1989 Ford E350 Motorhome with 460 - No oil pressure and engine noise

20

Asked by RVPilotX774G Nov 24, 2018 at 07:04 PM about the 1989 Ford E-Series E-350 XL Super Econoline Extended Cargo RWD

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

Hello there,
Have a Ford E350 that sat for a while (~ 1 year); got it started and it ran fine, no noise, hesitation or otherwise any problem. Went out to it next day; hard to start, then ran really rough, large clouds of white smoke from the exhaust that got worse upon acceleration, and a tapping noise that seems most sever at idle. Oil gauge read really low. Shut off, restarted, same problem but no oil pressure on dash gauge at all.
Was stored with fuel that had no Sta-Bil or other fuel stabilizers added to it. Also noticed black oily residue around the joint where the head pipe bolts into the exhaust manifold. Would like to know what the likely problem is, and what it will take to fix the issue.

4 Answers

Yup. The engine is toast. Put butter on it. ;(

2 people found this helpful.
20

I had a vehicle that had this sort of issue in the past, where coolant was getting into the combustion chamber, and the exhaust then had the smell of coolant; the exhaust here had no odor of coolant, but does reek of stale gas. The generator also put out clouds of white smoke that also smelled of stale gas, and it's air-cooled. Also, the oil in this engine looks perfectly normal. Will check the coolant level for any sign of loss or contamination. However, I tend to agree that there is quite possibly a major problem in the engine lubrication system; possibly the oil pickup tube is broken, cracked, or otherwise damaged, or the driveshaft for the oil pump is stripped, bent, or otherwise damaged to the point of not being operational. From what I've been able to determine, that practically requires engine removal. Even if by some miracle there's no other damage to the engine, that's more than I can do; the motorhome is sitting in a storage yard 800 miles from my home, on gravel. I was hoping for better news. Thanks for your answers. Will probably end up scrapping it; the money needed to fix it is probably going to be quite a bit more than the motorhome would be worth, if I were to repair it.

2 people found this helpful.
50

Let me know if you want to sell the RV thanks Bruce...... guy61352@yahoo.com

2 people found this helpful.
Best Answer Mark helpful
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Have we spoken?. I have an RV ,same, that burned up. I have a rebuilt 460 7.5 engine in it. I may want to see if we can agree on something and put my motor in this RV..motor has 2.5 k miles. Thanks, Bruce guy61352@yahoo.com or 772 324 9854 text or call.

1 people found this helpful.

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