Hi Evereyone, I'm new to this site, and have a problem with my 1990 fi50. The truck was in overall great condition, has the 5.0 V8 FI that's been well maintained. I loaned the truck to my "adult" daughter and it came back dirty, ragged, dented, and the oil filthy. The pan drain bolt and threads were somehow damaged and the oil hadn't been changed for over a year. The pan seal and valve cover gaskets were spewing oil. I had recently injured my back and was unable to do much with the truck. A friend who works as a mechanic for a living offered to change the gaskets and do a tune up, for a fee. I bought a new oil pan, gasket, valve cover gasket set, and water pump. Valve covers are now leak free, water pump is fine. The engine does not develop oil pressure at all, and the valves sound as if they're oil deprived. The engine was flushed and refilled with 5w30 (not my preference). I'm afraid that the heads are shot, but any ideas why the engine won't develop oil pressure? The sending unit checks out good, and there's pressure at the unit. He's run the engine for at least an hour in this condition. Also, while changing the pan and gasket he pulled the pump. I ended up buying a new pump and pickup even though I doubted the failure of the old one. Any thoughts, anyone?...Bueller?

 

Welcome! I took the liberty to move your post to a forum where you should get more activity.

 

Welcome =)

 

If I understand correctly, it has oil pressure but it doesn't read it? Install a gauge and check to see what the pressure is.
If all those gaskets were leaking, I suspect the engine was not vented properly and pressure was building up in the engine. Change the pcv and make sure the engine is vented properly.
Buy an oversize self threading oil pan drain plug and replace the existing one. These are available is several over sizes.

 

If you had oil pressure and the valves weren't noisy before the guy did the work, I would guess he didn't get something together right when he installed the new oil pump and replaced the oil pan. It can get a little tricky installing a new oil pan and dealing with the oil pump and it's pick up tube with the engine in the truck.

 

Flushing an engine is not always a good idea. If there is a lot of crud buildup, you could cause big chunks of it to break up and clog oil passages.

Way back in 1971 i bought a 59 Chevy Impala for $100. It smoked like a coal burning train. The PO said he used non-detergent oil in it for 50k miles or so and then put detergent back in it. I pulled the valve covers and sludge was about 1" thick and it had plugged the oil drain holes in the heads so the oil level under the valve covers was over the top of the valve guides resulting in oil running down the valve stems into the engine. I pulled both valve covers and the intake and cleaned out a bucket of sludge. After that it didn't smoke any more and the oil consumption wasn't too bad.

 

Thanks to all who've welcomed me, and for your input. I've taken the truck home via rollback and began looking into the engine. Found low, low cylinder compression across all eight. The engine flush exposed existing wear problems that I had overlooked, (oil beginning to appear in the air box). Subsequently found cracked rings among other problems. Looks like a rebuilt engine, or rebuilding this one is the next step.

 

It's amazing how some people have a knack for destroying stuff. Sounds like your daughter may be one of them. A rebuild is definitely in order.

 

You have two problems, one I am sure about the other I have a suspicion of:
1) Your daughter is faulty, remove and replace her before anything else is damaged.
2) your gauge isn't measuring oil pressure, which means:
2A) The gauge is accurate, your buddy humped the pooch and your engine is starving...stop allowing him to run it until you figure out whats blocked and fix it.
2B) The gauge is broken and the engine is not starving. replace the gauge.

Note: I am leaning towards a bad gauge, engine is not starving and a valve may have been adjusted outside of spec...at least this is what I am hoping for on your behalf. If you don't bother with the gauge you'll know when a main bearing rolls.