Low oil pressure on 97' Ram 2500

[RamDefo2311]

Recently I was driving and my oil light popped on and the pressure gauge dropped down to zero. At first thought I assumed I was low on oil so I added 2 quarts. drove a little an the same thing happened..doesnt happen when cruising. mostly just when stopping an starting at red lights. thought maybe a guage malfunction until I started to hear a slight ticking in the engine confirming to me that it was def a lack of oil getting to the engine. would this be cause by the pump? or a failed sensor? truck is parked until i know the origin of the issue.

 

[Nysm1]

Recently I was driving and my oil light popped on and the pressure gauge dropped down to zero. At first thought I assumed I was low on oil so I added 2 quarts. drove a little an the same thing happened..doesnt happen when cruising. mostly just when stopping an starting at red lights. thought maybe a guage malfunction until I started to hear a slight ticking in the engine confirming to me that it was def a lack of oil getting to the engine. would this be cause by the pump? or a failed sensor? truck is parked until i know the origin of the issue.

Mine did this when I first bought it, had 240k on it, so I switched to 20w-50. You can try this and see if its any different, if so then you could have a bad oil pump or bad rings. You could also pull the oil pressure gauge and clean it to see if it fixes the issue.

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[RamDefo2311]

I'll do the oil change first thing and go from there. thanks for the response.

 

[Nysm1]

I'll do the oil change first thing and go from there. thanks for the response.

20w-50 helps with higher mileage motors all day long. Every older vehicle I have runs it and even my newly rebuilt 360 for my 97 will be running it also (full synthetic though).

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[Nysm1]

Also, use a good filter. DONT use fram or K&N. Id honestly recomment a Napa Gold filter or a Mopar filter. IMHO

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[RamDefo2311]

yeah, it's got 180,000 miles. gonna try the heavy oil. Anyone have a link on oil pump replacement in case I need to go that route?

 

[Nysm1]

yeah, it's got 180,000 miles. gonna try the heavy oil. Anyone have a link on oil pump replacement in case I need to go that route?

Its not too bad of a job, but it can be a pain in the ass to drop the pan because of our front crossmember. If you can lift the frame up enough to keep the axle off the ground, I've heard you can sneak the pan out easily. I have had to lift the motor some with my own experiences.

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[armykyle1]

I have 99 1500 5.9 . I've been slowly restoring it. I did a few blocks in the truck and let it sit idling for 15min, everything was fine. Drove the truck 20min on the interstate and when I came to a red-light, the check gauges light came on and no oil pressure, tapped the pedal and pressure returned. Then happened again at the next red-light. Doing my oil change, I was well over a quart low.

I put in high mileage 10-30 semi synthetic. I'll have some decent driving to do Friday and see if the issue returns. But once summer hits, I'll most likely switch the truck to 10-40 or T40.

 

[dapepper9]

You need to pull the pan. What is likely happening is the pickup is getting clogged or pump is weak. Oil change can help but if that doesn't do much then you still need to drop the pan and now it cost you an extra oil change.

Also going to thicker 20w50 doesn't do much at all. If you look at oil's kinematic viscosity at different temperatures, when cold the stuff is molasses and starves your engine while when warm it's so close to the same viscosity as the 10w30 specs that it's an effort in futility. Oil pressure isn't altogether that important anyways, oil flow is and the 2 are not necessarily proportional. Things like Lucas Oil Stabilizer for example, all they are is a tackifier that is 10x thicker than a 10w30 when at temp. The biggest thing thicker oils do is increase cold temp wear. Cold temp wear accounts for, on average, 90% or so of your engine's wear. You're better off sticking to regular 5w30/40. 20w is stupid to put in for the cold temp reasons and going to 50 on the hot side isn't gaining you anything

Pulling the pan isn't hard either. Yes, it sucks laying on your back but it's just 1/2" bolts and the pan comes out. Another thing that can help is pulling the converter dust cover for some extra wiggle room. Also, new oil pump will need primed BEFORE the engine is started. Common method is to use a drill through the distributor hole. This will also require setting the fuel sync.

 

[RamDefo2311]

thanks for the info..going to pull the pan this weekend and take a look...probably going to replace the pump either way. just to be on the safe side and as to not have to pull the pan again if clogging isnt the issue.

 

[armykyle1]

Looks like mine is still doing this too.

 

[RamDefo2311]

going to change the oil tomorrow and see if maybe it was just gunked up at the bottom of the pan. next step is taking off the pan and replacing pump. would front axle need to be pushed forward in order to do this?

 

[dapepper9]

Nope

 

[dapepper9]

I would highly recommend not doing an oil change first. It will do nothing for you. If you have particles blocking the pickup they will settle to the bottom and not be drained out. The drain isn't just threaded sheetmetal, there's actually a 1/2" or so tall nut inside. So not ALL of the oil is ever drained. The particles won't make it out the drain because they'll just settle at the very bottom. You'll waste time and money and possibly cause more damage if you're starving it of oil

 

[RamDefo2311]

***Update***

So I replaced my oil pump AND oil sending switch. Put in 10-40w..Everything by the book, and still getting low pressure. actually it's stationary at "zero" now. I did start it and run it for a bit and it seemed to run great. no ticking or anything. how can I check that the oil is in fact getting to where it needs to go and that maybe the guage is just screwed?

 

[Yeret]

Consider a mechanical oil pressure tester. It screws in place of the oil pressure switch and gives you a mechanical readout of the oil pressure. Mechanical testers do not lie.

Probably best to do it when the engine is hot, though as oil pressure is much higher when the oil is cold and drops steadily as it warms up. Hot idle oil pressure in our engines I believe is only something like 6 or 7 PSI.

 

[RamDefo2311]

the problem is risking running it till hot if there really is an oil blockage

 

[RamDefo2311]

hooked up mechanical oil pressure tester and getting no pressure reading at all...

 

[armykyle1]

hooked up mechanical oil pressure tester and getting no pressure reading at all...

Damn... That sucks


I just replaced my sending unit and I'm good to go.

 

[RamDefo2311]

**Update**

So after installing new pump and oil pressure switch and still not having any pressure, I almost decided to take on the task of removing the distributor to inspect it. that would have been a pain in the ass because of where its located behind the block. before I jumped into that I decided dropping the pan and seeing if maybe the oil pump pickup was maybe flush with the bottom of the pan or something and not picking up oil. so I took off oil pump and it was a good thing I did. the sleeve on the NEW pump I had just installed was shattered..maybe I didnt install it flush, and the shaft wasnt lined up. but i put anotherrrr pump in and I have full pressure! hallelujah!