Major Oil Leak Help

[GLBLWMR]

I pulled my 2003 SRT10 into the driveway and the low oil pressure light illuminated and shut the engine off. There was no oil on the dipstick. The car did not overheat and the check engine light was not illuminated.

There was an oil puddle under the car, in the crank pulley, under the radiators and under the car from the oil pan to the differential.

The oil cooler lines were dry except the connection at the engine. Anyone have any thoughts or insight?

Car has 16,661 miles.

 

[Steve-Indy]

Front main seal?

 

[Steve M]

In my limited experience, oil cooler lines aren't prone to catastrophic failure. As long as they still looked in tact, they probably aren't the issue here.

 

[Old School]

I would check the simplest thing first, the oil filter.

 

[GTS Dean]

A Gen 5 with no oil - but still running???

 

[GLBLWMR]

The oil filter and oil replaced. Started the motor and no leaks.....but a high pitch noise is present. The noise isn't loud but noticeable. I shut the motor off. I fear a bearing was damaged. Any thoughts?

 

[GLBLWMR]

Here are some findings:

1. No metal in the filter or in the quart of oil that drained out.

2. The filter was installed extremely tight. The oil likely leaked out between the seal and oil filter housing.

 

[Suregrip391]

Did you check if the old seal from the old filter was still stuck to the housing when the old filter was removed? I’ve seen that happen…then you end up with double gaskets and a leak!

 

[GLBLWMR]

No, only one seal was installed. The filter was tightened beyond recommendation. I actually twisted the knurled portion during removal.

 

[Steve-Indy]

How long had that filter been in place prior to your oil leak?

 

[MoparMap]

It's relatively easy to drop the pan on a gen 3, and they are known for cooking the 3/4 bearings on the track when low on oil, so that would probably be the next course of action I would take. That being said, you mentioned oil running all down the length of the car. Was there a trail of oil behind you when you pulled into your driveway? Unfortunately I'm very familiar with what 10 quarts of oil looks like on a driveway. If it just let go as you got home I wouldn't be quite as worried, but the fact that you have oil all down the car would seem to indicate it had at least started to let go some time before that, so the car would have likely been operating with some amount of load at low oil levels. Surprised you wouldn't have seen a low pressure light sooner, but I guess maybe it wouldn't have had an issue unless you were turning.

The high pitched noise makes me think of a pump issue, though I'm not sure the gearotor style pumps modern cars use for oil tend to make noise like that.

 

[Goggles Pizano]

How much oil did you drain or did you just add more?

 

[GTS Dean]

The oil filter and oil replaced. Started the motor and no leaks.....but a high pitch noise is present. The noise isn't loud but noticeable. I shut the motor off. I fear a bearing was damaged. Any thoughts?

That sound may be from either pump cavitation, sucking air someplace, or a cooked seal squealing. A little bit of fluid can make a huge mess of the underside of the car from front to back, including above the belly pan.

 

[Kai SRT10]

It's relatively easy to drop the pan on a gen 3, and they are known for cooking the 3/4 bearings on the track

This happened to me. I installed a Comp Coupe oil pan and Accusump to keep it from happening again. If you track your Gen 3, I'd recommend improving the stock oiling system.

 

[GLBLWMR]

Viper Wizard recommended removing the serpentine belt and starting the vehicle. So I did and the high pitch noise went away. I found the tensioner pulley bearings rattled and wobbled. I replaced the pulley and reinstalled the belt. The noise is gone and the vehicles idles fine. She's back in the fight!

 

[GLBLWMR]

How much oil did you drain or did you just add more?

I drained the quart of oil left in the oil pan to inspect for metal flakes, slivers, chunks and sheening. After finding zero evidence of metal, I serviced the crankcase per the manual.

 

[GLBLWMR]

It's relatively easy to drop the pan on a gen 3, and they are known for cooking the 3/4 bearings on the track when low on oil, so that would probably be the next course of action I would take. That being said, you mentioned oil running all down the length of the car. Was there a trail of oil behind you when you pulled into your driveway? Unfortunately I'm very familiar with what 10 quarts of oil looks like on a driveway. If it just let go as you got home I wouldn't be quite as worried, but the fact that you have oil all down the car would seem to indicate it had at least started to let go some time before that, so the car would have likely been operating with some amount of load at low oil levels. Surprised you wouldn't have seen a low pressure light sooner, but I guess maybe it wouldn't have had an issue unless you were turning.

The high pitched noise makes me think of a pump issue, though I'm not sure the gearotor style pumps modern cars use for oil tend to make noise like that.

The oil stream started 1/2 mile from my house. The driveway has a two quart oil spill and the garage has a one quart spill.

 

[GLBLWMR]

How long had that filter been in place prior to your oil leak?

2 1/2 years but the vehicle was in storage during that time period.

 

[Steve-Indy]

Interesting. Thanks for the response.

A similar "spill" history was given by a good friend several years ago driving a 2008 coupe: he left a stop light without issue, got a couple of blocks on a 4 lane highway, oil pressure dropped, got off the road to a parking lot, shut it down.

