Dude! Where's my tow truck?

[Camper_Jeff___K]

Video: Dude! Where's my tow truck?



My oil pressure light came on while I was in the new Seattle tunnel. I drove about 15 seconds to exit and my engine seized on me. Got the truck and camper home. Engine work begins tomorrow.

[Camper_Jeff___K]

towpro wrote:
interested to see what you find broke. in my 20's I had a Pontiac with a 350 cid. at the end of its life, just before scrapping it we drained the oil out, put a brick on the throttle and started the engine to see what would happen. After 15 minutes it was still screaming so I got tired of the noise and turned the key off.

I bet there was a catastrophic hard part failure like a rod big end that broke, the oil light came on when the rod cap let all the oil pressure out. but the engine seized when parts of the rod got jammed into the crank/block. Did any holes open up in block?

When I get the engine out, we'll do a little exploratory surgery to see what happened. I found no debris in the oil filter but the filter was nearly empty. It always flows oil down the sides during normal removal for oil changes. The best guess now is the tube of the oil pickup developed a crack all of a sudden and began admitting air into the pump which caused loss of suction to get oil up from the pan. If the pump simply broke, there would be oil in the filter. The reason your old engine ran for 15 minutes was probably no load on it. I was coming up a hill with a 3000 pound camper on.

[towpro]

interested to see what you find broke. in my 20's I had a Pontiac with a 350 cid. at the end of its life, just before scrapping it we drained the oil out, put a brick on the throttle and started the engine to see what would happen. After 15 minutes it was still screaming so I got tired of the noise and turned the key off.

I bet there was a catastrophic hard part failure like a rod big end that broke, the oil light came on when the rod cap let all the oil pressure out. but the engine seized when parts of the rod got jammed into the crank/block. Did any holes open up in block?

[Camper_Jeff___K]

Bob Shaw wrote:
A new or rebuilt short block may be your cheapest option.

That's what I'm getting is a long block from PowerSource. 2300.00 2-3 days delivery, no shipping $.

[Bob_Shaw]

A new or rebuilt short block may be your cheapest option.

[profdant139]

You might be headed for the shop when . . .

the light at the end of the tunnel says "check engine."

Hang in there!!

[Camper_Jeff___K]

Eric&Lisa wrote:
Did you have Archie along? How did he handle it?

Similar story... I-405, southbound, Renton going past Boeing. Right front tire went flat. Ended up in the split for exit 3. Lift camper off truck to get at spare tire lowering mechanism. Discovered the previous owner changed lug-nuts and the emergency wrench wouldn't fit. Two is one, and one is none, so I grabbed my spare tools...which promptly broke. $196 minimum charge for the tow truck driver to show up and say 'here, use my wrench'.

Our Archie (RIP) was with us, and it was a warm September Saturday. I left DW in the cab with Archie, and the A/C running. His area had to be all disturbed to get at the emergency jack. Last thing I wanted was a flat battery after running the flashers, so they watched while I worked.

In other news... Looks promising to get a new feline friend this weekend. :B Car riding & camper indoctrination will be early classes in his training.

-Eric

Archie was home with his mom. I was coming home from working on a job for two weeks. This weekend, the Fall Colors Caravan Tour was to be his first excursion in the TC. Instead I get to do The Fall Colors Engine Swap. It'll be fun except for the 3000.00 or so it'll cost with everything.

[Eric_Lisa]

Did you have Archie along? How did he handle it?

Similar story... I-405, southbound, Renton going past Boeing. Right front tire went flat. Ended up in the split for exit 3. Lift camper off truck to get at spare tire lowering mechanism. Discovered the previous owner changed lug-nuts and the emergency wrench wouldn't fit. Two is one, and one is none, so I grabbed my spare tools...which promptly broke. $196 minimum charge for the tow truck driver to show up and say 'here, use my wrench'.

Our Archie (RIP) was with us, and it was a warm September Saturday. I left DW in the cab with Archie, and the A/C running. His area had to be all disturbed to get at the emergency jack. Last thing I wanted was a flat battery after running the flashers, so they watched while I worked.

In other news... Looks promising to get a new feline friend this weekend. :B Car riding & camper indoctrination will be early classes in his training.

-Eric

[ykphil]

Not fun. This happened to us last February when we were in the middle of nowhere on a mountain road in Chiapas, by the Guatemala border. We were stuck there for six weeks, nobody could fix the truck. We were able to crawl back to Canada, but not without wasting a couple of grands in temporary fixes to keep us going. I finally got the truck fixed a few months ago, to the tune of $8K.

[JRscooby]

Before I pulled the engine down I would try to find the why/if of oil pressure drop. Last time I sent a driver on a truck OTR, I hauled the tractor about 1000 miles home to find a broken line to the oil pressure gauge. Back in early '70s, the dash of a lot of freight trucks only had 2 gauges, speed (with marks to tell you what gear to be in) and air pressure. When I asked the maintenance dept about it, he said most drivers did not watch the gauges, so did no good. And on the rare occasion a driver shut off because of a gauge, most likely it was the gauge, not engine. Does your pickup only have a light? Did the pressure drop all at once, or was it going down before the light came on?
Back in school, (1968. Lot of changes in oil and engines) we assembled 2 engines, 1 dry, 1 with a oil coating on all moving parts. Started both, ran for 10 min with no oil in pan, no coolant. The 1 with oil on everything showed no major wear when we disassembled it.

[specta]

That sucks. 😞

5.4. Be happy its not a diesel. 😉

[Grit_dog]

Truck looks like it's in great shape otherwise.
Too bad this happened, but you're handy and you know there's only 1 "right" answer here........FUMMINS!

[Kayteg1]

FYI oil lights have delay circuit who will prevent the light from coming for several seconds.
Meaning 15 seconds with the light on, very likely means 30 seconds with no oil pressure.
I still remember 1980's car where the circuit failed and I had red oil oil light coming on each corner I took.
I like to do hard cornering. 😉
Still synthetic oils do have big doze of molybdenum, who makes protective coat allowing for engine work for some time with no oil pressure, before parts start seizing.
I will wait for the report what exactly happen inside the engine.

[NRALIFR]

Cat sitter!!! You mean leave me behind?? :E

What kind of crazy talk is this??? Cats love fall colors!



:):)

[Bedlam]

Camper_Jeff_&_Kelli wrote:
We were really forward to the Fall Colors Caravan too Oct 11th.

Find a cat sitter and you can come with us.