Driving down the highway doing about 60mph when I felt the engine lose power, start smoking heavily, and the oil light came on. I immediately pulled off the side of the road and turned the engine off. Looking under the hood, oil was all over. What are my options? Is my engine seized or is it possible that I'll just have to replace the oil pump? Thanks.

I thought this only happened to 03's? My 04 has a 66k mi on it...

 

How amny miles on it?
You need to have some one inspect and see what actually failed and if the engine is still OK.
If it is just the pump, and the engine is OK then you can replace the pump. I would say you lost something other the an oil pump, cause if the pump failed, you wouldn't have oil all over everything.
If you want to go into more detail, PM me your number and I'll walk your thru what to check and do.

 

Hey Mike there is 66k mi on it. I had the tow truck drop it off at a repair shop and I'm heading down there in a little while to see what they figure out. I appreciate the help and I'll report back with what they say.

 

You likely blew an oil cooler line, not the pump itself.

If you got it shut down quickly, you may be just fine.

 

Ok so the engine is toast. Apparently something let go and it was bad enough to blow the timing plate cover off. The shop said they could put a used (92k mi) engine in for $6k or a new one for $10k. I'd never consider spending that much on another used time bomb and $10k is more than I want to drop in this vehicle.

I did find a chevy dealership that offered me $2k for it on a trade. Should I take it?

 

I wouldn't spend 6k-10k on a truck that is worth that much in working condition. I would take the 2k trade in no matter how much it hurts.

 

No, don't take it, if the dealer will give you $2000 then you can still get $4000 to $5000 for it if you sell it without an engine. Someone will buy it along with a good used engine, spending maybe $2500 plus in parts and have a nice truck.

 

So, did the oil pump gears break busting out the front cover?

 

WHY is the motor toast?

I'd be interested in knowing what the root failure was that caused the timing chain cover to blow off. The only thing I can think of would be if the timing chain let go, which I've never heard of that happening on any motor...considering how the oil pump is arranged on this motor, if that thing seized up hard, I can see it having the potential of causing physical damage to the front cover..short of that, I'm at a little bit of a loss trying to visualize ANYTHING damaging the front cover...I mean you've got the cam and the crank but neither of those are going to move forward to eat the front cover, so it has to be oil pump or timing chain or cam gear-

What I would do...personally--just to save myself from a possible unscrupulous mechanic or shop--

Take the time to drop the oil pan, look in there for metal debris...if there's a ****-ton, yeah you probably have bigger problems, if not, continue disassembly and pull the front cover...what's she look like under there?

If the oil pump died on you or seized up and somehow (not sure how this would be possible) but seized up hard enough where the crankshaft still in motion sheered all of the gears, it's not like that would have gotten pumped back into the motor to cause additional damage.

Something about this just doesn't sound right to me...is anyone else with me?

I had a front cover / crank seal go on me and there was all sorts of oil in a short manner of time, it comes out of the seal and hits the fan and goes EVERYWHERE...it doesn't take long for oil pressure to drop low enough for the light to come on. I was however able to fill it back up with oil and drive 5 miles home without the light coming on when this happened to me.

 

What idiot would buy a Disco with a blown motor for $5k? If you know of where to find them, please do pass the info on. I can make a quick $2500 a pop on every one I find without having to bother parting them.

It would have to be positively minty perfect otherwise, and that's hard to prove when it's not running.

The numbers just don't work out compared to the actual value of the trucks.