Weird morning...

[Avery4jc]

So this morning I'm going to school like every other morning...I'm driving through the neighborhood where there are lots of turns to get onto the main roads and every time I go around a turn I hear this loud clicking sound...its not something I normally hear so I slowed down and eventually it stopped....
I made it to school and on the way I was thinking that maybe my hubs had "frozen" last night (have the stupid auto hubs) and that it may have been spinning the front gears/driveshaft/etc. and thats what I was hearing since I was on pavement...
So I get to school and like a nutcase I hop out and crawl under...its cold...like 40* but I'm under there checking it out in my shorts and a t-shirt, lol...long story short it appears that my thinking was correct because nothing else seems to be messed up...

Ok I told you that to tell you this...while I was under there I noticed that there was a lot of oil all over everything (more than normal) I know that my rear main drips but its not bad...I add about 1 quart of oil every 1500 miles or so....
But since this was worse I went in the cab and fired it up and to my surprise the guage said somewhere around 10lbs!
So I was like, great now what...how long has it been like this? So I go to my first couple classes and at break I go back out and actually pop the hood and check the stick and I can't even see anything!
So after school I went to the Auto Zone (good thing its literally right next door to my school!) and I get 4 quarts of oil and start putting it in...

It takes all 4 quarts and its still not full! I was like WTH, how was this thing not knocking and running like crap....
So I fired it up and it was up to about 15lbs... and stayed there so I drove it to work (down the street, super slow) and after work I was able to make it home....

So tonight w/ my dad we check things out and its obviously dripping but now by the time I got home it was down to 10lbs again...so even though its dripping it can't be dripping that much...

So I went and got 4 more quarts and put two of them in...now its stabilized and is at least showing on the dip stick but its still hovering around 15 lbs.


So heres my question...that seems very low as I've been told that these engines need about 10lbs per 1000 rpm. So maybe my guage is bad and its actually fine but I never noticed that it was getting low...although the drips are small it could have just leaked out over time and now its ok....or maybe its going somewhere else...I don't know...I fired it up and my dad was checking around since he though it might be burning it but we can't tell....what do you guys think...weird huh?

-Avery

 

[chevy wrangler]

wow
my truck leaked a quart a week, and i put that lucus stuffs in there and now it stoped leaking. you should try that stuff. or well yeah

 

[Avery4jc]

come on night owls...what do you think is up?

-Avery

 

[thedrip]

I'll take a wild guess. (because I did the same thing at 16). Ran it down on oil. WAY down. Just enough in the pan to keep the pump sucking oil. Turn a corner, oil sloshes, pump sucks a bubble, everything loses oil pressure for a second and clatters, oil sloshes back into bottom of pan, pump reprimes, motor goes quiet. I was down over 4 quarts on a 4.5 capacity pan. Leaked so slowly enough that I only left one or two drips anywhere I parked. Of course, at home, I couldn't tell what was fresh and what was old, the truck leaked overnight for months on the exact same spot.

Damage in my case were cam bearings, a couple chewed up lifters, couple main bearings.


It just came down to being a kid, not paying attention, and not checking the oil regularily. To be honest, I still don't check it enough, except for the first month or two I own a vehicle. Once I learn its appetite, I check it as often as I think it's going to need a quart =)

 

[Avery4jc]

hmmm so I could have caused some damage...but now that I've put a total of 6 quarts in it today I should be ok right?
I mean sure it could have caused some permanent damage but theres nothing else I can do...

-Avery

 

[gmc4cw]

wow
my truck leaked a quart a week, and i put that lucus stuffs in there and now it stoped leaking. you should try that stuff. or well yeah

Yeah try some Lucas. the stuff is thick so 1 quart would probably be plenty. by the time you get to a oil change using just Lucas and no regular oil you need a new motor. I ran mine until it smoked 2 quarts of oil a day. 1 on the way to work and 1 on the way home. When I tore the motor down there was a hole big enough to slide a quarter through in one of the pistons. the rest of the pistons weren't great either. Gotta love a 350. It would have kept running. and the heads were reusable. Checked them for cracks, did a valve job and they were good.

 

[obijuan]

wash it and watch it run. i noticed a while back in your pictures you had a nice little leak. check your PCV system to see if that is functioning properly, cause that could cause leaks and then time can make them leak more. i dont know, every truck is different. to see how much it leaks do the plywood test, set some plywood overnight and check the drips, see where it comes from and fix it. your gauge is probably ok. you took off your pan right? did it seal up right at the rear main? could be alot of stuff

 

[Avery4jc]

thanks guys...

I made it to school this morning and by the time I got there it was showing the pressure drop again...quite a bit.
So I wen't through the day and called my work and told them I wasn't going to be able to make it in today and then after school I topped it off and went to the shop that a friend of ours owns.
He was puzzled as well and finally to make this short...we figured that it was not low but too full. By the time we got it back down to where it should be we had pulled 5.5 qts out...yeah 5.5!
So what happened is my new dip stick is chrome because thats the only thing that the parts stores around here could even order. But my oil is so clean that you can't tell where its at on the stick so when I thought it was low it was actually perfect....
So he said look into replacing the sending unit back by the distributor for my oil pressure guage but mostly just keep an eye on it.

So I cleaned up the huge mess (we found that the majority of the leaks were coming from the dipstick...where it goes into the block it was being forced out) so its ok now.

