How to tell if engine is gone or not

@PvtPublic I wanted to say that, but it appeared too obvious.

“what I found a bit distasteful in the original post is (to me anyway) the inference that the shop is a bad one over a problem that had been going on “for a while” followed by engine noise and a tow.”

Get with the program, ok4450!
Don’t you know that nobody is responsible anymore for things that they–themselves–cause?

;-))

PvtPublic and MG McAnick I was also tempted but somehow managed to restrain myself.

It reminded me of humorous write ups and solutions in military aircraft log books. My all time favorite.
Write up: Number 3 engine missing.
Solution: Engine found on starboard wing following brief search.

Make: dodge
Model: durango
Model Year: 2000
Odometer Mileage: 205,000
Amount of oil consumed between oil changes: 1 qt
Frequency of oil changes, in terms of both odometer mileage and elapsed time: 6months, 5000 miles
Oil level was checked once every one to two weeks.
Thanks for the responses.

Just open the hood. If you see the ground your engine is gone.

Oil pumps very rarely fail, they’re the last to go. Folks hope it’s the oil pump causing no oil pressure because it’d be cheaper to fix. Reality is a worn out engine much more often.

Is it 4.7 motor or 5.2?

Replacing an oil pump to cure a low oil pressure problem is an exercise in futility. There’s a guy I know (a domestic mechanic and a pretty good one) BUT:

He used to work mainly on Fords and I swear that every other week he was tearing into a Ford engine to replace an oil pump because of a flashing oil light or oil pressure gauge on zero.

This never worked. He would then perform more surgery and replace the crank bearings.

On some occasions the new bearings would get the oil pressure back up a bit; in most cases it did not. Even on the ones that did improve the longevity is suspect because circular bearings on ovaled crank journals is not a good recipe.
Use a micrometer and check the journals? Not in a million years and besides; even with a mountain of tools he did not even own any micrometers…

Oil pumps are very simple devices that spend their entire lives awash in fresh oil and under very little stress. They don’t fail.

However, oil pressure is created by the oil pump forcing oil through the small spaces between the bearings and their wear surfaces. Those items, particularly the sleeve bearings around the crankshaft and the piston connecting rods, and their corresponding wear surfaces, spend their lives at high speed under considerable stresses from the combustion process and from the inertial forces of the reciprocating parts. Those parts DO wear out, and they wear out prematurely if at any point in their lives they’re deprived of their needed lubrication.

When they wear to a point that the spaces allow oil to flow through too easily, oil pressure becomes difficult for the pump to maintain… often lost totally at idle. Maintaining pressure becomes like trying to keep a balloon inflated that has pinholes in it. The fluid (air is a fluid) flows out faster than you can put it in. In balloons, that means a flat balloon. In engines, it means no oil pressure at idle… often showing up more when the engine is hot and the oil is at its thinnest.

At that point your options are to rebuild the current engine, replace it with a rebuilt, replace it with a remanufactured, or replace it with a boneyard engine. Or you could keep driving it until it won’t run at all, keeping a few bottles of 10W or 20W oil in the trunk.

Thanks for the responses guys, that was what I wanted to know.
The current engine is a 4.7 - if I were to replace the engine, is that the ONLY one that can go in or would one of the 5.x engines line up?

VERY difficult to switch to a different engine now, the computer controls expect the exact replacement. Possible? Yes, but at a HUGE price.

Look under the hood. It’s either there or no. Sorry, couldn’t resist.