I think the time has come for my 3 litre V6. The vehicle was sitting for close to two years, and I finally did some work to it and got it road-worthy. In fact, I've had well over 100 trouble free miles (not much...LOL) since getting it back on the road. So today, I added my 16 year old son to the insurance.

His first drive has ended badly. The oil pressure light came on and despite me telling him if that ever happened, to stop IMMEDIATLY and shut the engine off, he continued on for about 2 more miles until the engine decided to stop on its own. When I got there, I turned the key and it's locked up solid.

Oddly, the engine is still full of oil, so I don't know what the actual problem is. I know on the older Ford smallblocks (such as the 289) and the big blocks (390, 428 etc) there's a skinny hex shaped oil pump drive shaft, but if they broke, the distributor would stop turning, and the engine would stop from lack of ignition.

I'm thinking maybe the oil filter gave out and plugged something up, or maybe the oil pump pickup fell off.

I'm thinking of getting a used engine for it, but changing it won't be easy. With the engine seized up, it won't rotate, so unbolting the flexplate bolts sounds impossible.

Tomorrow, I'll take the sparkplugs out and squirt some oil, or maybe WD40 down the cylinders and try a breaker bar and socket on the crank. It may not be too badly seized as he was off the gas and about to make a turn when it stopped running.

Although it's almost a sure thing the engine is toast, I'm still curious. Anyone know what can let go inside a 3.0 litre OHV (the Vulcan engine I think) that can cause a loss of oil pressure when the pan is still full?

Any other thoughts (yes, I know I'm asking for it......)

Thank-you. <!--IBF.ATTACHMENT_790370-->

 

You will find the camshaft synchronizer is toast. It is in the same location a distributer would be and is responsible for turning the oil pump. Was there a chirping sound like a belt that also sounds like a bird when it was running?

 

I wasn't in the car, but no noises were reported. ONly thing I can't figure out is how the engine keeps running. If the synchronizer doesn't turn, the PCM won't get signals for the ignition and fuel injectors, I would think the engine would stop.

I did hear that the signals from a flywheel sensor do most of this work for the PCM. If that's teh case, I can see it continue to run.

I have managed to get the crank to turn. There is no "play" in either direction, but I can use the starter to bump it a tiny bit. I marked the accessory belt and managed about 4 inches of movement with about 20 "clucnks" from the starter.

Sounds like main bearings to me, and with a damaged crank, it's probably more cost effective to find a decent junkyard engine...."decent" being the key word...LOL.

Thank-you for your reply. I do intend to do an "auto-topsy" (hehe....a pun!) as I'd like to see the damage and confirm the original fault of low oil pressure.

Ps: with the pan still full of oil (so pistons/rings should have still had splash lubrication), it did occur to me to fix the fault, replace the main and rod bearings and see if it would run. I bet it would, but with lots of smoke and noise, and I'll bet the valves and guides arn't in a happy state any more..

 

I've heard of them running for as long as 5 miles but they all die in the end. The camshaft sensor would have thrown a code but it would have kept on trucking as it relies more on the crankshaft sensor.

 

OK...that makes sense. I did check and no codes, although I"m not sure if that code comes up immediately, or after a few drive cycles.

 

Give this thread a read...it's long but informative...

Cam Syncro Problem?

 

Thanks....I'm reading it now. So far everyone is blaming Ford, but no-one has mentioned the oil warning light. As far as cam concerned, if you stop the moment the light comes on, it is very unlikely that engine damage will result.

I sheared the dist drive gear in my 428 once. Since the dist stopped turning, the engine immediatly died. Installed my spare distributor on the side of the road and everything was fine...luckily I was only about 3/4 of a mile from home and walked there and back to get the spare distributor.

Thanks again. I apperciate your comments and the link.