why not try doing an engine flush with an oil change to help loosen the junk in the sender? It might help save you some time.

 

Well I though I'd update you all on my situation.

It is indeed low oil pressure. I bought a lemon. That's the bad news.

However added about half a bottle of lucas oil stabilizer maybe a little less then half a bottle and the light may only blink at a light temporarily. I'm positive if I add the entire bottle I can keep the pressure up in that bad boy.

Now I've got some choices. I can get my engine rebuilt or go to a junkyard and buy one and attempt to rebuilt it myself. Or I can slap some heavy ****in oil in this bad boy and see how long she will go.

How many miles you think I can get out of her with the heavy oil in there to keep pressure?

Also what do you guys think it would cost (ballpark) for some of the options.

 

Do you ever hear any bearing knock? How far can you get if its not the sender? No telling but mine has had 12,000 hard miles, towing so much more than ever should have, normal driving and 600 mile trips. Keep in mind that the 318 engine has had low O.P. problems as far back as I can remember, and thats a long time! Although it has been written that chemicals such as Lucas, STP, etc don't help I believe they do. I run some Lucas in both the 89-3.9, and the 94 5.2.

 

I don't believe I hear any bearing knock. I hear some valve slapping or something on the top end of my engine and it doesn't get worse with increased rpms. Probably just because of the low oil pressure up there is slaps a little.

Idk I'm gonna run this thing into the ground, I didn't pay much at all for it and I bet with a bottle of lucas to keep pressure every now and then it will go for a long time.

 

I'd skip the Lucas and run some 15-40 Rotella it'll do the same thing.

 

For now the truck has 10w-30 in it so I'm just topping off on lucas until it gets a little warmer. Putting in all 15w-40 might be a little much in this colder weather, I will wait till march to do that.

Weird thing is according to the gauge on the dash (who knows if the darn thing is accurate) it shows the needle about dead center maybe slightly to the left of center once warmed up and idleing, but the light will still flicker. The gauge shows okay the light is flickering... lol.

Just about to yank it out and try not to worry about it.

 

O.K. top end noise, if you aint getting lube its going to die! Low intermittant oil pressure? Take some time and flush the engine, get the crud out. Something we all miss is the passage for the O.P sender is small, if there is crud it aint gonna do anything but stay there because it has no outlet just the bottom of the guage. If you decide to flush take the sensor out put a discharge there and flush that passage! Might as well install a new sensor while at it. Top end noise to me is lack of flow up ther, once again Crud. That stuff can be flushed, couple filter changes combined with flush effort will probably help. Why destroy an engine that you can save with a little effort and time?

 

I did try to clean it out. I changed the filter many times straining the oil. When I changed my sender I pulled the coil out and cranked the engine over to blow anything out of the passage. No avail. I must admit though my truck runs rougher after putting in the lucas I'm going to remove that **** asap and just use the 15 40 rotella.

Edit: Thought I'd add this. I cut open the filters I had previously changed to see what they looked like inside. To my surprise the oil was black as all hell looked like syrup (not the same viscosity tho), but there was minimal sludge in there. I know the engine in the truck right now was rebuilt 50k miles ago. I'm starting to think all they did was throw new rod and main bearings on there and called it a day. After 50k miles the old unpolished crank grinded them back down.

 

Could be what they did, and that sucks. When I was worried about mine I actually cut the cans open and flushed the filter element with gas, couldn't believe how much filter element is in that little can. Funny you should mention that it ran rougher with Lucas. The 89, 3.0 did also at first but the 94-318 did not.

 

So what do you guys suggest? 15w-40 Rotella until she finally gives and go and get a junkyard engine?

I wonder if I can get a re-manufactured engine put in for less then 2 grand to save me time, effort, and most of all the frustration of working in my backyard.

Also from my understanding of engine oil the (W) means the viscosity when it is cold and the number after the w the (40) means the viscosity when warm. So for my situation wouldn't a 5w-40 or 10w-40 engine oil have the same viscosity when at operating temperature as a 15w-40 engine oil?