Ran without oil pressure

[Fishing56]

Ok, have had this old motorhome for many years. It has a Dodge 440 under the hatch. Was headed out on a trip and after just a short while, I felt a vibration and starting hearing valve/tappet noise. Looked at oil pressure and ZERO.

Plenty of oil in engine, but no pressure. What to do? Motor home is old, not rich at the moment. So, I had 4 extra quarts of oil which I dumped into motor. Made it home with still lots of tappet noise (@30mph).

Determined oil pump had seized on small piece of metal and also sheared the oil drive shaft. Fixed it all. After new oil and filter, engine fired up with no tappet noise, good oil pressure, no smoking and no loss of power.

I was pleasantly surprised. Just finished a 275 mile trip with her and am typing this up.

Anybody else have similar results. I am thinking this wouldn't work on modern engines.

Thanks for listening,

Fishing56

 

[MTboatguy]

Re: Ran without oil pressure

You should be fine, them old Chrysler motors are almost bullet proof, I remember watching King Richard at one of his races, where he said he ran his car the last 10 laps with no oil pressure and still won, when they tore the motor down after the race, the said they notice no more than normal wear..

If she keeps firing up and you have oil pressure, then I would keep on using it, just keep some extra oil with you in case you bruised the main bearings.

 

[royal0014]

Re: Ran without oil pressure

Could not get away with that on newer engines.

Drive it like 'ya stole it


<<)))(((>>

 

[jeeperman]

Re: Ran without oil pressure

You should be fine, them old Chrysler motors are almost bullet proof, I remember watching King Richard at one of his races, where he said he ran his car the last 10 laps with no oil pressure and still won, when they tore the motor down after the race, the said they notice no more than normal wear..

LOL, so was this before or after his STP (oil treatment) sponsorship deal?

That 440 was probaly "saved" by the built up gunk and vanish on the wear surfaces!.

 

[MTboatguy]

Re: Ran without oil pressure

Well it was back in the 60's Jeeperman, there are some of us old Nascar Fans still hanging around, we remember what "Real Racing" was all about!

LOL

 

[windsors03cobra]

Re: Ran without oil pressure

Tough ole motor thats for damn sure.
You wont beat an old cast iron V8 for toughness, especially a big block.

 

[Fishing56]

Re: Ran without oil pressure

Daw gone it. Think its too late to slip in some STP after the fact. I was using a fram oil filter and have had some people tell me that was what disentegrated.

 

[windsors03cobra]

Re: Ran without oil pressure

Its a fact fram filters are junk, I heard people buy them cause of the pretty orange paint and the grippy on the end.
In general I avoid anything made by AlliedSignal in general if I can.
Allied signal, Frams parent company also produces "low production, low profit" autolite copper spark plugs in China for some time now. I switched to Champs and havent looked back.

When you crank it up does it crank over normal speed and sound just like it did before ? If so, amazing.

 

[Mntom]

Re: Ran without oil pressure

I had something similar happen to a 1979 F-150 with the 302 (5L). It had enough miles on it that something got into the oil pump and it sheared off the drive shaft for it. I was sitting at a stop light in a lot of traffic. The light turned green and I ended up in a restaurant parking lot before I could shut it down. It ran for about 3 minutes with no oil flowing. I fixed it and it did it again so I put a piece of screen around the oil pump and drove it for another year!

 

[Fishing56]

Re: Ran without oil pressure

It cranks up normal speed, no unusual sounds etc. When driving this motorhome, I never listen to a radio or anything. My ears are always listening for something out of the normal. Has saved me many times. On this instance my wife said maybe it was only the oil gauge. Told her no, listen - that is the sound of no oil on top of the engine.

A trained ear can go a long way to the diagnosis.

 

[642mx]

Re: Ran without oil pressure

I am thinking this wouldn't work on modern engines.

Probably not. Newer engines run tighter tolerances, are more efficient, and make more power per cubic inch.... they need oil, thin oil and lots of it.

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: Ran without oil pressure

Probably not. Newer engines run tighter tolerances, are more efficient, and make more power per cubic inch.... they need oil, thin oil and lots of it.

I agree but.....I have seen synthetic last quite awhile on newer motors with oil pressure issues. Would be interesting at least. As For Richard Petty and the 440 I don't think it would have mattered if the motor siezed or not you can bet he would have gotten out and pushed!

 

[bigdee]

Re: Ran without oil pressure

Ahh.....in the old days,when we heard the tappets that was when we knew it was time to add oil!!

 

[j_martin]

Re: Ran without oil pressure

I have a well abused (out of oil, beat by kids, etc) 88 Dakota with a 3.9 in it. Lifter started sticking on cold start. Changed the oil, click came back in a week. Added a quart of dexron and idled it for 10 minutes to clean it out. changed oil to synthetic.

Lifter click is gone, but now I can hear every durned wrist pin singing a bit.

I wonder how long it'll last without the gunk and varnish.