My buddy has this truck, and it started having this weird issue where when you pull to a stop sign, the oil pressure goes to 0, then pops up moments later. This always happens only at the end of the oil change which was M1 5w30 at 7500 miles. This started two years ago. Well he just started doing shorter oil changes at 6k miles and issue appeared to be gone. Last year he changed over and started to use PP at 6k changes. We were just outside looking at some of the performance parts he put on it and just for the heck of it, maybe bitog ocd, i pulled the dipstick and there was black very thick goo on the dipstick. Looked like heavy gear oil that was cold. Not sticky like tar, but just very thick and black. I asked him how many miles were on this change and he said about 1500. My first thought is maybe the pcv was clogged and causing it. We did find a vacuum leak, but it wasnt on the pcv it was on the port to the left of it. Anyway we pulled the pcv and it dont appear clogged, it was dirty, but i couldnt blow thru it and could suck thru it. We got a new one and put it on there anyway. The truck has about 80k on it and probably dont get driven more than 5 k miles a year now becuae he bought a little beater car to drive to and from work. Anyway, what would you all recommend being he was already using synthetics, M1 and PP. I dont know much about dodge engines but i do know that there are alot of sludge issues with the 4.7s and 5.9s. Truck runs great and were tryign to avoid harsh chemicals. My thought was continue to run PP and just change it out at 2k miles for a while and see if it gets better. Or maybe got to rotella 15w40 and a small dose of MMO. Any thoughts guys. Could this jsut be years of changing oil at too long of intervals.
buddies 02 dodge ram 1500 5.9L, Sludge issue
- Thread starter jstutz
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gathermewool
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Before you do anything I'd say pull a sample and send it off for analysis. It could be a contamination issue.
It was *supposed* to be fixed by 2002, but the "Magnum" series v8s had an ongoing problem with the cover plate on the bottom of the intake manifold leaking. While the main symptom was pulling oil into the intake tract, there was enough reversion of fuel/combustion products that it also aggravated oil contamination. After the intake problem was fixed, the 5.2/5.9 had zero sludging problems.
If there's no sign of excess oil consumption, though, I would bet that the only real problem is a bad oil pressure sending unit and the fouled oil is from the extremely low amount of use the truck is getting. 5k miles a year is what I put on my vintage muscle car, and I change its oil by the calendar, not the odometer.
I wouldn't worry too much- its almost impossible to kill a Dodge v8. I would go back to M1 (personal preference- I think PAO oils are better natural solvents than Grp III oils like PP), and change it by the calendar, NOT by mileage when its being driven that little.
If there's no sign of excess oil consumption, though, I would bet that the only real problem is a bad oil pressure sending unit and the fouled oil is from the extremely low amount of use the truck is getting. 5k miles a year is what I put on my vintage muscle car, and I change its oil by the calendar, not the odometer.
I wouldn't worry too much- its almost impossible to kill a Dodge v8. I would go back to M1 (personal preference- I think PAO oils are better natural solvents than Grp III oils like PP), and change it by the calendar, NOT by mileage when its being driven that little.
i would shoot for the rotella idea, get some of the 10-30 and do a 1k oil change and a 2k oil change, equalling 3k. then run the rotella for the 5k and see what happens. just my idea and what i have had luck with in the past.
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