I am a single mom and my son 17 ran his truck 93 F150 Ford without oil for around 1 week we added 5 quarts to get it to read full on dip stick. I took it to a mechanic and they said that the rods and cams are bad and will probably start knocking soon. My question is how long to think we will have before the engine goes out completely? It has a 302 engine in it and we have a 351 engine that we could put in but will it fit and how much expense will it be?
As far as how long the engine will run, Its a day by day thing.
The engine swap may be fairly easy if its a 351 Windsor. You may need to swap the ECM and MAF sensor from a truck that had a stock 351, but I am only guessing. Maybe someone with more knowledge will chime in.
My guess is this engine swap is performed a lot, and if you did some searching on the internet in ford truck forums you will find the exact details
thanks so much for your help.
An engine won’t run for a week without oil.
Your son’s engine may have been low, but it wasn’t empty.
Many trucks hold 6 quarts…As long as the “OIL” light was not on, there was oil pressure and the engine may have survived…
We see these “No Oil” threads more and more. Doesn’t anyone check their oil anymore??
"I took it to a mechanic and they said that the rods and cams are bad and will probably start knocking soon. " That’s just a guess. I hope you didn’t pay money for that opinion…
The oil light does not work. He had a oil leak from the rear seal and we were aware of this. the truck had started making a noise that over a weeks time got louder and louder at which point I ask him if he had checked the oil lately. He said not since he last changed it 3 weeks ago so we checked the oil and we put in 3 quarts before it even registered on the dip stick then 1 more and it registered 1 quart low then the 5th quart but it on full. The noise over a day stopped. Then I was told i needed to get the engine checked out so that is when i took it to a mechanic to have it checked. He has been driving it now for about 1 month since the oil was out. Is there anything else that i can do that you know of? Thanks for all of your help and comments.
Just cross your fingers and have a plan for what he ought to do if it decides to give up the ghost one day. In the mean time you can also figure out for certain what it would take to drop that 351 in there so that it is ready to go. If it was seriously damaged from the low oil, there is no reversing that or prolonging the inevitable.
Also make sure that he checks the oil - a lot.
93’s only had Mass-Air setups in California, everywhere else it was still Speed Density. A 351 will fit and should work ok provided it’s a 87-95 engine. You will need a 351 ECU since the firing order is different (although most Mass-Air roller 302s will use the 351/302 HO firing order, most 302/351s had roller cams by 1993, but very few 302/351s that went into trucks in 1993 were mass-air.)
It’s not as complicated as it sounds 