Hi all! I have a 2009 Dodge Ram 1500 with the 4.7l that I’ve only had for a couple months now. I’ve changed the oil every 2.5k miles (and I also had to replace the PCV valve within the first week or so of owning it because it was clogged), but it doesn’t look like the oil was changed regularly by the previous owners. I bought it from a small used truck lot. The oil returns to a darker color within 500-750 miles of changing it, and after only 1.5k miles since the last change, the color is now a very dark brown, nearly black color. Not a good sign. But I could just fix that with an engine flush, although I’m not sure that that would be the way to go.

Anyways, the engine has 186,787 miles on it as I’m writing this post. Driven it 6,000 miles since I got it. Lately, I have been noticing a ticking or tapping sound that is loud upon startup. As the engine warms up, the ticking comes and goes, and finally after a few minutes the ticking is mostly gone if not all the way gone. I’ve never intentionally run the engine low on oil although it does burn some, so I am checking my oil level in between oil changes.

Oh, and if I start the truck after only 2-3 hours of sitting there with it off, it’ll usually do it then.

What do I do? I don’t really have too much money as I am a college student commuting 75+ miles a day to and from the university 5 days a week.

 

Probably what passes for lifters in the engine are getting weak.

 

Do you think it could be a weak oil pump or maybe a partially clogged passage?

 

Probably not. What does your oil pressure gauge have to say at warm idle?

The 4.7 is pretty notorious for lifters failing, and spitting out rockers.

 

Welllllllll mine is the base model and it doesn’t have that gauge. I’m not sure if I can get that from the data stream from a basic OBD II check engine light scan tool with the live data stream.

 

I do believe the oil pressure sensor reports to the PCM...... worth a shot at least.

 

4.7 with high mileage, Maybe the timing chain slapping on the guides. We had this same problem with 2.6 Mitsubishi motors. Chain and guides had to be replace every 100k.