Oil pressure issues

40

Asked by Lacey Jul 21, 2018 at 05:46 AM about the 2001 Dodge RAM 1500

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

I just replaced both valve cover gaskets and all 8
spark plugs. I have also cleaned off all of the
valves because they were gunked up pretty bad.
After doing all of that, I drove it to test drive it and it
dropped oil pressure to nothing. I did an oil change
and replaced oil filter last weekend and the dip
stick shows I still have oil. To be on the safe side, I
drained all of the oil out again and replaced it with
Royal Purple 10w30. Now the guage is dropping
and rising. I'm wondering if I might have clogged
something cleaning off the valves???

3 Answers

42,920

You are right that you may have release some crud down into the return passages or clogged the oil screen. Some people would try to flush it out with a flusher or diesel fuel while others would drop the pan and clean the oil pick up screen. Save the expensive Royal Purple for your last oil change. If you have the 4.7 liter engine, they have a reputation of "too small" oil returns and clog up easily. Just be gentle with it until you again have normal steady oil pressure. Being an older vehicle, it probably has lots of sludge top and bottom.

2 people found this helpful.
40

So my blonde self forgot to put the air hose back on. I put it back on, test run it and it ran fine. on the way back to house the oil pressure dropped to nothing. I'm probably gonna drain the oil pan and check the screen and clean it and check my oil filter as well. Was hoping I had did an easy fix but guess it's back to the handy work lol

1 people found this helpful.
40

Dropped the oil pan and cleaned it out and cleaned out the oil screen. So far so good. Taking it for a longer drive up the road tomorrow.Drove it a couple miles up from my house and the oil gauge didn't bottom out. Hopefully it's fixed. If not, next on the chopping block will be changing the PVC tube on the valve cover. Buuutt my fingers are crossed I don't have to mess with it anymore cause dropping the oil pan was hard enough.

2 people found this helpful.

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