Greetings! Been gone for a while so HEYYOU I got one for you? Driving down the road in the 96 V10 with that engine I swapped out after covid, so like 2019 or 2020. Engine had 125k when I did the swap. Nowhere to drive up here in alaska so mightve put another 5 to 8k on it. Driving home after work doing about 35mph and it sounded like I ran over something? Looked out the back window to see if there was anything in the road when I turned around the oil light was on and ZERO oil pressure. Pulled over popped the hood check the dipstick oil was full. I just changed the oil maybe 500miles ago. Look under the truck no leaks no parts everything looks good. Truck starts right up runs just fine. Looked online and a few mechanics said the oil pressure sending unit was out ok to drive to parts store. Drive 3 miles thru town @ 25mph to Oreillys. Had the parts guy come out and listen to the engine. No top end noise no lifters click n. He said same thing oil pressure sending unit. Get new pressure unit. Go to drive home. All was fine til I got over 35mph engine seized up @ the burger joint parking lot. Get truck towed to the house. Pulled oil pan next day hoping maybe the pickup fell off? Maybe plugged screen? Pick up was still on. Removed to check out screen. Looked like brand new. Just did an oil change. Have absolutely no clue what is going on? Do the oil pumps go out in these v10's? Trucks been sit n dead in the snow ever since! Help HEYYOU! Cheers!

 

Oil pump is in the timing cover, driven off the crank snout. I believe there is a woodruff key in there that engages it. If the key shears, that's it, yer done..... I would be tempted to pull the cover, and have a look. See if anything interesting presents itself.

That said, I regularly see these engines with near 300K miles on them.... (which was one of the reasons I bought one....)

 

Exactly why I was so surprised I dropd oil pressure. Its rain n cats/dogs today (betr then the snow) so now work n on the truck today. My new oil pump gear showed up the other day. Talk about hard to find part! (Dealer out of Dallas Texas was the only company that had the oil pump!) I will take pictures when I pull it apart.
I will say this HEYYOU, after it sat for a few days it fired right up in the driveway! I suppose the tolerances were cold so it was able to start?

 

You don't wanna run it without oil pressure. part of the pump spins in the aluminum cover, and if you gall it, it's done, and they are NOT an easy to find part, and IF you find one, it sure as shootin' ain't cheap.

 

$140 for a new oil pump gear. However, I have a back up plan! Found another 1996 V10 engine with 70,000 miles on it on the east coast. Gonna cost me 400ish bucks to get it to the west coast on the barge to Alaska! Still shocked this engine grenaded @ lest then 150k on it. I am an engineer on a fishing boat and keep up on all the maintenance! This engine always had a whine since the first day I installed it? Hopefully engine number 3 treats me betr? If this one goes I am doing a 12valve cummins swap next time!

 

Only 400 bucks to get from the east coast to alaska?? That's dirt cheap. I paid 250 to ship a motor from southern michigan, to one of the carolina's.... a significantly shorter distance, and that's been some years ago.

Another low mileage motor though, does indeed sound like a good plan.

 

$400 to Seattle then prob $250 to barge it up to Alaska. However, tried to ship it on a flat and the trucking company wouldnt accept it unless it was crated. So who knows what that will cost me? Prob another couple hundred bucks? Seems like most the engines I found were 2 to 3 grand and all had atleast 150k on them. The engine I found came out of an old guys truck he used to plow the snow out of his driveway. The salted roads rusted the frame out.

 

Yeah, I live in the rust belt, so, Familiar with that.