No oil in GMC pick up.

[jeremiah2360]

Fleet mechanic at work called me over to see "a great example of General Motors enginneeering"(my work area is right next door). He was changing the leaky power steering pump out of a 2000 GMC pick up and checked the oil(gas 350) and there wasn`t any

He was beside himself. When I first came over he said "when I say no,no means none,there is NO oil in this truck".

When it he brought it in he noticed the oil pressure gauge wasn`t working and thought it was broken,the truck was running quiet with no noises associated with a no oil condition. Turns out the gauge works fine

I asked him if any came out of the pan when he drained it and he said a couple of drops,just enough to get his gloves dirty. He said he thought he would have to use a screw driver to poke out chunks of crud but there weren`t any. I said I hope you put in 15-40 and he said he used 10-30, he said"you don`t want to give a starving man a steak",lol.

Just thought I`d share this story here. Should be interesting to see how the truck does. It may have developed a big leak some where just before he serviced it and he just happened to catch it before it seized up. At least you would think so

.

It only sees about 5000 miles a year and it`s probably going to be replaced soon because of age(maybe real soon

).

 

[MrCritical]

What does GM have to do with no oil in the truck? Sounds like the owner has a leaky brain if he can't check his oil level.

 

[Pablo]

JEO. Lots of no oil stories lately. Please tell me he wasn't using Amsoil.

My guess is he got darn lucky.....you've heard of JIT.....I think I'll invent a new one: JEO. Just enough oil.....folks this acronym is NOT a compliment.

 

[jeremiah2360]

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What does GM have to do with no oil in the truck? Sounds like the owner has a leaky brain if he can't check his oil level.

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Agree with the leaky brain. You see it all when dealing with a fleet. Not GM`s fault at all,mechanic was just giving GM credit for it still running as well as it was

 

[CBDFrontier06]

A girl I dated in high school called me up one morning and asked me to come over and take a look at her car (79 Civic in 1988) as it was running really rough when she cranked it up that morning.

When I got there, the first thing I checked was the dipstick. DRY. She had returned from a 130 mile trip the night before.

Poured in 3.5 quarts of oil, started her up and it ran flawlessly for another year before she got rid of it.

I know the car had an oil pressure idiot light, but I guess it decided not to work that weekend.

 

[rriddle3]

Quote:

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Not GM`s fault at all,mechanic was just giving GM credit for it still running as well as it was

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Agreed. That's a tough engine.

 

[BennyL]

so what you guys are saying, is that its really not a big deal to run your car with no oil?

awesome. i'm gonna drain mine and run it dry! no more wasting money on oil for me.

 

[Matt_S]

Quote:

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What does GM have to do with no oil in the truck? Sounds like the owner has a leaky brain if he can't check his oil level.

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It seems to me that the mechanic was complimenting GM for building a tough engine, since it was still running well despite being dry of oil.

 

[CBDFrontier06]

I think before judging this to be a good engine, it would be important to find out how quickly it ran itself out of oil. Even if it didn't sieze when dry, I would find it hard to compliment an engine that burned more than a gallon of oil in 3000 miles.

 

[pp_rp]

Quote:

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What does GM have to do with no oil in the truck? Sounds like the owner has a leaky brain if he can't check his oil level.

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[surfstar]

Quote:

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I know the car had an oil pressure idiot light, but I guess it decided not to work that weekend.

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Idiot lights only work if the idiot behind the wheel heeds them.

 

[dwendt44]

What's really amazing is that GM computers will shut the engine down if there is no oil pressure once the engine is running. BTDT.

 

[JohnBrowning]

Are we sure all will do this? I ask becuase when I worked for GM I destintly rember an issue that came up with oil pressure sending units. The wrong oil sending unit was in the box to the tune of 50,000 in the warehouse boxed wrong.Turned out that these oil senders did not have a fuel pump relay sut off compatability. I can not rember if it was a matter of missing prongs or what i just rember that not all of the vechiles had that feature. I know I have seen plenty of Ford,GM,Toyota vechiles ran dry of oil or coolant and they did not shut down. I also know that even vechiles that have this feature have a built in delay. This delay allows you to start the engine on a cold day or after an oil change and not have the fuel pump relay kick off right away waiting for initial pressure to build. I know on the wifes Buick after an oil change I have seen it take from 10sec. to 30 sec.'s to build any pressure at all the whole time the needle was sitting on zero mark and the little redish orange light was a steady not flickering. On that same note most guages on vechiles that have them have a buffer so that you do not get wild swinging.

 

[brianl703]

My mom's 2004 Chevrolet Malibu Classic will illuminate a light and sound a chime if the engine overheats or there is a loss of oil pressure. I don't know if it will shut off the engine, but, a chime would be pretty hard to ignore, wouldn't you think? (I think it's continous, so it'll keep chiming till you shut it off or the problem goes away)

 

[addyguy]

'...so it'll keep chiming till you shut it off or the problem goes away'

"Knock, knock, knock BANG!"

Problem has 'gone away'....

 

[jeremiah2360]

Quote:

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What's really amazing is that GM computers will shut the engine down if there is no oil pressure once the engine is running. BTDT.

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I thought of that,where I work they also have newer Chevy vans with the 350 and that has happened more than once. I just figured the pick up was older and didn`t have the shut down feature. Maybe Mr. Browning is on to something.

FWIW the cab was a mess(big surprise)so we didn`t try to dig out the registration but went by the date of manufacture on the drivers door. It said 1999,mechanic said it probably was sold as a 2000

 

[Donald]

I think my 93 Suburban has the fuel pump connected through the oil pressure sensor, so once the 10 second (or whatever it is in duration) timer expires, one better have oil pressure to keep the fuel pump working.

 

[Matt_S]

The 10'th character of the VIN tells you the model year. X = 99, Y = 2000.

Look here.

 

[Turk]

It "Must" have had Slick 50 in it...

 

[kelpie]

GM sure makes a good engine-drivetrain. Have seen some take some real bad abuse.