TWeatherford
Full Access Member
Well I made my 1500 mile trip to Colorado all right, mostly. Truck did fine, lucky mod is still holding strong and everything went pretty well. I really didn’t slow down too much until I hit Cheyenne, before that I maybe hit fourth on just a few hills but mostly left cruise on at 70. Burned a good 150 gallons of vegetable oil. After Cheyenne and especially heading south into Colorado I really had to keep out of the throttle or I’d just roll the black smoke. Clogged a fuel filter somewhere around the Colorado line and that was no fun, talk about no power.
Well I got the horse I was hauling dropped off, and headed the 20 or so miles to the ranch I’m working and living on for the summer. Coming down a dirt road there I noticed my oil pressure gauge was going haywire. I don’t have a mechanical oil pressure gauge, lesson learned, everythings going to be mechanical from now on. Well since it was a bumpy road I wasn’t sure the gauge wasn’t just losing ground or something, and the oil was full (I had just checked it, and it never has burned or leaked any). I did notice that the pressure would go down to basically nothing with higher rpms, anything about 1500 or so. I was in the middle of literally nowhere with no cell service, so I kept going a few miles until I saw whitish maybe bluish smoke coming out the tailpipe, and pretty sure I started hearing lifters clicking. So I shut her off and managed to flag someone down to borrow a cellphone that worked, got towed the last 20 miles of my 27 hour journey.
I did not burn any oil, nor did I gain any (no coolant or diesel in it that I can tell). No oil in the coolant that I can see either. I pulled the valve covers off today. Pulled, pushed, and wiggled on all the rods and springs and I can’t see anything wrong. I figure probably a compression check is in order. I don’t know much about this particular motor, it’s a 1991 motor in my 1994 truck, and had zero SCA in it when I bought it. Its started and run pretty good for me though, but I’m not willing to dump a lot of money into parts and labor on something that could be a hairline away from a pinhole in a cylinder wall. Maybe there’s a C, or a Detroit, in my future if I can find a decent priced donor truck.
Anything special I should look for? Any idea what happened? I still love the truck, I’ll be keeping it whether I save this motor or put a used IDI or something else in, no doubt about that.
Well I got the horse I was hauling dropped off, and headed the 20 or so miles to the ranch I’m working and living on for the summer. Coming down a dirt road there I noticed my oil pressure gauge was going haywire. I don’t have a mechanical oil pressure gauge, lesson learned, everythings going to be mechanical from now on. Well since it was a bumpy road I wasn’t sure the gauge wasn’t just losing ground or something, and the oil was full (I had just checked it, and it never has burned or leaked any). I did notice that the pressure would go down to basically nothing with higher rpms, anything about 1500 or so. I was in the middle of literally nowhere with no cell service, so I kept going a few miles until I saw whitish maybe bluish smoke coming out the tailpipe, and pretty sure I started hearing lifters clicking. So I shut her off and managed to flag someone down to borrow a cellphone that worked, got towed the last 20 miles of my 27 hour journey.
I did not burn any oil, nor did I gain any (no coolant or diesel in it that I can tell). No oil in the coolant that I can see either. I pulled the valve covers off today. Pulled, pushed, and wiggled on all the rods and springs and I can’t see anything wrong. I figure probably a compression check is in order. I don’t know much about this particular motor, it’s a 1991 motor in my 1994 truck, and had zero SCA in it when I bought it. Its started and run pretty good for me though, but I’m not willing to dump a lot of money into parts and labor on something that could be a hairline away from a pinhole in a cylinder wall. Maybe there’s a C, or a Detroit, in my future if I can find a decent priced donor truck.
Anything special I should look for? Any idea what happened? I still love the truck, I’ll be keeping it whether I save this motor or put a used IDI or something else in, no doubt about that.