apparently I can't crosspost between alt. and rec. newsgroups on newsguy, so here's a copy of a post to alt.trucks.ford - any comments appreciated
nate
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: 300 I-6 still having oil/rod issues Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 21:41:56 -0400 From: Nate Nagel Organization: NewsGuy - Unlimited Usenet $19.95 Newsgroups: alt.trucks.ford
Question: do 300ci sixes ever have issues with cracked or loose oil pickups? I am seeing some symptoms that lead me to believe that I might be dealing with something like that. I should probably hook up a good mechanical oil pressure gauge to verify this but here's the Cliff's notes:
Bought truck from (non-car-guy) coworker. Seemed to be fine other than a few evident issues (coolant overflow system, shocks, front wheel bearings, possibly front wheel balance, needs transmission service) Drove for a couple trips to friend's place in Annapolis and back. One evening noticed rod bearing type noise while accelerating away from stop lights. Parked truck in driveway, checked oil, appeared to be low (it really wasn't. I discovered later that this truck is apparently real sensitive to slopes when checking the oil, and my driveway is sloped for its whole length. But this becomes relevant later on.)
Found two quarts of cheap oil under workbench. Put in truck and dropped truck off at garage on corner. Told mechanic to tell me how bad it was. He called and told me that he never heard any kind of rod noise and that the truck appeared to be fine, although there was some minor work that he wanted to do on it yadda yadda yadda. I told him no thanks, I want to trust this thing before I start sinking money into maintenance, I already spent $200 on new shocks just the day before. so he added some "BG oil treatment" and I gave him a few bucks for that and his time and went on my way. He was right, truck did seem fine. At that time I went ahead and modded my gauge cluster (bypassed the 20 ohm resistor) so that I could install the sending unit I'd bought for an older Ford truck with a real gauge, so that my "idiot light gauge" would actually act as a real gauge. Drove around for a bit, oil pressure behaved as normal. But when I had occasion to actually park on a flat surface and check the oil, I discovered it appeared to be about a quart and a half over full, so it might have only been half a quart low instead of the two quarts that it appeared to be low before.
So I decided I would just change the oil rather than try to drain off only some of it and probably make a mess because I didn't know what bulk crap the PO's garage was putting in there anyway. Bought two gallons of Rotella 30W and a Purolator filter, did the deed in my driveway, added four quarts, drove to a perfectly flat surface, checked the oil, added exactly two more quarts, that brought it up to the top of the hashed area on the dipstick. That jives with the owner's manual, so now I know where to check my oil (parking space in front of the playground at the far end of the street. Just for future reference.) Parked truck in driveway.
Tonight, I came home and found that a gauge cluster I'd ordered had arrived (I ordered a gauge cluster with a tach for the truck, before all this oil pressure/rod bearing mess started. I figured since I'd paid for it I might as well install it just so I could see how fast the engine was turning while I was being paranoid about the rod bearings.) So after modding as before and installing the new gauge cluster I took it for another drive, again to pick up SWMBO at the Metro station. (this truck is getting more miles on it in the evenings going to the Metro station while I'm testing out whatever I did to it the previous couple hours than it is hauling anything.) I noticed that at a couple stop signs when pulling away as the engine RPMs increased so did the oil pressure, but sometimes without any reason the oil pressure would drop back down to about what it was at idle. It did not do this all the time, only some of the time - but I thought I heard the beginnings of the "death rattle" again. I will try reinstalling my old cluster just in case it's something to do with the OP gauge freaking me out - or maybe I will just bite the bullet and buy a mechanical OP gauge and temporarily install it (that really offends my sensibilities, as I have several good ones in my friend's garage but it's 50 miles away) so I can see once and for all what is going on. But based on the fact that I didn't have any issues a couple days ago and all I did was change the oil to bring it down from "overfull" to "full" and then swap out the gauge cluster, I'm seriously thinking I have a pickup issue.
Any better ideas, y'all? I guess I ought to be relieved, but then again, the thought of pulling the pan on this beast still makes me want to pay someone to take care of it for me. I've spent too much time working on cars, I would rather concentrate on fun stuff like my '55 Stude rather than what's supposed to be my beater work truck.
nate