Yea, this is the same truck with the loose cab and annoying ignition key button. This time the problem is serious. This is mostly just a farm truck. I ran it the other day just to haul some hay bales around the farm. It was very cold outside. Truck barely started, but did. Drove it about mile, and noticed some strange sounds, which were like a grinding whistle (hard to explain). I just figured it was cold. Later in the day I ran it again for a couple minutes and noticed a noisy lifter. Again, I figured it was just cold.
Next day I started it and lifter was more noisy. I looked at the oil pressure and it was ZERO. I'm thinking "bad sensor", but proceed to check the oil. It's about a quart low, so I add a quart, start it, still no oil pressure. I check to see if wire is on the sensor, and it is. I drive it about a mile and then it sounds like more than one lifter is noisy. I park it and check the oil again, thinking I was not wiping it well. It's full. So I start it again, thinking that the oil sensor really is bad, and the noisy lifters are because I never let the truck warm up. I decide to let it warm up at idle. Then I see a red light on dash saying "ENGINE". (never saw that one before). About that time it starts to really chatter and run like shit. Then it killed.
Well, at this point, I'm realizing there is a serious problem, but I have to move it because it's blocking my car and my tractor. It restarts, but this time there is also a yellow "CHECK ENGINE" light in addition to the red "ENGINE" light. I proceed to move the truck about 20 feet and it kills again. (at least it was not blocking other vehicles).
I have not tried to start it since. I now know it's really not getting oil. (not a bad sensor). A guy who works at a auto parts store tells me that he's seen that happen on these engines. Said the pin sheared where the oil pump connects to the distributor, and I need to replace the oil pump. Tells me to check the rod bearings too, because running it without oil could have damaged them.
Anyhow........
I'm pretty much figuring the best thing to do with this truck is to haul it to the junk yard. But this guy says just take off the pan, and take a look. It's probably just the oil pump..... Then he tells me I have to drain oil, loosen motor mounts and jack engine up a few inches, and stick 2x4 blocks under both mounts. Then remove the oil pan. Well, that dont sound too bad.....
I've been looking on the web, and I've seen everything from simply removing the pan bolts and the pan can be worked out without raising the engine, all the way to remove all of the following. Radiator & hoses Shroud Starter Exhaust system Engine mounts Tranny mount Tranny crossmember Intake manifold including all hoses and linkages.
Ummmmmmmmm........ Why dont they just say "take the whole goddamn truck apart"......
Honestly, this is an old beater farm truck, but it did run pretty well till this. But if I have to remove all this shit, it's on it's way to the junk yard. At this point I only want to take off the pan and see what things look like. If bearing are bad, I may as well just toss the pan in the cab and call the junk yard wrecker. But if an oil pump and pan gasket will fix it, then I'll fix it.
Here is a thought. Rather than remove all this stuff, why cant I just take a sawsall and just saw away the middle of that support (cross member) under the engine. Then do my repairs, weld some flanges on the end of the cut away piece of that support, and bolt it back. That sure seems a lot easier than removing all that other stuff.
Is this possible?
It's an 88 F-150 4wd, Manual 4speed Tranny, 4.9 liter straight 6 cyl.
Thanks