Woke up one cold WI morning, started up the '03 Ram to warm up, left for work and the "check gauge" light came on along with a nasty clunking sound in the engine...the oil pressure was at nothing, turned around and had it towed in to a dealership. The dipstick showed the oil about 1/2 qt low but when the plug was removed, nothing came out. They had to drill thru 1/2" of ice before hitting oil. I had an oil analysis done, the oil on top of the ice is actually good, but the crap on the bottom of my oil pan once thawed, you can only imagine. Dodge has no explaination...heard a lot of "Man, we've never seen that before". What could possibly cause that much water to get into my engine.

 

I have heard that if you make lots of short trips in cold weather without letting your truck run for a while, you can end up getting water in your oil. Not sure if this applies to you, but if it does that may explain the big chunk at the bottom. It would be the water separating from the oil and then freezing overnight.

 

Bad PCV system???
The PCV valve is supposed to suck water vapor, a by-product of combustion, (and other blow-by gasses)out ofthe crank case.
Or,possiblyvandelism?

 

I would have to guess that you probably make short trips to work and home. If the engine doesn't come to full temp for some time, the water won't vaporize, allowing it to be removed through the crackcase ventilation (PCV). The only way to remedy this is to let it warm up longer, and take it out for longer drives on the weekend if you can.