When I showed up (same time as the flatbed), he was easy to track via the oil pathway. Took it a few miles to a friend's dealership, put it on the lift, carefully removed the Viper specific oil filter, and found a tear in the gasket which allowed the massive oil dump. Fortunately, no damage was done as determined by multiple oil and filter analyses...and that Viper is going strong.

In the case I described above, the filter was installed in late fall during a routine service by a very careful, highly experienced Viper Tech. Since winter arrived shortly thereafter, the Viper was stored til spring, with this being an initial outing as I recall...with odometer showing 80 miles since oil/filter change.

The lesson (at least for me) was to be very careful with the gasket on the Viper specific filters from SRT...as I had already noticed that many of them came out of the box with that gasket detached from the filters "nubs" that were meant to hold it in place. This meant that one needed to carefully reseat the gasket, carefully lubricate it, and just as carefully AND SLOWLY put the filter on WITHOUT rapidly spinning the filter so as NOT to dislodge the gasket causing a wrinkle or pucker as the filter was tightened into place. Using a mechanic's mirror to inspect the gasket for these problems became a necessity...followed by a start up, shut down, and a reinspection.

Fortunately, later productions had gaskets that stayed place quite nicely.

I am HOPING you will have similar good luck with your Viper. Inspect the bearings if there is any doubt.

 

[Old School]

I've had a vehicle in the past (not a Viper) that had a sticking oil pressure relief valve. It would occasionally peg the pressure a gauge and blow out the oil filter gasket. You might want to keep an eye on that gauge for a while.

 

[GLBLWMR]

What was the fix?

 

[Old School]

That one was a small block Chrysler that has the relief valve built into the oil pump. I just replaced the pump.

 

[MoparMap]

I have heard the gen 3 relief can be a little funky from time to time, though I thought it tended to stick open instead of closed. That being said, Prefix does offer a gen 4/5 style relief that's a drop in replacement. I went whole hog on my oil system after my second rod bearing failure on the track. Never understood how my car managed to have that problem on street tires, but shattered a rod the second time around. I'm now running the gen 4+ swinging pickup and pan, a larger volume oil pump, gen 4/5 style relief, and some block mods from Prefix to add extra oil holes to the main caps and grooves on the cam bearing surfaces. Shouldn't be necessary on anything but a track car, but it was cheap insurance if I do put it back on a track again.

 

[Goggles Pizano]

@MoparMap Did you ever think about dry sump?

 

[Kai SRT10]

@MoparMap Did you ever think about dry sump?

I have not seen any Gen 3 dry sump options that allowed you to keep your air conditioning.

Are there dry sump solutions now that don't have that issue?

 

[MoparMap]

@MoparMap Did you ever think about dry sump?

Yes and no. I thought about it just because it exists, but in reality my car is a street car that I take to the track once a year. The first time it cooked the rod bearing I was a bit low on oil and chalked it up to myself. The second time I still don't really understand why it let go. I changed the oil the day before I put it on the track and still managed to toast the bearing and shatter a rod. Guessing there must have been something else going on in the engine after the rebuild that I just missed. A dry sump is a cool idea, but just doesn't make sense from a cost standpoint for me with the way I drive.

I have not seen any Gen 3 dry sump options that allowed you to keep your air conditioning.

Are there dry sump solutions now that don't have that issue?

I believe the latest option from Dailey works with A/C now. I think they moved the pump to the other side or something so it wasn't where the compressor was. Either way at something like $10k for just an oil system that wasn't going to go over with the wife or my pocketbook, lol. I got a whole new forged rotating assembly and short block rebuild for that kind of money.

 

[Kai SRT10]

Yes and no. I thought about it just because it exists, but in reality my car is a street car that I take to the track once a year. The first time it cooked the rod bearing I was a bit low on oil and chalked it up to myself. The second time I still don't really understand why it let go. I changed the oil the day before I put it on the track and still managed to toast the bearing and shatter a rod. Guessing there must have been something else going on in the engine after the rebuild that I just missed. A dry sump is a cool idea, but just doesn't make sense from a cost standpoint for me with the way I drive.



I believe the latest option from Dailey works with A/C now. I think they moved the pump to the other side or something so it wasn't where the compressor was. Either way at something like $10k for just an oil system that wasn't going to go over with the wife or my pocketbook, lol. I got a whole new forged rotating assembly and short block rebuild for that kind of money.

Looks like you're right. Look at that shiny billet aluminum:

Dodge Viper Gen 3-5 W/AC | Dailey Engineering

Custom Dry Sump Pumps and Pans

daileyengineering.com

Back when I was busy building my car, I would have been interested in a dry sump, even at $10k, if I could have kept my AC. My modding journey began when my engine grenaded at the track due to oil starvation, so I was keen on oiling solutions, but the thought of driving my car without AC was not very attractive, as it gets really hot in there.

These days, I spend less time at the track, and the combination of the CC oil pan and Accusump have proven to be very effective at keeping adequate oil in the right places, so I've kind of lost interest in dry sumps. Interesting that they've figured a work around the dry sump/AC issue, however.