Was hoping to get some opinions on my truck.
I was driving down interstate when oil pressure gauge went to zero. Got it towed to mechanic. He said he hooked it up to a oil pressure gauge and it was reading about 15psi. He says the motor needs to be replaced. I think he said something about cam tensioner and lower crank shaft bearings being bad. Truck has 120,000 miles on it. I just started it in driveway and it seems to run fine. It's got the normal tick, but doesn't shake bad or anything. When it get's warmed up I think the oil pressure drops. I don't know if something is getting plugged or the motor really needs replaced. After it warmed up a bit i heard a weird noise. Not sure if it's related to motor, almost sounded like a pully, was a constant scratching noise or something, kinda weird. No check engine light is on or anything. Towing fees are ridiculous here and closest shop is about 20 miles. I don't really want to put a new motor in it if I don't need to. Anyone else had similar problem or does replacing motor sound right?

 

Do some searching on this forum. Lots of information relative to your problem. I'm wondering if possibly your oil pump screen is obstructed. I had my oil pressure tested a few months back. I had 22 at cold idle and 59 at warm high idle. I forget exactly what the specs are but mine was pretty darn good for 240K. I'm sure you could google the specs. I also remember the guy telling me the test port is best accessed when the engine is cold.

 

I'm willing to bet a timing chain tensioner (or both) have failed and that there are pieces of chain guide plastic down in the oil pan which is causing the pickup tube for the oil pump to get clogged. That's the issue I ran into on my dad's truck earlier this year. With his truck I could hear the chains rattling at around 2500rpm due to not enough tension on them to take up the slack. This was also causing a very audible rattle/sewing machine sound on startup (cold or hot). The factory oil pump that Ford used with this engine has an aluminum (I think) backing plate on it that would flex and leak oil pressure as the RPMs went up. Melling makes a good one with a steel backing plate to fix this issue.

If it is chain tensioners and guides that have failed and clogged the pickup tube, then you would need to be very concerned about how much lubrication the camshafts, followers and chasers, phasers, and everything else on the top end of the motor is getting.

If your truck is a 2WD you can drop the oil pan fairly easy to see if there are small pieces of chain guide floating around in the pan or if there are pieces in the pickup tube. You might able to have enough room to see the timing chains well enough to determine if they have any slop or if you can see bigger pieces of the chain tensioners sitting around. The other alternative is to take the valve covers off (which you will understand why the passenger side is not fun to do) and front timing cover to see what is going on in there.


This is the fun I went through. Hopefully this may help put things into perspective.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post16656364

 

@truck23222


You have received some very good advice above. I hope you do not let them convince your engine is SHOT just because some plastic chain guides disintegrated, momentarily plugged up the oil pump pickup tube and 'caveated' (created air bubbles to develop and circulate throughout the engine). VERY FEW other things can cause oil pressure to just drop out.