Thread: Help! O/T oil problems

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My 01 dodge truck, 318 has been having oil problems. the oil pressure quit showing pressure at all! i thought it might be the guage but if you drive it the rockers start getting a little mad! engine temp never rises, but no oil to the top end.

ive searched the net and lots have this issue but no one has an answer for it.I bit the bullet and changed the pump to a h/o pump with no change.
My question is.

#1 is my engine shot?
#2 could the pump drive have broken?
#3 could i have a blockage in the motor preventing oil from circulating?

Pan and pump screen were clean when i pulled em! no sludge buildup on the bottom end, and no debrise of any kind.

Thanks

Your pump is driven from the base of the distributor shaft, and that extension on the shaft may have broken but I doubt it or you'd have no pressure at all and would have trashed your mains & rod bearings pretty quickly. I'd pull the distributor and see how it looks, then while it's out get an adapter and spin the oil pump with a good drill and see what you get on your gauge. Rotate the engine by hand while spinning the pump and you should see oil at the rockers. If not you could have spun a cam bearing, blocking the port that flows oil to the top end.

Are you sure about no oil to top end ? If you had no oil pressure it would be making lotsa noise. Real common for the oil pressure sensor going bad on those.

my 92 dodge truck lost all it`s pressure shortly after i bought it .. put in a new pump .. no dif .. put a sending unit on it .. good to go .. but i did`nt have lifter noises as you say you do ..

I'm with Hoss. My 96 intrepid with 215,000+ miles started showing the oil light at idle and after about 1 mo. at all speeds. (Whoda thunk) Put a manual line and gauge on it (took out the sensor) and fired it up....40 lbs + at speed and 20 lbs + at idle. Bought a new sensor and everything is AOK. I have to say though, I didn't have noise at the top either.

Jack.

Lots of valve tapping! ill try the manual pressure guage and see what i get. i guess ill pull a valve cover too just to get a visual.. Thanks guys.

Check to be sure that your oil pump pickup is in the correct location or for some reason it might be loose where it enters the oil pump. It could have come loose and is sucking air instead of oil from the pan. The oil pickup tube could also have a hole in it somewhere. I had a 77 powerwagon that would loose oil pressure at anything above a 20 degree or so angle. Back on flat ground it would pickup the oil again. The pickup tube was loose and was not in the correct location I believe.

I took out the oil sensor next to the distributor and installed a off the shelf manual guage. still no pressure! hardly enough pressure to send oil through the tube. Its circulating, but not enough to get to the top.

Im guessing the bearings are shot?