92 new yorker oil pressure problem

i have a 92 new yorker with 3.3 engine. car was fine till wife hit a deer and smashed front end. radiator is gone but engine still runs fine. well while waiting on replacement parts i have started the car from time to time, just for 5 minutes or less beings it has no water in engine, to keep battery good and charged and to keep things well oiled. well the last time i started it i noticed a light saying check gauges. i did and found the oil pressure gauge below the lowest point, no oil pressure! i thought it might just be a bad gauge or a wire to gauge not getting contact somewhere. so i let it run for 3 or 4 minutes and engine started to really make a loud tapping noise coming from lifters. now i know i have no oil pressure for sure. i turned engine off. what would have caused this to just happen out of the blue? would a oil sending unit be the problem? has my oil pump just quit working? everything worked fine till this point. oil has always been changed every 3,000 miles.

 

Running an engine, even for a short time, with no water in it is a bad
idea. Even in five minutes you could get localized hot spots well above
what is normal.

Is the oil problem related? Maybe, maybe not, can't tell from a
distance. Have you checked the obvious ... does it still have oil in
it? The wreck might have put a pinhole in the oil filter since it is on
the front of the engine right behind the radiator. I can't think of any
other obvious places that could easily have developed a leak in a deer
collision, but there may be something I'm not thinking of.


Matt

 

Check the wiring to the oil pressure guage. It is located on the front of
the engine next to the oil filter. The wire may have been broken, or the
impact from collision could have disconnected the wire from the sender.

deer and smashed front end. radiator is gone but engine still runs fine.
well while waiting on replacement parts i have started the car from time to
time, just for 5 minutes or less beings it has no water in engine, to keep
battery good and charged and to keep things well oiled. well the last time i
started it i noticed a light saying check gauges. i did and found the oil
pressure gauge below the lowest point, no oil pressure! i thought it might
just be a bad gauge or a wire to gauge not getting contact somewhere. so i
let it run for 3 or 4 minutes and engine started to really make a loud
tapping noise coming from lifters. now i know i have no oil pressure for
sure. i turned engine off. what would have caused this to just happen out of
the blue? would a oil sending unit be the problem? has my oil pump just quit
working? everything worked fine till this point. oil has always been changed
every 3,000 miles.

 

well i dont see as it would hurt running a car for a short period without water. just sitting idling. after all it takes longer than that for the thermostat to open up and cool an engine anyhow. so if it had water in it, and ran for 5 minutes, it would still not have flowing cool water yet. as for oil level. yes its full. i do know to check the oil and it has no leaks

 

wiring is fine at sending unit. would a bad unit cause it not to have oil pressure? i know it controls the gauge so it would show no pressure there. but would the engine have no oil pressure if the unit was bad?

 

I would think if the engine had no oil pressure.. you're definitely not
running the engine for much longer. I have had bad sender units where after
replacing them I had oil pressure registering once again. If there is oil in
the pan, then you may have a bad sender.

pressure? i know it controls the gauge so it would show no pressure there.
but would the engine have no oil pressure if the unit was bad?

 

I can think of no reason to run a car for a short period of time (under a
few minutes) and not get to operating temp.
un-burned fuel, condensation to name a few reasons........side from no water
in the engine/radiator
Safer and better to buy a trickle/ 2or more amp battery charger and use it.h

 

Because water has a much higher heat capacity than air. Even if the
water can't circulate, it takes a lot of heat to heat up water. With
just air in the water jackets, the metal has nothing to transfer heat
to. The cylinder walls are quite thin in spots and with just air to
transfer the heat to, they could get very hot in even 5 minutes of idling.

I can't think right off-hand how this would affect your oil pressure
assuming it still has sufficient oil in it, however, you may well have
lost the temper in your rings from overheating them and you may have an
oil consumption problem once you get the car back on the road. There
are much better ways to keep the battery charged than running a dry engine.


Matt

 

true on the heat. bu i have also seen demo derby cars run wide open for awhile with out water, pull the engine and use it in a different vehical on the road and it would run great. i know with these smaller engines i woudnt do that with all the aluminum parts and thin walls like you mentioned. i know there are better ways to keep a batery charged but by running the engine i figured i would save seals from drying out. car has been siting almot a year. almost impossible to find front end parts at salvage yard as its that darn salon model. as far as engine having oil in it, yes its completly full. and when it was run last there was no smoke, no leaks.

 

ok well i tell ya i dont know what to think now. i just started car again to position it for getting worked on, get it out of snow. well i started it now it has oil pressure and tapping went away. whats going on with it? crazy it wouldnt have any pressure now its fine. any ideas what made it do that?