O/T 1989 Dodge W250 w/360

[jeff campbell]

many years ago i worked at a truckstop,was my 1st job as a kid,fuel jockey.filling up diesel trucks.well my boss had a 70's F-250 4WD,which was the plow truck for the TS.had prolly 200K miles on it.about once a month he wud have me chance his oil,cause this motor was ruff.before changing the oil,he would have me drain the old oil,an put in 5-6 Qts., of D.fuel.,run it 15-20 seconds,shut it down an fill it w/new oil.this went on for a year.heck it never knocked.when i left,i gues it may have had 300K miles?BUT back to youre deal,if you let it run for 5-10 minutes ? yeah,you prolly did spin a bearing?know what you gotta do NOW!jeff,good luck.

[Dennis Bernth]

I'm going to go against the grain here a little bit and say change the oil (it's an older truck, so you can get by with something like 10w-40 or 15w-40) and cross your fingers. Before I'd dump money into bearings and dropping the pan, I'd drop $15 for an oil change and see if it needs it or not. And the little bit heavier oil might be all you need to make it sound better again.

[abinder]

I am in agreeance totally------------------if its knocking I don't feel anything can be done in frame to help it.a good old dose of rottella 15-40 in a warmer state than alaska would be in order so it could go away to a new place ----------------------IF it isn't totally junk now

[TheScoutMaster]

Thanks for all the replies. This vehicle was bought years ago from a guy who bought it from a govt auction - used to be a rangers truck. It was painted etc. and in good condition with low, low miles. I know when I called the forestry to confirm the mileage they said yes, the miles are actual as they (used to) sell their vehicles before 50K miles. Anyways, years ago I changed the oil out with Slick 50 - now I am reading that Slick 50 actually causes oil pump clogging.. hmmmm...

When I bought it years ago, pretty much since then I have been restoring it and drove it very little, as in maybe down the driveway a few times - thus some of my issues with the rig after sitting so long....

Before starting it up this time I changed the oil. So this weekend I'm doing small things around the yard and decide to dump the oil that had been in the vehicle since I bought it. I notice COPPER babbitt at the bottom, one was a nice size. Hells bells... I plan on pulling the pan and replacing the mains, rod bearings and oil pump. I'm not going to tear into the cam or engine too deep, this 360 is a beast and its literally packed into the engine bay. I just want the headache gone.

Should I pull the bearings and check size and crank condition before ordering new ones? I was basically going to order standard bearings and have them on hand while I do the job, but maybe I should wait. Also, if the crank journal is not bad, how could I go about cleaning it up without pulling the crank? Like I said, I am not pulling the damn engine apart. Any thoughts welcome. Thanks!

[fredsterra]

Originally Posted by Dennis Bernth

I'm going to go against the grain here a little bit and say change the oil (it's an older truck, so you can get by with something like 10w-40 or 15w-40) and cross your fingers. Before I'd dump money into bearings and dropping the pan, I'd drop $15 for an oil change and see if it needs it or not. And the little bit heavier oil might be all you need to make it sound better again.

Ditto: Change the oil and filter with 15W40 and add a quart of Lucas.

I lost the oil pump on a 92 F150/302 and thinking it was the switch I drove it about 10 miles. Until the lifters started knocking. I replaced the oil pump and ran it with 15w40 and Lucas for another 20k miles.

This truck had over 200k miles and a reman engine would not have helped the value.

[Dennis Bernth]

First, I doubt the Slick 50 did anything to hurt the engine. The 'old' formula Slick 50 was supposedly much better than the 'new' stuff now that was bought out by Quaker State. I know years back I used it in two vehicles (a Mercury Topaz and a Ford F150) that both tended to run hot. The car was my wife's, the truck was my dad's, and in both cases after about 45 minutes of driving with the Slick 50 in the engine the temp gauge came down and stayed down. Both engines ran in the 'normal' range for as long as we owned them or the engine lasted (wife hydrolocked the Topaz, week later the engine blew, but that wasn't Slick 50's fault ) so I have nothing bad to say about the old formula at least.
It's more likely the engine suffered having the same oil in it for years and only being started and driven a little bit. When the engine doesn't run long enough to boil off the water vapor that naturally forms in the crankcase (and which is made worse by running it only a few minutes at a time), acid forms in the oil and that will attack the bearings. I think I'd still just do the oil change, see how it runs, what kind of oil pressure it has, and go from there. If it's 'acceptable' then send it down the road and use the time you'd spend fixing it on your IH.

[Afireinside2285]

Originally Posted by Dennis Bernth

I'm going to go against the grain here a little bit and say change the oil (it's an older truck, so you can get by with something like 10w-40 or 15w-40) and cross your fingers. Before I'd dump money into bearings and dropping the pan, I'd drop $15 for an oil change and see if it needs it or not. And the little bit heavier oil might be all you need to make it sound better again.

Im with dennis on this. Plus what do you have to lose?
Good luck

[TheScoutMaster]

Thanks. I pulled the pan and each rod and main bearing, all of them looked brand new (very little wear). Re-tightened to spec. I noticed about an inch of thick slug at the bottom of the pan. Very gritty but it crumbled when I rubbed it in-between my fingers. Cleaned out pan. I noticed that the oil pump did not have an o ring or gasket at the base. It does look like someone may have pulled the pan a long time ago as two bolts were not factory - and this is the first time I have pulled it. I did not see any more copper in the oil when I drained it. So this is weird. Good mains and rods but a knock noise???? Maybe the slug (it was VERY THICK had to scrap it out) was not allowing the pump to pump at full capacity? It still does not explain the copper babbitt unless it is the cam, which I am not pulling. I plan on getting a high volume oil pump, new rear seal (half seal type) and new pan seal, and thicker oil, with some Lucas. Any other ideas or thoughts about the knocking???? Thanks!!!

[J.D.Oldham]

I wouldn't use the high volume pump. They don't need more volume on MOPAR engines, more pressure if you think you need it. The H.V. pumps just put more load on the engine than is needed. They wont flow but so much oil to the eng. block, the rest is dumped back in the pan by the oil pickup (foams up the oil). It could also fill the upper end with oil and suck the pan dry.

[Dennis Bernth]

Check the intake screen on the oil pump. I had a 318 in a Dodge pickup, same vintage as yours, and I gained about 10 psi oil pressure by cleaning out all of the small rubber pieces from the valve stem seals that had collected under the sheet metal 'half shield' over the screen. I used a small screwdriver to carefully dig the stuff out, I was shocked how much difference it made but that crap was making it so it was only able to pull oil from half the surface area as it should. I would not put in a new oil pump, I'd clean the screen, make sure the tube is sealed up, and put it back together. I'm not clear if you tried just changing oil in it before you dropped the pan and still had the noise, or if you haven't run it since you drained out the 'bad' oil.