1996 s10 blazer with 4.3l v6
Hi Scotty, Love the show and the great advice that your experience provides us. So, my question, just had to replace the lower intake gaskets because of it was leaking water into the oil bad and squirting (foaming) all over the upper intake. The repair went well. No more leaks and seems to be holding coolant and running about 200 degrees according to the gauge on the dash. Oil pressure starts out hi in the 40 range then drops after vehicle warms up to like about 10. It does climb back to 35 - 40 once any RPM's over idle at all then falls back to 10 at idle. YouTube seemed to suggest the pressure sensor be replaced so we replaced it and the low oil pressure symptoms remained the same at idle after warming up. I'm stumped or maybe the pressure is supposed to be low at idle -- I'm not real sure where it is supposed to run at. We also noticed that the dip stick is kicking hot although the car is not over heating and runs at 200 degrees.
We also received a check engine light referring to the crankshaft position sensor. We ordered a new one and tried to install but we could not get past the o ring into the hole. We removed the o ring just to see if we were bottoming out and it fit in fine. placed o ring back on sensor and again could not force it in enough to seat properly. It also looked completely different then the one we removed although the lengths of the part that goes in the hole were identical and equal. We tried to press it in for hours. I have pictures of the differences but couldn't seem to insert them on this post? We eventually just put the original back in and it again fit fine. I searched our vehicle for the sensor that looked like the original that we removed from several different parts suppliers and it only seemed to show this new style sensor that we could not get to install proper.
This vehicle has 178000 miles and sat with the oil/water in the crankcase for several years. We have done 2 oil changes and changed the filter twice...just to get all that bad oil out. Lil Seafoam in the oil too.
Thanks for any advice
You are the guru on cars and I'm hoping for some insight on what steps to take next.
Rob
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Verify oil pressure with a mechanical gauge if you have not already done so. If it is that low it is likely the oil pump is shot or your bearings are shot, or both. Given the situation you describe it would not be a surprise if the engine needed a complete overhaul.
