Have a 94 ranger with 3.0 V6. The truck has like 150,000 miles on it. The problem is after driving for around 20 minutes or so on the freeway the oil pressure gauge will rise somewhat and the engine will smoke after this happens. You will also hear like a clicking noise from the engine for a short period of time. What could be causing this problem? Also, after running the engine for several minutes then shutting it off you can check the oil level and it will be around a half quart above the full mark. I'm confused!

Larry

 

A couple of questions. Does the oil level start off at the full mark prior to starting and running the engine? Does it return back to the full mark after running the engine and letting cool down? Where does the engine smoke from and what color is the smoke? Have you changed the oil and oil filter recently?

 

If it's not a flaky gauge, and it doesn't sound like one, then you might consider an oil pump problem (there was a recent thread on an oil pump problem in the area where it drives the distributer), or maybe a problem with the oil pump pickup tube screen being clogged, something like that.

 

The oil level starts of at the full level. But not sure what color the smoke is coming from the exhaust. The oil, oil filter, and pcv valve have been replaced.

 

Are you losing any coolant? Maybe coolant is getting into the oil causing the level to go up. If you have white smoke coming out of the exhaust, that would indicate coolant getting into a cylinder.

 

Does your oil have a fuel smell to it? Could your fuel pressure regulator's diaphram be leaking fuel into the engine through the vacuum line?

Just a thought.

Ron

 

Sounds similar to the problem I was having. BE CAREFUL!!! The 3.0 will continue to run even if you have ZERO oil pressure. The gear that drives the oil pump also drives the camshaft position sensor(CPS). Before distributor-less ignition, the CPS is where the distributor was located. If the gear failed, so did the distributor and the engine would die safely. With distributor-less ignition on the 3.0 the distributor is now a computer and gets its timing input from the sensor on the crankshaft. The CPS is used for timing to fuel system not the ignition. So if the drive gear fails, so does the oil pump and the engine chews itself to bits. The CPS is a common failure on the 3.0. It actually falls apart and jams the CPS and grinds down the drive gear which will cause the oil pump to fail. I now religiously check the CPS, every oil change. I also put a cut off switch in if there is no oil pressure. I believe this is a serious engineering flaw and should be recalled.

 

Bankshot: How do you check the cps, and where did you wire in the pressure switch?