Dodge Ram Low Oil Pressure

Have a Dodge with 130K miles. Just had all new SYN Oil and lube done and was on the highway about 2 weeks later and the oil pressure gauge dropped to zero. The Check Engine light came on and we pulled over and checked oil. Oil was full abd when we started we heard a light ticking sound.

Stopped again and the light went off and no sound but we were concerned.

Brought it into a mechanic and he said he saw sludge. Told us he needs to replace the pump, flush, and replace the radiator and for 2200 it would be a temp patch. Or we could replace the engine.

Anyone have any ideas on this one?? Thanks for your help!

Reply to
RRR
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No sure why they would flush and replace the radiator? Do you have a leak in the radiator, that would be the only reason I could think of that would warrant a replacement. At 130k if you had regular services done, you don't think you should have to rebuild or replace the engine. I had more then that on my Ram when I traded it in with no problems. You could run a little ATF through the oil and that would break down and get rid of some of your "sludge" which may/should help restore some oil pressure.

Reply to
azwiley1

A switch to synthetic after 130K of Pennzoil might have loosened accumulated crud. I once had a Toyota that suffered recurring oil pressure and ticking problems, beginning a couple weeks after I made the brilliant choice to treat the truck to some swell Mobil 1 synthetic oil.

There's a recent "oil viscosity" discussion that will show you the general quality of azwiley1's advice.

Reply to
Beryl

Change the oil to 20W50.

beekeep

Reply to
beekeep

IF there is sludge in the engine. then yes you can drop the pan, replace the oil pump and pickup screen, clean the pan out and put it back. but if you take this route you have to remember that there IS sludge thought the rest of the engine and IF it gets disturbed it breaks loose and comes down into the pan.

here's your issue (assuming there is sludge and i don't doubt it) sludge breaks free from farther up in your engine, washes down with your oil back into the oil pan where it floats around waiting to get sucked up by the oil pickup tube. now this tube is only so large and has a screen on it to keep stuff floating around in the pan, like sludge, from getting into the oil pump and stopping the whole works. now over time sludge will build up enough in the pan that when the pickup tube gets totally covered your oil pressure drops to zero, as you have seen, this of course means lack of lube. when you shut the truck off, the sludge floats away, thus the ability to start it back up with oil pressure (in case you were wondering about that one).

in my experience, its best to replace a severely sludged engine because of all the stuff that can break loose and put you back in the same boat all over again. if its not that sludged up, or you just cant afford to replace the engine yet, then replacing the pump, screen and cleaning the pan will buy you some time. the amount of time depends on how severe the sludge condition is inside your particular engine.

also I'm not personally sold on engine flushes. I'm a bit of a skeptic when it comes to "miracle in a bottle" type stuff. that being said I've never disassembled a engine that has been "flushed" to see if it actually helped. so this is simply my skepticism talking.

as far as replacing the radiator, I'd have to know more of the story. like why does he want to replace the radiator? does it have scale in it? is it stopped up? or is he just wanting to replace a good radiator while doing a engine swap as a precaution of some sort? again I've always used the old radiators on my swaps AS LONG as they passed the pressure tests and sown no leaks or clues to being stopped up before hand.

Reply to
Chris Thompson

Thanks for the info...We actually got info today that there are some metal shavings in the oil pan. The mechanic also noticed a bearing was loose. Although the engine never stopped on us, we are being told to replace it completely and that just changing out th pump and other will result in the same problem again soon.

Since the engine never ceased in us, is there anyway to just clean all of the sludge out and replace the pump and other and put a better oil and be OK. Or, do you pretty much just have to replace an engine once it has too much sludge? Even if it is still runs? Seems like that is what everyone has to do with this situation. It's a pretty big bill for an older truck and we do use it for hauling heavy things but if we are gonna spend any money, I want to make sure I don't overspend if it is not necessary but I don't want to crack the engine if I start pulling a trailer behind it. Thanks again for the help!

