02 w/4.7 losing oil pressure.

[PICKUP6772]

Hey guys,
As stated in the title, my '02 Durango is losing oil pressure for no apparent reason. A little background here. The truck has 143,XXX miles on it, I just had the top end apart for the l/s head gasket. Everything went well, and the truck was running fine for about 3 days. Then, for no apparent reason, the oil pressure dropped off. But the weird part is, is it's not staying at zero pressure. It's actually fluctuating. Now before anyone chimes in with a bad oil sensor, you can hear the lifters start to make noise till the pressure comes back up again. Up until the head gasket, the truck had been trouble free for the past 8 years. We bought it with 55,XXX in 2005, and I've always held to 3 mo./3,000 mile oil changes, and bi-annual cooling flushes, as we go EVERYWHERE with this thing. Now with vacation season upon us, I really need to get her going. Any ideas would be helpful.
Thanks, Mike

[dalet]

if the lifters are making noise it is definately loosing oil press. did you change oil after head gasket. anti freeze will get into the crankcase and dilute the oil. possibly a bunch of crud fell into the crankcase. if so the oil pickup screen became plugged up. sounds like you may have to remove the oil pan and do some inspection. if all clean replace oil pump and hope for the best

[universe5]

Hey Mike,

One option would be to take a look at your pick-up screen. If it looks like an oil sludge build-up, you can always replace it or clean it. That might be your solution.