I guess that guage isn't much help anymore so I'll just check it from time to time and for now that'll work.

-Avery

 

[Chevy305]

Nice that you have figured it out!


Also 40 degrees is not cold!

Just today I drove to school at 25 degrees and with the windows down because my defroster sucks. And it feels great! Also I had to scrape the windows too. So poopoo to you mr.shorts on a 40 degree day

 

[Avery4jc]

Nice that you have figured it out!


Also 40 degrees is not cold!

Just today I drove to school at 25 degrees and with the windows down because my defroster sucks. And it feels great! Also I had to scrape the windows too. So poopoo to you mr.shorts on a 40 degree day

lol, and its my fault that I live somewhere normal (weather wise) in what way? For Cali thats fairly cold for a morning...most are in the 30's but warm up quickly and hover around 40 for a while.

-Avery

 

[chevy wrangler]

Yeah try some Lucas. the stuff is thick so 1 quart would probably be plenty. by the time you get to a oil change using just Lucas and no regular oil you need a new motor. I ran mine until it smoked 2 quarts of oil a day. 1 on the way to work and 1 on the way home. When I tore the motor down there was a hole big enough to slide a quarter through in one of the pistons. the rest of the pistons weren't great either. Gotta love a 350. It would have kept running. and the heads were reusable. Checked them for cracks, did a valve job and they were good.

?? so is lucas bad or good??

 

[87BrnRsd]

Nice that you have figured it out!


Also 40 degrees is not cold!

Just today I drove to school at 25 degrees and with the windows down because my defroster sucks. And it feels great! Also I had to scrape the windows too. So poopoo to you mr.shorts on a 40 degree day

Tell me about it. It was nice and warm today (high of about 48) but tomorrow is a different story. Our forecast is for a high of 34 comming in the morning, then the temps will fall, snow showers set in (light snow showers) and the temp is expected to drop to around 5 degrees with a 45 mph wind (that makes a wind chill of -23 if you were wondering). Friday we have a high of 24. Gotta love living in the mountains.

Anyways, I dont like lucas myself. My bro went to change the oil in his truck one day and poured in a quart of lucas on top of the 4.5 quarts of mobil 1. Spun a bearing immediately on startup. We dropped the pan (several days later) and all I saw was a bunch of nice mobil 1 on the bottom of the pan, and a bunch of ugly foamy (yes it was foamy) lucas just floating on top and not mixing in whatsoever. I just fill her up with mobil 1 and call it good.

As for your problem, why dont you go to autozone and just buy a cheap oil pressure guage? Shouldnt be more than $20 and its easy to install. That way youll at least know what your oil pressure is (very important). Sounds like the sending unit to me, but I dont like the stock guage. Mine still works, as well as an aftermarket I have. The stock one gives you a rough idea (around 10 psi of actual) but the aftermarket pinpoints it.
-Harrison

 

[gmc4cw]

?? so is lucas bad or good??

Lucas is basically a thicker oil. don't need it in a good engine, but might add a little value in an engine you are looking to trade in.

I sell cars. shhhh!

 

[Chevy305]

Lucas is basically a thicker oil. don't need it in a good engine, but might add a little value in an engine you are looking to trade in.

I sell cars. shhhh!

So its like running diesel oil?

 

[gmc4cw]

I honestly have no idea what the viscosity of diesel oil is. Lucas is really thick. I have heard first person stories of how it got months out of a toasted engine.

 

[NEK5]

I honestly have no idea what the viscosity of diesel oil is. Lucas is really thick. I have heard first person stories of how it got months out of a toasted engine.

I`ve heard first hand how it can toast a motor in a month

 

[gmc4cw]

I guess it depends on what your problem is. If my thinking is correct I would think that it would help a bottom end problem more the a top end problem. simply due to the fact that it would take more work to get it up to the valves.

 

[87BrnRsd]

Its waaaaayy thicker than diesel oil. The diesel oil im running in my benz is 15-40 wt. I believe diesel oil has more detergents in it though.
-Harrison

 

[chevy wrangler]

well it stoped my blow by and no more leaks, just a drip here and there

 

[Avery4jc]

Tell me about it. It was nice and warm today (high of about 48) but tomorrow is a different story. Our forecast is for a high of 34 comming in the morning, then the temps will fall, snow showers set in (light snow showers) and the temp is expected to drop to around 5 degrees with a 45 mph wind (that makes a wind chill of -23 if you were wondering). Friday we have a high of 24. Gotta love living in the mountains.

Anyways, I dont like lucas myself. My bro went to change the oil in his truck one day and poured in a quart of lucas on top of the 4.5 quarts of mobil 1. Spun a bearing immediately on startup. We dropped the pan (several days later) and all I saw was a bunch of nice mobil 1 on the bottom of the pan, and a bunch of ugly foamy (yes it was foamy) lucas just floating on top and not mixing in whatsoever. I just fill her up with mobil 1 and call it good.

As for your problem, why dont you go to autozone and just buy a cheap oil pressure guage? Shouldnt be more than $20 and its easy to install. That way youll at least know what your oil pressure is (very important). Sounds like the sending unit to me, but I dont like the stock guage. Mine still works, as well as an aftermarket I have. The stock one gives you a rough idea (around 10 psi of actual) but the aftermarket pinpoints it.
-Harrison

If I get an aftermarket guage do they come w/ their own sending unit or will it tie into my factory one (which I apparently need to replace)?

-Avery