I may be the only person on earth whose Dodge tranny works fine but my 318 has problems.

About 6 months ago my 97 Ram 1500 w/318 had an oil pressure problem. If I let it go above 3000rpm, my oil pressure would go to 0. It did not have the problem until the motor was completely warmed up. Once it went to 0 if I let off the gas, it would come back up to slightly below normal but would go back to 0 if I went over 2000rpm. If I shut off the motor and restarted it would go back to normal as long as the rpm stayed below 3000. I replaced the oil pump, that had no effect. I also installed a manual oil pressure gauge with the same readings. When it goes to 0, I can hear my lifters so I was definitely losing pressure. I tried for a month to solve this problem then it disappeared on its own. I did put stop leak in the oil a few days prior but it seems unlikely that it was related to that.
This morning on my way to get new tires put on, I wound it out all the way to 5000rpm. Immediately the problem came back and now occurs at much lower rpm.
Anybody have any ideas?

 

I have to ask, have you pulled a valve cover off to look inside? this is an old problem that any manufacturer could have. it sounds like your draining your oil pan,and the oil is not returning at a fast enough rate. you only have about 4 quarts in the pan to start with, and they get sucked up pretty quick. if the oil galleys are sludged up the oil will climb up through the engine(under presure) but won't fall to the pan(Gravity). if you pull the valve covers off look past the push rods in to the lifter vally,and see to it thats is clean,I have had use a shop vac, and coat hanger to get trough the bad ones. the heads also have oil return holes at the ends that need to be cleaned. good luck it will be messy.

 

If the top end isn't sludged up like the other fellow said check your oil pickup tube for a crack. When you changed the pump was the screen clean or full of plastic timing gear teeth?

You do have the correct dipstick right? Not one that is too long.

 

A guy at my work had the exact same problem as you and the bearing main was shot. The same year and model. When the motor was reved it would not pump oil. He was told by Dodge that this was a common problem but did not offer any kind of recall or discount of any kind. He put new oil pump, guage, etc.. Nothing! I hope this is not your problem but would consider. He had a someone put a whole new motor in instead of rebuilding. They were cheaper than Dodge. GOOD LUCK!

 

the only reason I don't think its a bearing problem, is wouldn't come and go. it would be a full on problem without a cure, except a rebuild. the problem TomM described was one of cavitating the oil pan. its real common, he said he had also changed the oil pump, with that he would not have opened the upper part of the engine, so he wouldn't have seen any sludge, the crankshaft power washes the bottom of the crank case every time it runs. it just a matter of pulling valve covers to conferm the problem.

 

True! This was just a problem that someone I worked with had and it seemed similar.

 

Yup, it was gummed up passages

Before pics

before cleaning1
before cleaning2
before cleaning3


A little cleaner. Ill let it soak till tonight and clean it one more time tomorow

after cleaning1
after cleaning2


Thanks for your replies [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img] tHANKS FOR SUPPLING PICs, it amazing what a little dirt will do! I'm glad you were able to take care of it without to much trouble. take care now

 

Holy macaral!

How did it get so dirty? Someone forget to change the oil ocasionally? Does the T-stat allow it to fully warm up?

You will need to remove the oilpan again and clean all the stuff that fell down there out before it plugs up the screan.

Run a very thin oil such as 5w-30 and change it every 1000miles and it will slowly clean it's self up.

Once it gets reasonably clean you can go back to whatever oil weight you prefer and change it every 3k or so.

 

The oil was changed always between 2800 and 3200 miles since I’ve had the truck. The thermostat lets it warm up good but I do a lot of short drives. It already had 45000 on it when I got it. The popular opinion is that it was a combination of very short drives not allowing it to warm up enough and/or the previous owner used a lot of oil additives that caused it to gunk up. I’m going to pull the pan before I fill it with oil again. I used a pressure cleaner, so it is probably full of trash now.