Power Wagon Registry

So I have now twice had my 2011 5.7 Hemi drop it’s idle and cruising oil pressure after pushing it through some whoops. Both times were running Amsoil Signature 5w-30 Or 0W-30 and both were recently. The first time we had the camper on and weren’t pushing it too hard, and this second time we were all-out through whoops and turns, but neither time did we have a hard bottom-out.

Typical idle psi has always been 29psi and cruising is 49psi. Now after each of these times it’s 24psi idle and 37psi cruising. I’m not sure if this happened due to the pounding or due to the sustained high RPM runs.

Has anyone experienced this before? I ran Amsoil engine flush and dropped my oil pan and cleaned the pickup tube after the last time and that gave me a stuck lifter and high pressure for a short bit, then when that cleared up everything was back to normal. Now I’ve had this problem with only 1,500 miles on this oil change.

Oil pump going out?

You know, it could be as simple as the pressure sending unit. Changing one today as a matter of fact. It only had maybe 2500 miles on it and it went out the same way again, massive oil leak through the plug and on to the exhaust. Did the same random reading before it failed on both units. Had pretty much the same thing on different vehicles as well. Worth a look. Are you using an analog gauge?

EDIT: this is on my spare truck and not the wagon.

Could be the oil pump but I wouldn’t think it would come back to pressure after an oil change. It’s consistent, if I go out right now it will have low oil pressure.

I’m not thinking it’s the sending unit, I suppose it could be but it read normal after the oil change. It’s digital but it’s a 4th gen unit so it reads true pressure rather than the 3rd gen style that gives a subjective range.

Just replace your truck with a new one.

MikeKey wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 20, 2018 2:08 pm

Just replace your truck with a new one.

The new trucks are a downgrade in suspension for what I use my truck for. And I’d rather spend $10k in upgrade parts than $35k in a new bone stock truck.

Would $10k be enough to fix your truck?

If you were running that hard, and stared the pickup for oil, you could have dropped pressure momentarily. Long enough and you'll damage main bearings, which would result in the drop in oil pressure consistently.

I'd cut open those oil filters looking for anything unusual for the next few changes. A second, add on oil pressure gauge would give you some peace of mind too.

Maybe consider running an accusump from canton racing once you’ve fixed whatever’s going on with your motor. It will prevent oil starvation during boogie mode in the future. I have one myself I’ve been meaning to install for a while now. Good peace of mind for the go fast guys

accusump.com

It’s possible the main bearings aren’t happy but there’s so many guys running these trucks with no issues that it doesn’t seem like the cause. Starving bearings would cause lower oil pressure but it wouldn’t just come back to normal after doing an oil change. Unless Amsoil really is unicorn blood, in which case that’s way more cost effective than an engine rebuild haha.

Tim thanks for that idea. I have never heard anyone have oiling issues on these trucks.

I’ve never heard of it on our trucks either, hopefully you get it figured out with minimal expense. I’ve put rigs on their side and lost oil pressure damaging bearings before I could shut them down before though. It’s made me paranoid about losing another engine lol

Or, it could be your gauges.

I have been having issues with the gauges on our 08'. Both oil pressure & voltmeter. Oil pressure upon starting truck is about 1/8" above the halfway mark, when all is good. Recently it has periodically only been moving 1/8" from 0. All sounds fine. Shut off & restart & it jumps to where it is supposed to. Same with the volts. I even checked the amps on the alt while running---199 at idle (270 amp DC Power Eng. Alt). I think it is just my gauges acting up. Maybe corrosion somewhere, IDK ?

Oil pressure sensor going bad?

Lazy eye?

Reloaderguy wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 20, 2018 7:32 pm

Lazy eye?

Bingo!











You weren’t right, I’m just good at Bingo because of my lazy eye.