Hi Clarke
It may be an exaust leak, but I'm inclined to think that your 2003 B1500 hasn't had the Dodge TSB fixes
I have a 1999 5.9L B1500 I bought last August. I only drive it occasionally, but I have a clicking under accelertion which is actually pinging in the engine
I found that by filling the gas tank with premium from a reliable station the pinging stopped
There are several things that are known by Dodge techs to cause this
- The original factory layout of the spark wires
- Cheap paper plenum chamber gasket that starts to leak and suck air and oil from your engine. ( there is an upgrade kit which has an aluminum gasket instead
You didn't mention what size engine you have. If you have either of the V8's you should check out items 1 & 2 above
If you are having to top up your engine oil regularly odds are, you have a failing Plenum chamber gasket
Why would this cause pinging? Because the leaky gasket lowers the vacuume in the inlet manifold which causes timing problems. Especially when you put your foot down. An easy diagnosis is to connect a vacuume gauge and compare the readings to the TSB (Technical Service Bulletin)
My van has 155K on it and I am amazed that this never got fixed by the previous owner
I hope this helps you out