Nephew ran 98 S10 out of oil

The engine or the nephew???

Ha ha ha ha!

It's probably severaly damaged already. What's the oil pressure on a cold start? What is the oil pressure after it's warmed up and in idle?

Have a compression tester? If so, see how bad he cooked the rings.

Doc

Your not really supposed to run them till they stop dripping... Karl, sorry man.

GMC Gremlin

Damn straight! When I have kids that reach the driving age, and they come to me wanting a car, I'm gonna go buy the first $300-500 beater I can find and present it to them. When they refuse to be caught dead in it, then I'm going to give them a pair of roller skates and sell the car. ;-)

"Guess you should have taken the first choice, kid. Start saving your money for your own car"

-Tony

Had a friend working in a garage many years ago. One day a woman came in with her son. She had purchased the car for him and it needed it's first oil change. My friend pulled the plug and he thought the amount of oil that came out was rather small. He filled it and when the boy started the car he said "Hey, something is wrong here - The oil light is off!!". My friend said the woman got rather upset with her son.

That was obviously before the days of electric fuel pumps which (for most cars) will not run if there is no oil pressure.

Bet the bearings are shot too, Id kick the kids ass for not checking the oil. But ill bet he knew the strero worked ok.

What does an electric fuel pump have to do with it? Most electric fuel pumps will keep pumping right up until the engine grenades. I can't think of any car or PU built in the last 20 years that will shut a fuel pump down because of no oil pressure. Bob

Maybe that was just back in that era. I remember vehicles back then an before that got power for their fuel pumps through the oil pressure switch. Now they may only have roll over switches. At the time I thought it was a pretty good idea. I know of at least one case where it saved an engine. A girl told her father she could not keep the engine running. He asked if the oil light was on and she said it was. He told her to put in some oil. During start the pressure switch was bypassed by the starter solenoid. It filled up the bowl in the carburetor at start.

Every Chevy and GMC truck made since 1987 has this feature. If the pressure drops below 4 PSI the fuel pump shuts off. There are quite a few other vehicles that are like this... I just am not familliar with which ones.

-Tony

if you look at the schematic, the oil pressure switch is just a backup for the fuel pump relay. as long as the relay is functioning, the OP switch is basically bypassed.

-Bret

Well.... no they don't, at least not if the fuel pump relay is working right. That fuel circuit through the oil sender is a backup circuit in case the relay fails. Bob

If that's really the case you should take in for repairs 'cause it's broke Bob

So that explains how it is done now. I remember 1975 cars that ran power for the pump though the oil pressure switch.

Not necessarily. I remember distinctly that the 1975 Starfire and the Vega engines had the power run through the oil pressure switch. The pump also got power from the starter solenoid.

It's a safety thing. If the engine stops or vehicle rolls over you want the pump to stop. The line might have broken and be feeding a fire. The oil pressure switch was one way to perform that function, at least on some vehicles.

You are right about the Starfires and Vegas, but that has nothing to do with an 85 Camero or anything else built in the last 20 years. Bob