I have oil every where under my hood

[88_comanche_for_me]

So, I had recently purchased this 88 comanche 4.0 and it looks clean with a few scraps and dings. I drove the vehicle a little before but not until I purchased this vehicle. I was going down the hwy and heard a slight noise I hear a slight ticking and before you know it I looked in my rear view and see smoke coming out the back tail pipe. I didn't see the light come on for the temp gauge. I pull over and the engine is hot and smoking and I lift the hood in despair but I saw oil sprayed everywhere and thrown up on the inside part of the hood.

 

I had to pay a $275 tow bill and the tow truck driver said when he picked it up who has also been my mechanic for years said it was a rod when he tried to start it but first said it was a ring without looking at it. Now, I totally trust my tow truck driver and all but how do I really know if this vehicle needs a new engine? It turns out the guy unhooked the light for the temp gauge.

 

I recently read that the PCV system can cause this problem on cherokee talk.com. I will say the air filter was soaked dripping in oil. The back PCV line looks new but the guy told me it does run hot and to bring antifreeze. He(seller) said that it needs a back freeze plug? Does that mean water may have cracked my block? I have heard I have a bad valve from my friend at work that is the reason I was getting that light ticking noise?

 

I have checked the radiator cap and it holds pressure even though I have to check the tank yet. It did have a small crack in the seal of the cap but no antifreeze seen just oil! The front of the engine has the most oil and I am guessing the thermostat needs replaced.

 

I plan on doing a pressure test first on each of the cylinders then taking the exhaust off to see if it leaks oil or antifreeze.

 

My paw tells me that it needs rings bc of the oil all in the air filter and that makes since but the PCV theory still rings in my head louder. I really don't want to buy a engine and was quoted $1800 for a crate. I hate to put that much in it. But it may be the answer.? Can anyone advise? What do you guys think?

[cruiser54]

Don't trust the tow truck driver.

[gogmorgo]

Can you get a video with it running? A "slight tick" could be anything from a twig tickling a fan to an exhaust leak to the worst-case scenario of internal engine damage. I would be inclined to believe it's something small.

 

A freeze plug is a thin metal cap pressed into the block or head at the factory. It's generally plugging a hole than allows the casting of coolant passages. At any rate, as the engine gets older, especially if someone was running a bad choice of coolant (like tap water), they can corrode and lose their seal. Freeze plugs are cheap, you can probably find enough change in your couch to pay for the plug itself, but they're often tricky to get at with the engine in the vehicle, and so generally can be labour intensive.

 

The first thing I would do is drain the oil out of it, make sure there's no coolant or glitter (metal shavings) in it or the filter. To me it sounds like you just ran it low on coolant and it got way too hot. Possibly compromised the head gasket. Compression test isn't the worst idea, either. Also a good idea is to find out for sure where the oil's spraying from... sounds to me like it's dribbling onto the fan.

 

The people on here are pretty helpful, and there are a few people here who know your truck and it's motor so well they could tear it down and rebuild it blindfolded. But when you come in asking a million questions, it's sometimes difficult to find the right answers. So my advise is to do the couple simple things suggested, come back with the results and take things one step at a time.

I'm not trying to be hard on you, but we see people come on here often enough and ask a million questions in their first post and we never hear back from them or else they don't really wait for answers or solutions before they come back saying they either took their truck to a shop and paid way too much money to fix something that wasn't the problem, or else they tell us they sold their truck super cheap so they didn't have to deal with it. We don't want either of those to happen to you.

[88_comanche_for_me]

https://www.facebook.com/brian.tedeschi.3/videos/10156595944275604/

[88_comanche_for_me]

http://www.cherokeetalk.com/forum/f8/oil-oil-everywhere-can't-tell-where-wanna-pull-out-my-hair-15838/#/forumsite/20723/topics/15838?page=3

[88_comanche_for_me]

Compression test today

[88_comanche_for_me]

Sorry I'll try and get a longer video but it that damn smoke was givin me flashbacks

[Rockfrog]

FYI - you have no Check engine light ... The engine maintenance light is simply on a timer, it lights to remind you to replace the O2 sensor. So really just disregard that light on this issue.