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Oil pressure loss/Power loss

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Zombilly, Jul 12, 2010.

  1. Zombilly
    Joined: Sep 5, 2006
    Posts: 351

    Zombilly
    Member

    I have a 1962 Dodge Custom 880 with the stock 361ci V8. Last week while I was driving the car it would die on me. Sometimes just for a couple of seconds other times till I let the car sit for a minute or two. It has a mechanical pump, filter seems fine and it happens in both day times and night times. At slow speeds and at fast speeds. When it happens I still have electricity to the rest of the car, and if I turn the ignition to the off position and then back to the on I will get a backfire. I'm adding this information because it seems to me if I wasn't getting juice and fuel to the motor that there would be a backfire over and over. This week I start the car up from sitting from the night before and the oil light comes on. It looks kind of dim so I start to drive to see if it would go away once the pressure has a chance to build up. After about 1/4 mile the light was still on so I stopped the car and checked the oil and it was really low, about 3 qts low with a 4 qt crankcase capacity. So I pulled over and put in the two quarts that I had and started her back up. But the light stays on. Now before when the light has come on from low oil pressure there were times when the car had to be turned on and off a time or two before the light would go off. So being late for work now I drove it cautiously to work which is about 15-20 minutes away. Once I got to work I notice some chatter from the top end. It wasn't pinging, it sounded more like the valve covers were off. But what was worse was I had very little power. Well, my question was going to be could a lack of oil heated up the engine to a point where the valves weren't opening and closing completely and therefore causing the loss of power? And if so, besides fixing the oil pressure problem is there something I can do to get the valves to move freely? But as I'm writing this I wonder if I could have burned a valve. Plus, do you see any connection to the intermittently power loss that I mentioned at first and this issue?

    Thanks for your help.
    Zombilly
     
  2. mart3406
    Joined: May 31, 2009
    Posts: 3,055

    mart3406
    Member
    from Canada

    'Back in the day', there was an old mechanics' adage that said
    - "Grease is cheaper than parts". It sounds like running your
    engine out of oil, has - *at the very least* - chewed up the cam
    and lifters - hence the valve train noise and lack of power. But I
    wouldn't plan on *just* replacing those as a fix either, because
    if you tear it apart, I'm pretty sure you'll find the rest of the engine
    has now deteriorated to 'hand grenade' status too. Sound's like it's
    time for either a complete rebuild or a replacement engine.
    Now, what was that old adage again......?????

    Mart4506
    =============================================
     
  3. RPM
    Joined: Feb 5, 2005
    Posts: 204

    RPM
    Member

    Sounds like you have seized some internal parts of the motor, to a point where it stopped running. After it cooled completely down and you filled it with oil what did it do then?
     
  4. time for a rebuild my friend, engines don't like to run without oil pressure. You have probably spun a rod bearing, galled the rockers and shafts and wiped a couple cam lobes.

    At this point I would look for a good used or rebuildable 383-400-413-440 to put in place of the 361.
     

  5. Zombilly
    Joined: Sep 5, 2006
    Posts: 351

    Zombilly
    Member

    Well I drove only a min. or two before I added oil. So from a cold start to just two minutes. Then After I added the oil I proceded to drive it for 20 mins. which is why I thought it was the oil pump. The car starts up fine and idiles fine but only has about 40% of the power that it had 10 or 15 mins. before.

    ZomBilly
     
  6. Slow55
    Joined: Sep 20, 2009
    Posts: 112

    Slow55
    Member

    Have you done a cylinder compression check?
     

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