As some of you mar remember, about two weeks ago I had my oil pressure gauge fail me. I was off-road at the time and after seeing no leaks, and plenty of oil, figured it was something with the sensor. The engine was still running smooth.
Now this is the first time I have run this truck over 30 minutes away since I bought it, and it made the 3.5 hour trip up there just fine.
On the way home, it developed a slight tick like it used to make when I would run fram filters. So I kept going. I made it about 50 miles and then it developed a LOUD tick.
So I killed the ignition, shifted to N, and rolled onto the shoulder. When I tried to start it, the bendix would break free after about 1/4 second.
Well, I took the walk of shame and had it towed home to see what the damage was.
Well, it turned fine by wrench, and no metal in the oil pan. There was alot of black crap that fell apart when you smashed it between your fingers (in the oil pan). But there were some other issues.
1st, the starter fell out. yeah. the top bolt was missing and the lower one was holding it on, but at an angle where it couldn't really reach the flywheel.
2nd, the oil pan had ALOT of sludge. So I cleaned that out, replaced the oil pump for good luck, and put it back together.
It started just fine, but that tick is still there when you put a load on the engine. No tick at idle, and very little tick with no load at 3k rpm.
I read alot on here about the plenum issue. Well, I checked for oil on the bottom of the plenum. And yeah...it's nice and oily.
I also went ahead and did a compression check. None of the plugs were fouled and 7 of the cylinders were between 65 and 70 psi. The one on the front driver side however is only 50 psi.
So.. do I go for the plenum gasket? or do I need to look into rebuilding it?
This is a 95 1500 5.9 240,000 miles and I have no idea if the engine is original.

 

65-70 psi is no good, time for a rebuid!

 

Is that cold compression?

 

yeah, but looking back on it, i have not used that gauge in years. Might rent one tomorrow and try again.

 

Yeah cold compression is always low.

 

Not that low....... also, did you have the throttle propped all the way open? Having it close would give you some low readings as well.

 

Even a cold motor with the throttle closed should be more than 50 psi lol.

 

True. Personally, I think its time for a rebuild......