I was out wheeling my 77 F150 today and had a problem. I was up on a steep ledge, and lost oil pressure. I started hearing a clicking noise and looked at my oil pressure gauge and it was at zero.
:mad: I turned the engine off immediately, and coasted backwards down the hill. When on flat ground, I started the engine back up and oil pressure came back up to a respectable 35 psi at idle, but the clicking noise was still their (although quieter). I decided to pull a valve cover and try "running" the valves to see if that would stop the noise. It think it did although I do detect a slight chenge in engine noise, but it sounds more like an exhaust leak. My question is this:... :( Does it sound like anything bad happened to my engine and what should I do as precautionary measures? Should I change the oil, add some engine restore to try to help out the bearings, etc.

I just rebuilt this engine (429 ci. big block w/ 10.5:1 compression and a tiny cam) and I do not want to have screwed it over.:mad2: :mad: :eek: :( :mad: :confused: :( :(

are you running a truck pan or car? truck would be rear sump, cars are front sump...

You simply ran the sump dry. 99 outa 100 times Id say itll be ok
If ya shut er down quickly... Good Luck

Yeah, it has a front sump pan :( . I have always known that I need a rear sump pan, but they are so hard to find and I really didn't realize that it would actually run out of oil just going up a steep hill. Can you all think of anything that I should do in order to kind of help the engine recover from this. Should I add some engine restore in order to help the bearings reseal and all of that. Should I change to a special oil for a little while. Anything. I am really worried about my motor, although it seems to be running ok. By sticking my hand behind the exhaust, everything seems to be firing correctly.But, I am still hearing a noise at speed, like exhaust, it does not change with rpm. And cannot be heard at idle.

NO! Engine restore won't help you, please don't put it in a new engine. Or in anything for that matter. Just take care of it as you normally would (excpet for that loss of oil pressure part :D )

On a couple side notes, bearing don't seal.

And if the noise isn't RPM dependent, why do you only hear it at certain RPMs :confused:

Allright, I went ahead and pulled my oil pan and rod bearings. I replaced 4 of them as they were the worst. They still did not look bad at all. There were scores in two of them that were down to the copper. I also went ahead and retorqued my main caps and examined all of the other bearings, except for the mains (I do not have a timing chain puller).

The noise is still there, and is somewhat rpm dependant. It is not very loud and is hard to hear unless you are in the vehicle away from the noise of the exhaust.

So I cant figure out what could be wrong. Every source that I have consulted show bearings much worse than any of mine, and say that a rod bearing will go bad before a main bearing. My father cannot hear a noise at all and believes that I am paranoid. Any thoughts?