Help 3.9L oil capacity issue

I have a 99 RanVan with 3.9, no owners manual. Haynes says all full
size vans use 5 qts oil. This one, with filter change, shows over full
with 4 qts. Is this normal?

 

Possibly the oil pan is dented?
I'd have a look underneath.

 

That'd be a heck of a dent, so it should b e obvious ;-)

My guess is its got the wrong dipstick.

 

Engine oil with filter change 4.0 qts, Without filter change 3.5 qt

Glenn Beasley
Chrysler Tech

 

Why oh why does anyone use Haynes manuals?

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Wait a minute Bill those manuals are good to have, just the other day I was
trying to burn a brush pile in the back yard and the pages I pulled out
made the fire start really fast. Thanx to Haynes I got the fire started
fast. I still have many pages left for the next time

Glenn

 

you just wait till your car breaks down on some country road and you
don't have your Haynes manual,what are you going to wipe with if you
have to poop?

 

i've always liked the Robert Bentley manuals. Seems like sometimes
they are comparable, if not better than some FSMs.

 

And why oh why didn't Chrysler give the 3.9 a decent oil capacity?!? I
guess because it was a shortened LA block and they didn't want to deepen
the sump. But hell, even the contemporary 3.5 v6 had a 5.5 quart
capacity (with stock filter, 6.0 quart if you use the FL1A/PH8/PF2 size
filter).

 

The answer is easy... it would have lasted too long with more oil.
not to mention people would have been bitching when Jiffy Lube charged
them for extra quarts of oil not included in the standard deal.

My '99 3.9 ram van has 118,000 miles on it and it behaves like the oil
was changed maybe three or four times before I got it. Once I got
it, I changed the oil immediately... ran it with a quart of marvel
mystery and the rest oil for 100 miles, then changed the oil and
filter again. Ran it another 1000 miles, changed the oil and filter
again. It's running reasonably well, but smells of oil at idle and
has a "tap tap tap" at idle as well... my first guess would be a
hydraulic unit... but I don't really know for sure. It has become
less of a noise, but I really don't have confidence that it's not
going to be a problem in the next 40k or so.

The check engine light comes on after about 30 miles on the highway..
every time. The coolant temp starts to climb about that time as
well. I am thinking water pump. Can the water pump set the check
engine light? I get no meaningful codes... I brought it to the
advance auto store and the f*cker scanned it with the piece of $hit
and told me it was the O2 sensors... well.. replaced those things and
30 miles down the road *BAM*.... check engine again. LOL

Those stupid bastards have cost me more money .... one time I was
sold a 351 Windsor thermostat when I asked for a 351 cleveland
thermostat. 10 miles later, the original engine in my brother's '71
Mustang 'vert was overheated. Love it!

 

That may very well be the oil pressure switch in need of replacement
rather than actual low oil pressure. Less than $20 for the part. That
is one part you should get from the dealer - aftermarket pressure
switches are often so far out of cal right out of the box as to give
false low oil pressure indication. OEM parts generally at least start
out having been tested to higher standards (tighter tolerances).

Anyway - very common for these switches to fail on Chrysler vehicles -
and when they do, it seeems it's always in the direction of falsely
indicating low pressure - and often leaking oil too.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')

 

Thanks Bill, will get one of those soon.

That doesn't explain the rise in temperature, though.. turning on the
heater to max heat brings the temp back down a bit and keeps it at bay
(on a long highway drive). I haven't tried it on a long drive since
it's been 90+ outside, though.

 

Only indirectly by causing an over-temp that might set the light.

Overheating after prolonged operation usually comes down to lack of
coolant flow or lack of air flow. Since this happens on the highway, its
*probably* not an air flow issue, but some cars don't flow enough air
through the radiator without a good fan even at highway speeds. Just to
be sure, check the fan clutch and check the radiator and condensor fins
for dead bugs, grass, dirt, leaves, etc. For water flow, make sure the
radiator isn't clogged (if the oil was neglected, I'll bet the coolant
was also!). Make sure the thermostat opens and opens all the way, and
make sure the lower hose doesn't collapse. Also make sure the radiator
cap pressurizes the system fully.

 

ok i'll check all those... now that you remind me, the radiator is
pretty scaly inside. The coolant was brown when I first got it
because it was just water..

I will definitely check the fan clutch as well. It's amazing how
quickly all this troubleshooting ability seems to disappear now that i
don't do it every day for a paycheck...

 

Nza wrote:

I think you just identified the problem...

The question now is whether just a rigorous flushing will clear it up
enough, or whether you'll have to have the radiator rodded out.