Checked and topped off the oil 2 weeks ago because of a small leak and kept looking at the oil gauge.
This morning wife tries to run the truck. After 5 minutes it started running rough - almost no power and RPM gauge all over the place. I get there and there is no oil on the dipstick (?!) I fill it with oil and drive it home 3 miles no problem except an occasional roughness. I check the oil at home and it is dark like it hasn’t been changed but not milky. Car idles great but undrivable under load. A little white smoke out of the exhaust and some liquid drips but it was so cold last night I thought it was condensation - certainly no big puffs of smoke/steam. Oil reads just over 20lb but with that much oil it usually 40lb.
It’s going into the shop tomorrow but I’m trying to get an idea of what it may be. I’m hoping it is the BCM that needs replaced anyways but I’m worried it is a HG.
My wikipedia query about the BCM reveals that it controls accessories, with no mention of the power plant. What’s your hypothesis that would have a bad BCM render the car undriveable?
Sounds like a jumped timing chain (or belt), or ignition problems (e.g. - crank angle sensor)
But, running the engine out of oil didn’t do it any favors…
The oil is whats throwing me. It lost 4 quarts in a little over a week. Plus it doesn’t seem to be mixing oil with coolant. I’ll look up the timing chain and ignition online see if the symptoms match.
BCM = body control module and typically controls various ‘in cab’ functions and lights, alarms and other accessories. So not that.
blown head hasket - typically the head gasket interfaces cylinder (i.e. compression) with coolant system. Not sure how this would affect oil consumption but it may cause your machine to run rough. You might see an *increase *in oil level as coolant enters oil and dilutes it down, but not the other way around.
that amount of loss of oil is bad news. bad, bad news. Where could that much oil go? Assuming it didn’t go onto the ground, it could’ve passed into the cylinder and been burnt during combustion - or perhaps it has passed your main seal into the transmission - do you have a manual or auto, and can you check to see if some of the oil went there? But still, loss of the whole sump into the transmission doesn’t seem likely.
you can do a cheap pressure test on your cooling system at any mechanic to see if blown head gasket is likely. another old school method test is to open the radiator cap and crank the engine, whilst not having it start. we used to remove the leads from the distributor to prevent ignition, but maybe you can pull leads off a spark plug or another method. If you see a pumping, bubbling or other signs that pressure from compression is leaking into the coolant system that might indicate a cooked head gasket.
I think your engine went into “Limp Mode”, usually they run rich, to keep the engine running in order to get you home. You could pull spark plugs to see if one or more is steam cleaned or fouled.
It should be attached to the valve cover via a vaccuum hose. Gently pull it loose.
If it DOESN’T rattle, the vapors and even liquid oil could be sucked into the intake.
You MAY alleviate the problem by letting the valve suck up some gas: hust dribble a tablespoon full of gas into the pcv valve to dissolve whatever crud is holding the floodgates open.
It was a crankshaft position sensor.
HOWEVER
The car has had an oil leak fr sometime but apparently got worse over the last couple of weeks? The engine runs great now but there is no oil pressure even after the mechanic made sure it was topped off. It was at 20 psi just yesterday when we dropped it off. Any ideas as to what’s wrong now? Next week they are going to drop the oil pan and see what the problem is and he said he would check out the rods.