I drive a 1988 3.0 liter pickup with a 5sp tranny. Earlier today I put in 2 qts of oil to top off my engine since my oil pan gasket is leaking. About .5 miles down the road from where I topped it off I hard knocking sound coming from the engine and clouds of white smoke coming out of my exhaust. I immediately pulled off the road to see what was wrong. I couldn't see anything so I started the car again and revved it in neutral. It burned a little oil when it started, but there was no knocking and no smoke pouring out of the exhaust. I decided to try and nurse it back to school. I shifted around 1800 for every gear until I hit fourth. As long as I wasn't heavy on the gas very little smoke came out, but as soon as I went uphill and stepped on the gas the same problem started happening, so I pulled it off the road and called a friend to pick me up. Does anyone have any ideas on what is wrong with my truck? I'm gonna have it towed to a shop tomorrow, but I'd like to get an idea of what I'm getting into in terms of price. Thanks.

 

Depends on if you do it yourself. Even that can be expensive. Check compression to see if you can isolate a cylinder. The fact that it makes no noise except when under load... maybe a broken ring, or a valve not working right.

Has the oil ever been allowed to drop too low (given that you have a leak)?

Has the engine been allowed to overheat? Is it overheating now?

 

I have never let it overheat, but the oil has been low twice, when I first noticed it was leaking.

 

How low? Off the stick, so for some period it was unknown? How many quarts did you have to add to get it up to the right level?

Just wanting to know if you might have had bearing damage because of oil level being below a minimum level, as opposed to, say, a quart and a half low, which would still be on the stick.

In any event, the key at this point is sorting out the problem(s) before commiting to an expensive repair.

I once had what appeared to be a catastrophic problem on my 22rec. I traced it to cylinder 2. That engine is easier to work on, so I pulled the valve cover and could see the problem.. a broken valve spring. This I fixed for next to nothing... many thousands of miles ago... still running great.

Not that this is any relation to your problem... but the place to put your time and money now, is pinpointing the likely failure.

Good luck. Not sure why no one else has weighed in here, as there are lots of real experts around... on this board.

 

It has only been off the stick once, and I filled it back up with about 3.75qts. I do appreciate your help, I'm about to get it towed to a garage so they can look at it.

 

Your vehicle takes 4.8qts with filter. This means you had about a quart in your system. I'd guess that quart could easily be in circulation.. until the pickup in the pan doesn't see any oil. Pressure would drop to zero... which you should have noticed on the oil pressure gauge.

This could be an expensive lesson. I hope I'm wrong. Nobody needs that.

If this is what happened, I'd consider replacing the engine (as lots of others have done on this forum), if the rest of the vehicle is in good shape.

Again... good luck, and let us know what you find.

 

I will have to agree with rdharper and unfortunately its going to be expensive. most likely you broke a ring at minimum which involves an almost complete teardown and if your going that far might as well do the whole thing. Maybe consider a Japenese motor they have to change them out at around 60k.

 

I went to shop today and they told me that the best option would be to drop a rebuilt into it. The guy was real nice and understanding, and said he would shop around, and could probably get one for around 1600. I decided to do that since I really need my truck, and parting it out and buying a new truck would take too much time. Thanks again for all you guys help.

 

you can probably find one cheaper than that yourself. do some research and call around..