Last week a chunk of my front cover gasket blew out and sprayed my oil out. I went straight home but had the oil light on for a few minutes while driving home. Drove fine, but noticed a strong burnt rubber smell on parking. Dipstick was dry, and had just been full a few days prior. I had just a few weeks prior done a timing chain and oil pump replacement, along with all relevant gaskets, and my front cover gasket got mangled with how long it took to get that stupid front cover on without knocking the inner oil pump gear off...

Broke back into the engine. Just put The Right Stuff on my front cover instead of the paper gasket, and got everything back together. This marks my second time into the front cover in a month, and it's no longer fun.

I turned on the truck, and after a few seconds, the oil light came on. I turned it off immediately, very faint burnt smell, and I'm getting a P0327, Knock Sensor warning. Not a drop of oil leaking, dipstick is full.

Is it my oil pump? Could it have broken with the stress of no oil? Can I do a pressure test easily enough?

 

You had that awesome arterial oil spurt video, right? Was the burning smell plastic or oil? I had a knock sensor wire burn in half when it got on my exhaust manifold. Then I got the same code.

But that wouldn't explain the oil light.

First, be sure the wire to the oil sender on your front cover is connected and isn't burned somewhere.

Second, did you fill your oil filter when you re did the front cover gasket? Wisdom is to pack the oil pump with Vaseline, fill the oil filter, and prime the system by removing the spark plugs (so the starter doesn't have to work so hard) and the fuel pump relay (yellow one on far right in engine fuse box) then turning it over some to get the oil where it needs to be before starting.

Finally, you would have had to remove the pickup tube from the front cover to get it off. I'm not being a smart *** because I have done this, but did you put it back on? And if so, did you check the little o ring on the end of it?

Unless you dropped a bolt in your engine (done that) or had a bad injector that bent a rod and exploded a piston (check, check), or got huge grit in the front cover while working on it I don't see how you could have harmed your pump fixing that gasket.

 

Yup, I had that wonderful, Gulf of Mexico oil leak.

I wondered if the knock sensor code might be something else. So I'll look into that after fixing this oil light I guess.

I connected the oil sender, but I'll double check the connection. I did NOT fill the oil filter this time, I reused the same one since I had only put a hundred miles or so on it and thought I could skip that part this time. Also did NOT fill oil pump with Vaseline, or prime the system, because I thought that was only for when putting in a new oil pump, not one that's been run a bit... So i guess a quick thing to try is to prime the system now?

Yeah I put the oil pickup tube back and screwed it in tight, didn't really look too closely at the rubber o-ring. It was new from the last job a few weeks ago, but surely that couldn't have failed or caused this oil light could it?

My nightmare, which I couldn't sleep last night over, is that driving the truck home with a bad oil leak messed up something in my engine permanently. I mean, I saw a big trail of oil behind the truck as I parked at home, so it still had oil left to leak when I got home, but that dipstick was empty...

Dang man, I guess an exploded piston meant new engine? How much did that run you?

 

If only that had been the case. The exploded piston was in the NEW (rebuilt) engine and it happened during the first few minutes of run time. The cost was just parts and time because I fixed it myself.

I think your engine is fine, based on what you've described. I would take the spark plugs out and the fuel pump relay off, turn it for about ten seconds, wait about 20 seconds, turn it again, wait, and do it a third time, then put the plugs and relay in and start it up. The oil light should already be off or go off quickly at that point.

If it doesn't then, probably, your oil pump needs to be packed with Vaseline so it can draw enough suction to get oil started in the pickup tube. That would be a big deal, since it involves removing the front cover again, which you just got perfect.

 

Man, thanks for words of comfort. Calming to my soul. It didn't run rough or sound different, so I'm hoping too it's all right.

I'm going out of town today with my wife and daughter, and we're taking Old Faithful, my boring and uncomfortable but dadgum reliable Toyota Yaris. So next Monday I'll get back to the Rover.

I'll try the spark plug and relay thing, see if that does it. If not, I'll hook up an oil pressure tester I just got and see what my PSI is reading to make sure it's not a bad sender. And if not that, I'll take that front cover off again and inspect the oil pump and pack it good if it's not broken.

I have a boding sensation that the oil pump may be cracked... Because when I was turning it with the front cover off, it just didn't seem to turn as smoothly as when I put it in new last month. The inner and middle gear appeared fine, but I couldn't see the outer gear and didn't bother to take off the cover to inspect, which I kick myself for not doing. It would rotate but catch and push up to one side. I guess we'll see, huh?

One final clue: Where the Woodruff key connects to the timing gear, there's a burnt mark on the gear, right above the key. Here's a pic: View image: image

That's new, because the gear was brand new and didn't have that. Wonder what that means...

 

Wow! I've never seen that before but it does make you wonder about the pump gear. If it was catching, um, that might be bad. It should turn smoothly, for sure.

Enjoy the dependable Toyota! Because when you get back, you'll have to face the rover.

 

Primed the engine using your method, and on starting up, no oil light... for about thirty seconds. Then it came on again. Shut it off immediately.

Changed out my oil pressure switch and turned it on. No oil light at all, after running for two or three minutes! I shut it off, went inside to grab something and turned it back on. Oil light... but it would turn off on revving, while sitting in Neutral. And then come back on when getting back to low RPM's. I thought, "Screw it," and pulled out of the driveway, and on driving around town over a ten minute drive, it stayed off the entire time, high RPM's and even at complete stops. Man it felt great to drive around town.

But I'm not confident. I'm still going to do an oil pressure test...

 

I think you're in the right track and it is always best to check the oil pressure just to be sure. I've read that one person senders can be off by up to 5 pounds. I still think you've done no harm and have, instead done alot of good for your engine.

 

Definitely check your PSI it only takes 8 PSI if I irc to shut off the light

 

Still working on getting a tool to check my oil pressure, one I got at NAPA (no one else local has one) doesn't have the right fitting, and Lowe's and local plumbing stores don't either...

But I've been driving it in the meantime, and last two days did two hour and a half roundtrip drives, up to 80 mph for short stints, and up heavy hills, and no oil light or drip.

Still a burning oil smell that's not as pungent as before but slightly there... I hope that's just old oil from The Oil Spill burning off