'94 Taurus GL - Oil Pressure

[TurbinePower]

Bit puzzled, and working on solving an issue that's been recurring for a while now. Well, two issues really, doubtfully related.

First is the oil pressure issue, being more important. Oil pressure light is on at idle and low engine speeds. There is adequate, fresh oil of a proper weight (10w40) in the engine, so I'm guessing it's likely the oil pump, and it's too consistent and at the right times to be an electronics issue.

Can the pump be replaced with the engine in the car? Where is the pressure switch, so I can plumb a gauge in and make certain before I start pulling things apart.

The second problem is a squeal in the belt system. Fresh belt, fresh tensioner pulley: could be an idler pulley? Seems that it's also possible that there's grit in the pulleys causing the issue.

Wet conditions appear to resolve the squealing problem, and since the belt shows no signs of rubbing or slipping I really am not sure what else could be chirping. It's been described as a "crickets" sound.


I'll take what help you folks can give me on either of these!

 

[MayorDJQ]

How many miles are on this gem of automotive history? Is the rest of the car worth the time/money to replace the oil pump?

 

[Dunno513]

not sure which engine the 94 uses.. but the 2002 vulcan 3.0 I own has a likely to fail bearing on the cam syncronizer that runs where the distributor used to be. This shaft also drives the oil pump. When it goes bad it can sound like a bad belt or idler pully.

Also.. 10w40 seems a bit thick considering ford started to use 5w/20 across the board for mileage standards. Personally I use 5w/30 synthetic in it.

 

[TurbinePower]

How many miles are on this gem of automotive history? Is the rest of the car worth the time/money to replace the oil pump?

140k. Rest of the car is in rather nice shape. Paint's faded, but the doors are still solid, the transmission shifts smoothly, the glass isn't fogging, HVAC stuff still works... really the flickering oil light and some front brake shimmy are the only issues, and we're replacing rotors this weekend to solve the latter.

It was a "little old auntie" car for it's first decade of life, so... Not a show-winner by any means, but it's been quite reliable for her to-from work and errands vehicle.

 

[TurbinePower]

not sure which engine the 94 uses.. but the 2002 vulcan 3.0 I own has a likely to fail bearing on the cam syncronizer that runs where the distributor used to be. This shaft also drives the oil pump. When it goes bad it can sound like a bad belt or idler pully.

Also.. 10w40 seems a bit thick considering ford started to use 5w/20 across the board for mileage standards. Personally I use 5w/30 synthetic in it.

Was the distributor located up top, right hand side, kinda "in" the valley? There's a distributor shaped can looking thing, and the spark plug wires all appear and spread out from under a cover very near that canister-thingy.

Very definitely a second-generation Taurus; I don't think the EDIS thing was widespread at that point?

Rocker cover has "3.0" cast into it; internet says it is a Vulcan V6, though I imagine it was updated for your 2002 car?

It is eerily consistent in when the chirping disappears, too. Literally every time we have wet weather, the chirp ceases, only to return once it starts drying out.

 

[supton]

Oil pump may be worn; but it could be worn rod journal bearings, allowing oil pressure to bleed off quickly. [I'd think that would lead to increased oil consumption, particularly at higher revs, as that oil gets slung onto the cylinder walls, and can overwhelm the rings.] Same thing with the crank mains. Lots of clearance, low pressure, unless if you could swap in a high volume (not high pressure) aftermarket oil pump.

Does the oil pressure light stay off when the engine is cold? IOW, when the oil is at its thickest. Also, was the switch to thicker oil something recently done, to help stave off this light?

 

[oilhammer]

1994 Vulcan engine in the Taurus still uses a distributor. Ford specs 5w30 in that engine, year round. I've never seen a Vulcan need an oil pump, ever (and that engine has been around, and is STILL in use, since 1986).

Pretty good engine, albeit very low tech. Common issues are rotted head gaskets caused by lack of cooling system PM, some cracked head bolts that also cause a coolant leak, oil pan gaskets slipping out, and more recently the Ford curse of the valve seat randomly falling out of the head (more an issue with newer Rangers).

The oil pump is in the oil pan, directly below the distributor as it is driven off of the camshaft's end via a little hex shaft. Hardest part about getting the oil pan off on these is getting the horse's ass catalyst/Y-pipe assembly off.

I'd want to put a manual guage on there first, as it is MUCH more likely the pressure sender is just flakey. Ford's spec for pressure at 'HOT' is 40 to 60 psi at 2500 RPM (which is on the low side, but typical of cast-iron pushrod lumps like the Vulcan).

I think the oil pressure sender is on the backside of the block, towards the flywheel end, up high (look behind the distributor).

I have seen more than a few Vulcans sludge up over the years, which usually causes blockage at the oil pickup screen first, then slowly allows oil starvation to other parts of the engine... but it usually makes the upper end (lifters, rockers) noisy first, long before the engine has an issue.

 

[TurbinePower]

Does the oil pressure light stay off when the engine is cold? IOW, when the oil is at its thickest. Also, was the switch to thicker oil something recently done, to help stave off this light?

It doesn't much seem to matter; the oil light flickers at low RPM, either idling or on decel.

My first guess was electrical, but I thought perhaps flakey oil pressure sensors was a VW thing, so I thought I'd check on a couple different routes first.

The change to the thicker oil was a recent thing; I'll change it back when we do the brakes. Added benefit, I'll see if the incidence of the light goes up when lighter weight oil is used.

We'll throw a manual gauge on it when we do the brakes too. Might as well, it'll be up in the front anyway.

If the sensor turns out to be not-flake, I'll probably pull the pan and see if it's just a crap-in-the-pickup issue before I go throwing money at it with a pump.

Thanks folks!