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Lack of Maintenance

Chief915

915A Maint Tech
Messages
406
Reaction score
1
Location
Cecilia, KY
So my wife tells me that my neighbor came looking for me today, seems his 86 E-150 van with a 302 wouldn't start. I go see the neighbor and he gives me the story.

The van had been running fine since he bought it a year or two ago. His wife takes it to the store yesterday and everything is normal on the way there. When she comes out of the store, the van won't turn over, it just clicks. They tried to jump it in the parking lot and it still just clicks, won't turn over. They have it towed home and he pulls the dipstick, no oil in sight. He said that he had checked the oil a couple times a week for the first month or so after he bought the van and it was always on full so he didn't think it used any oil, so he stopped checking it. Once it was towed home, he had to put 3 1/2 quarts in it to get the oil above the add line.The whole time he keeps asking me if I think it will "loosen itself back up" once he gets some oil in it.
It doesn't have any oil leaks so I pop the question, "when was the last time that the oil was changed"? The answer was, I don't know, probobly 10,000 miles ago.

He puts a battery charger on it and finally gets it to turn over a little. It turns ok for about 2 revs and then suddenly stops. After a lot more praying and clicking he finally gets it turning over halfway decent for a few minutes but it still isn't starting lol. After 3 or 4 minutes of that it hit another solid stop in the middle of cranking and he called it quits.

For whatever reason, his brother who supposedly has his own shop, is pissed at me for telling him that his engine is most likely junk now. Even after explaining that it had no oil in it, won't turn over, sudden solid lock up when it DOES turn over, and hasn't had an oil change in 10,000 miles situation he still doesn't think it is that big of a problem. His brother keeps asking him if we have checked the fuel pressure. WTF?

The neighbor has started come to the realization that it is curtains for the old 5.0. He said that he is going to start checking the oil more often with the new engine. lol
 
This is a good reminder to check it often. I myself am guilty at times of not checking it when I should be. All good as of this morning.
 
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