Reply to
RRR

Yep - that is the conclusion that I also came to about the loosened sludge. What I don't understand is why a mechanic did not know that when he changed over but everyone and their wife and secretary seems to know about this! Very surprising and possibly worth some financial help on the new engine. But I am not gonna holf my breath!

Reply to
RRR

gotcha - viscosity problems!

Reply to
RRR

Many people switch to SYN oil on high mileage engines thinking it going to gven them a magical amount of extra life. Their money and efforts would be better spent on keeping the engines diet the same and changing oil regularly (like about every 3K or less if it get dirty quickly) instead of changing to SYN oil. It simply is not worth it economically nor worth the risk if engine oil has not been changed often enough and sludge has built up. I am not sure how many more will ruin their engine trying this convinced it is magical. When a engine get old it is not the time to change to a SYN oil as it can cause problems of its own. Also, SYN oil gets dirty just like conventional oil and in a older engine it get dirty faster and it is not the time to try to change to extended drian intervals, BTW, I do have a 18 year old vehicle that uses SYN oil but it has been using it since it had 5K miles on it and kinda as a long term test and not switched to it later in life. I might also say that so far the only real difference I have seen is maybe in extreme cold starting and not engine life because I have run engines past 200K several times just using regular oil changed every 3K miles or a bit more often when they get older.

----------------- TheSnoMan.com

Reply to
SnoMan

Fuck you troll.

Reply to
azwiley1

You can change the oil with ATF and let it idle for 15 min. Then drain the ATF, change the filter, and put in oil. Run it for a week and change the oil and filter again. If you susspect gunk in the pan you can spray cleaner in through the oil drain hole using the little tube and get a lot of it out. Try to get the pump pickup screen while your there.

beekeep

Reply to
beekeep

I'm serious, that's what I run in my 318. Anything less and the oil pressure drops to zero at idle.

beekeep

Reply to
beekeep

You either have a stuck relief valve, a worn pump or seriously worn engine bearings.

----------------- TheSnoMan.com

Reply to
SnoMan

This is starting to sound like a real scam to me. Do you have the vehicle in the shop? Where did these "shavings" come from and how exactly did he "SEE" a loose bearing? Exactly what bearing did he "see" was loose? I would put a can of motor flush in it follow the directions, and see what happens. Perhaps add a can of restore when putting in the new oil. A new motor is expensive and flushing it out is not. If it fails anyway, then you lost about 50 bucks but if it holds (and it probably will) then you saved thousands.

Reply to
TBone

I would think that the better question to ask is, if the vehicle is in a shop, did they at least drop the oil pan to "see" this bearing? I will go back to what I said in my very first reply, run a quart of ATF through the engine, or as Tbone said you can use a can of Gunk Motor flush BEFORE you allow them to do anymore "work" on your vehicle and cost you a lot of money that may not be necessary.

Or you can listen to the shop and to the troll barrel and ignore my advice as he has a woody for me and would rather post B.S. and try to start crap instead of of helping people.

Reply to
azwiley1

It's been that way since I put the engine in 100K ago so its none of the above. It's just the nature of that engine.

beekeep

Reply to
beekeep

They said the bearing was a little loose. They said replacing all the parts in the engine would cost as much as replacing the engine.

Reply to
RRR

We moved to another shop and they also told us a bearing was loose. I am following you logic. Not sure if I will need to replace the pump too. With no pressure, would ATF be OK to put in there or should I change the pump and filter first??

Reply to
RRR

I have no idea why our mechanic changed to SYN with our truck being as old as it is! So wild!!

Reply to
RRR
< BIG SNIP>

Again, I (personally) would want to know exactly which bearing they are saying is loose and how they came to this determination.

If the reason you have no pressure is because the pick up is blocked by "sludge" you would want to clear that first to prevent any (further) damage to the engine. Also, I would ensure that the 0 pressure is not just because the oil gauge on the dash say 0, you may actually have some that it is not registering. (You may have done this already though, so disregard if you did)

If you are getting oil to the top of the engine, you should be ok to run the ATF through it. Do not run it for more then about 10 or 15 minutes, just like the engine cleaners.

Reply to
azwiley1

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