Oil pump

[tydaug]

I put a Mechanical oil pressure gauge in. When I start the engine, it goes up to 40-45 psi. once engine gets warm and idles it goes down to around 5 or 10. When i rev the engine to 3000 rpm's, pressure slooowly rises to 40 again. There's a lot of noise, mainly ticking, coming from the top end. think it's time for a new pump or screen or what?

[djadjective]

I know that the book says the proper oil pressure should be between 40-60 psi at 2,000 RPM. My oil pump is 2 years old, and it runs at 50 PSI at start up and then around 20 once it heats up. If you're getting top end noise, after the engine is warm, then you are probably not getting enough oil circulated. If I was gonna replace the screen, I would probably just replace the pump since I already dropped the pan.

[B2FunFarm]

If you are not the original owner it is hard to tell how long between oil changes and what oils where used. Had the same problem on my 89 Ford ranger about 8 yrs ago and on a number of rangers since then. My family owns a small sized Ford Ranger salvage yard and truck lot and we have ran across almost every problem out there. We have bought around 350 Rangers and B2 in the past 10 yrs and sold about 2/3 of then on our car lot. But to answer you question this is your most common problem, your oil sump screen in clogged with oild globby oil. When the truck is shut off oil slowly seeps into the sump and pickup tube. Upon start up you will get perfect oil pressure to the engine but once you rev the motor up above idle it sucks all the oil out of the sump and pickup tube and can not get oil threw the sump screen fast enought to keep up /or catch up to the oil needed to properly lube the engine. I few different options can be done to try to cure the problem pryor to the bigger job of pulling the pan and replaceing the sump and pump. Option 1: drain all oil from pan, flush a qrt of deisel fuel threw the engine to remove and honey like or globby oil. put the drain plug back on the pan then put 1 Gallon of diesel fuel in. Let it sit over night to soak , remove oil drain plug and drain diesel. Watch to see if any globbs of oil come out with the diesel, it is very important NOT TO START the motor with diesel in it. Flush engine with 1 QRT oil, replace drain plug, put in new oil to properly fill engine. If it fixes the problem you need to change the oil again in a about 1 tank of gas to remove any left over diesel. If does not fix here is Option 2: A little more tricky and you will need a windshield washer bump, 8-10 ft of wires and a few feet of small rubber hose. OK drain oil, pour a little diesel into a plastic bowl. take the windshild washer pump and attach the hose to the outlet tube , attach the leads off the wires to the washer pump and to your battery makeing sure to have good connections to prevent sparks, drop the pump into the bowl of diesel fuel and stick the rubber hose into the drain pulg hole and move it around inside the pan for a while or untill you have located the sump. Try your best to clean the sump screen off by running diesel threw the hose. This may take a little while and when you think it is probably clean enough keep cleaning and flushing oil pan. After a long time doing this then rinse out the pan with the rubber hose with diesel. Replace drain plug and fill oil. To save your diesel place the bowl under the drain hole so you recycle the diesel and don't just wast it on one shot. Again if this fixes the problem change oil after about one tank of gas Option 3: Replace the sump and the pump. Option 1 and 2 are try at your own risk. We have never had any problems out of these options but again there is a first time for anything. We have done option 1 a number of times with an 80% victory. Option 2 is a last ditch effort after option one has loosened the oil deposits and has had about a 30-40% victory. Option 3 has had 95-99% victory Hope this helps and let us know how it works for you.

[Ranger Dave]

i dont think diesel fuel would of helped here. and it never ticked. i put new rod/main bearings and oil pump in it and it ran sweet

[tydaug]

pour diesel fuel in my engine? WTF? lol I'd have to see it be done. Sounds crazy. The motor ticks pretty bad on the top end after driving 40 miles down the expressway at 70 mph. When I'm offroad it doesn't tick at all.

[Rockcrawler]

probably your hydrolic lifters. i switched over to syenthtic oil on one of my 2.9's and it killed a lifter. you have to pull the heads to change the lifters. For you top ticking noise. Not sure about oil pressure. normally when you get low oil pressure its because there is alot of blow by on your bearings being worn out. I would try a thicker oil as a cheap fix.

[B2FunFarm]

I have seen oil slim pretty bad but that was BAD. Yeah diesel fuel won't fix that. Deisel fuel will not fix all problems and is not also the best way but it sometimes is the best way if the problem is cought fast enough.. It is really hard to pin point the problem over the forums and it could be any of the problems the other members are talking about. I just thought you might try this before you spend a lot of money rebuilding a 2.9.

[neb_scot]

I put a Mechanical oil pressure gauge in. When I start the engine, it goes up to 40-45 psi. once engine gets warm and idles it goes down to around 5 or 10. When i rev the engine to 3000 rpm's, pressure slooowly rises to 40 again. There's a lot of noise, mainly ticking, coming from the top end. think it's time for a new pump or screen or what?

I have almost the exact same situation here - external mechanical gauge that starts around 50, except drops almost to 0 - though not completely - when it warms to proper sunning temp. The is no noticeable noise difference though.

The things is, for whatever reason, I was convinced by the "mechanic" in walmart/where ever I picked up the oil - to put thinner oil in the car since it was winter. (Im a newbie to multiple oil types - so please forgive the rookie mistake) Since then, it seems as thought the oil has stopped leaking, but instead it is now "mayonaising" (dunno what you call it over here) - where the oil appears white and whipped on the dip stick. Im getting concerned becuase the car is running warmer since I put a new thermostat in - and am wondering what I should do to ensure the oil is thick enough.....

[Ranger Dave]

if your gettin milkey chit on the dip stick you might have a bad head gasket

[neb_scot]

oh gosh please no!

its a hard one to tell just now as when I changed the thermostat I had to drain the coolant. Ive had to top it up two times since then, and cannot guarantee it has been becuase of air in the system - or worryingly - the coolant is being burnt up. I guess only time will tell.

Knowing my luck with this car - I bet it is the gasket.....
Interestingly enough - since I put the thermostat in - it is running at the correct temp - at last. Ive only notice a performance increase rather than decrease - Eg being able to drive at higher speeds in 4th where as before I had to go up to 5th. Is that consistent with a blown head gasket - where the busted section is between the oil and water rather than the outside?

[Ranger Dave]

it can leak where ever really.in between cylinders,in a oil passage and even leak outside. have you changed the oil latley

[neb_scot]

Ive never changed the oil - - simply because it already had a "self empty" feature built into it

However, revelations like what you pointed out make me reconsider that.

On the other hand, if it does turn out that the head is busted, it will only spell the end of the B2 for me, sadly.

This sucks

[clem]

Neb-scot, where are you? Is it cold there? Do you do a lot of short runs? You may have some condensation in your oil. The only wsy to tell for sure is to do a compression test or leak down test. Our rigs around here get some froth in the oil during the cold season.

[neb_scot]

Im in Nebraska, and we have just come through a pretty cold winter. Its definately on is way into spring now, with the average temp above freezing...