filter used as previously when it was using a little more oil.
But I have replaced the PCV valve other times, and the issue stays.
I do honestly believe the oil use has something to do with this PCV system Hemis use??
Someone will chime in here and say I have piston ring blow by or something along those lines. But these Hemi's can and do use oil from new.
Hence the wide range of oil use specs Dodge give.
Obviously the oil is going somewhere and I do believe it's being burned but, no smells when traveling behind my tuck and no distinctive blue smoke on heavy throttle use or letting off the throttle after a WOT pass, or at idle??
Another check I did which usually finds out if you have valve guide sealing problems, is to hold the throttle at about 2000rpm for about two minutes. Then let the truck idle for about 5 mins, then quickly stab at the throttle and take it up to about 3500. If blue smoke results, then guides are the issue. This test creates a high vacuum, which pulls into the cylinders oil through any leaky valve stems etc.
I had no issues when I did this.
Al.

 

Pull the intake off and look inside. Aren't our intakes designed with a sort of catch baffle for the PCV system?


Also every car uses oil from the factory.

 

My 04 does the same thing. I check it every few weeks. Underneath the engine (and everything else) is completely spotless. No blue smoke and blows perfectly clear. Seems like something the Hemi's just do.

 

Really simple.

If you are not leaking externally then you are leaking internally

 

Really simple.

If you are not leaking externally then you are leaking internally

 

When I clean my throttle body, I remove the Hemi hat.
All spotless to be honest. No sludge or oil build up at all.
When I first imported the truck from the states, the throttle body was well gunked up and lots of oily residue in the hat.
I agree with Will_V2Lab.....Hemi's use oil.....or some do.
Al.

 

stick on hood scoops cause oil to disappear I heard

 

Came from the factory like that, hemi sport package.

Anyways,
Took throttle body off, it was pretty dirty and gunked up. Cleaned it, took PCV valve off, it was gunked up. Cleaned it(it still rattled), put it back in and replaced the Sensor in the intake tube( i was also having power loss and hesitation). After doing all of this i noticed my power change like night and day. I guess i will wait a week or so and see if the throttle body gets dirty again to see whats happening to my oil.