She's bleedin' pretty bad...

[loglat]

So will bad gaskets give me such low oil pressure? And if so, is it safe to drive here and there as long as I make sure the pan is full?

[ToughOldFord]

How low is low? And are you using the stock gauge or aftermarket? If it's the stock gauge you may want to hook up, at least temporarily a mechanical gauge to get an accurate reading. Then you can determine if ti's too low to safely drive.

Low oil pressure is usually caused:

1) Fram oil filter and/or severely plugged up filter.

2) Sludge in the pickup screen.

3) Oil pump failure.

4) Worn internal engine parts.

5) Faulty oil pressure gauge sending unit.

It's probably not 4 since it happened suddenly. Probably a good chance it's 1 or 2.

But since you're leaving trails you do need to get those leaks fixed. Especially since you're leaking onto the exhaust. Last thing you need is for your truck to burn down.

[loglat]

In regards to how low low is, it usually starts just a little below halfway on the gauge... maybe 3/8ths? And stays that way most of the trip, until I slow down, and it starts reading next to nothing. Not sure what thats about, but I am using the stock gauge, so maybe something is fishy.

Also, I just changed the filter a couple weeks ago, and it's an STP... so maybe I have a sludgy pickup screen?

In other news, I pulled the flywheel inspection plate, since there was oil dripping from the little notch they make in it, and it looked... relatively dry. Sure there was some oil, but even when I cranked it up, oil dripped from AROUND where the plate goes on, not from inside. So whatever drips from there must just run down the clutch lever into the housing, or even just seep in from around the inspection plate. I expected a mess, but didn't find one. I crawled underneath with the engine running, and there was definately a lot of dripping, but i couldn't tell what the source of it was. When I shut it off, I could hear oil, but I couldn't see it. Time to buy an inspection mirror I suppose.

I guess its common for the rear of the intake manifold gasket to go bad, but why the rear? This would be a lot easier to diagnose if it was leaking out the front!

[loglat]

Here's the latest...

Spent half a day Thursday, and all day Friday and today replacing the intake and valve cover gaskets, as well as sand blasting/painting, replacing old hoses, new distributor cap and wires, etc. I changed the oil when I was all done and pulled it out into the driveway, certain that I had fixed the problem, but low and behold, she still drips. It hasn't even slowed down. The majority of the drip comes from the notch in the flywheel inspection cover. I took the cover off the other day and ran it a little bit and it really didnt seem to be anything obvious, but my dad still swears it's the rear main seal.

Should I consider any other options? What all is involved? It seems like a little more than I want to/have time to do myself, so I would probably end up paying someone to do it. The engine looks a million times better, but it's frustrating as hell that it didn't even get a LITTLE BIT better

Thoughts? Whats next?

[70_F100]

Rear main seals are not something that go bad very often. Possible, but not probable.

There's a good possibility that the rear intake seal slipped while you were reinstalling the intake. Take an inspection mirror and look behind the intake. You'll probably be able to see where it's coming from.

It could also be the oil pan gasket.

[fomocoguy]

I had a Bronco II that was doing basically the exact same thing and it turned out to be the front main seal. It would just blow back all over everything when I would drive it and made it look like everything was leaking. Try power washing it, let it dry, and then just start it and let it idle for some time observing any leaks. If you don't see any, go for a drive. If it's wet all over with oil again then I would seriously look at the front main. Hope this helps!