Need Help, Huge Oil Leak Now Knocking!

**bassamore** · 04-22-2012

Hey everyone, new here. Alot of my searches for info brought me here over and over but I never found my problem so I figured I would sign up.

Anyway, I do alot of business with the local public car auction, Ive bought several cars from them and then usually trade up or resell and never had any real issues before...I guess this was my time..

I purchased a MINT, like brand new 2004 Pontiac Grand Prix GT. Although the car looked emaculant inside and out, even the engine bay..it has 178k.

Bought it tuesday night for $2400, loaded it up and took it home.

I put about 20 miles on it and was heading about 30min out of town to my bros wedding and smoke just started rolling out the back of the car and in the car threw the vents. As I went to pull over the "Low Oil Pressure" warning came on and shut off as I pulled into a gas station, pushed it into a parking spot and looked at the damage, oil was everywhere, all over the passenger side of the motor mainly and down the chassis. Caught a ride to the wedding, got done, loaded the car up, towed it back home. Poored oil back in and now nothing..not leaking a drop at all, what-so-ever and it has a slight knock.

Am I just screwed or what? Was thinking about dropping the pan and putting some new crank bearings in if that will fix that issue..but I also have the issue of where the heck did all the oil spew out of? Totally lost, I just got done laying under the car for an hour with it running and cannot find anything....

Any help? Please! Thanks!

**Scottydoggs** · 04-22-2012

check the oil pressure sensor by the oil filter, they can leak a lot of oil in a short amount of time. they leak right out where the wires plug into it, and when it lets go it can coat the whole underside of the car too. it happened to me.

**bassamore** · 04-22-2012

Just checked it. The sensor and plug look to be the only dry spots in that hole area. No oil on them at all. The oil filter is soaked but tight. The pullies are all soaked. It has to be something in that area because that crossmember under the pullies is soaked and left a dual line where it was dripping off both sides in the parking lot, theres a couple lines that run above it, thought maybe it could of been a line..but still no leaking when its running again...

**Scottydoggs** · 04-22-2012

long shot but look at the rear valve cover by the alternator, sometime if you remove the alt, and put a long bolt in the wrong spot it breaks the rear cover.

my valve cover gaskets were leaking kinda bad, i had oil everywhere, the pan bolts the pan the motor mount area, and the trans had oil leaking from both side of the trans pan as well. never know.

hows the ticking sound like a lifter or bottom end? post a vid of it if you can.

and a can of de greaser will help clean up the mess, and let you find the new trail of oil.

**bassamore** · 04-22-2012

How do I post a video? Ill check all that out too. Probly drag out the power washer and give it a good spray down. I just dont see how it could go from complete oil discharge to not even getting a drip to hit the asphault. Im about to ram it threw the door of the dealership it came from that auctioned it off.

**Scottydoggs** · 04-22-2012

make a photobucket.com make a free account, upload pic there or vid then import it to the post with the ing or dirct link buttons via the buttons on the top of the reply window.

**bassamore** · 04-22-2012

Pictures by bassamore - Photobucket

Ok, got 2 vids on it. Havent clean the oil off yet, I had to use my gfs phone to record, my mem is full and her screen is real small so couldnt tell rly what I was doing.

**Scottydoggs** · 04-22-2012

that dont sound good at all, is the idle surging? it sounds like it is.

and im guessing by the vid it sounds louder underneath vs up top, does it make noise with the rpms going up and down?

**bassamore** · 04-22-2012

You cant rly hear it at idle so I had my gf sit in the car and give it a tad throttle while I recorded it. Yeah it knocks alot more with the rpms up. Pretty sure bottom end is screwed. There is also metal flakes on the dipstick so...yeah. Might as well of rolled down my window and threw the money out the window and made a few ppl happy then buy this pos. After taxes it ran me $3000. So Im probly going to have to fix it and go in the hole more and let it go rather then give it away and completely loose out.

**Fivefingerdeathpunch** · 04-22-2012

Motor is toast.

Rod knock for sure.

I bet either the oil pressure sending unit went or the front main seal and caused the massive oil spill.

Anytime the oil pressure light comes on in the dash, the motor is most likely gone.

You can try going back to the dealer and see what they can do, or find a used motor and just swap it in.

**Scottydoggs** · 04-22-2012

if you look around you can find a used motor for 500 or so, and if your doing the work its not all that bad money wise.

**bassamore** · 04-22-2012

Yeah, thats retarded though. The purpose of that sensor and light is to save the motor. I checked ebay already..theyre about 700 shipped. Thanks for your help guys.

**Scottydoggs** · 04-22-2012

i'd start looking at your local junk yards. and craigslist.

**Fivefingerdeathpunch** · 04-22-2012

GM is dumb like that.

The light will come on with about 5 psi of oil pressure, the motors already gone before that mark.

Either find a L36 or L26 from online, craigslist and the local junkyard. Try carpart.com aswell.

If you get a L36, you'll just have to swap the top half of your motor over.

**dsmuts** · 04-22-2012

Just part it out and sell me the subframe

**BillBoost37** · 04-23-2012

car-part.com look at the page with the asterisk. That'll be the lowest price. Usually around here those motors are going for $300

I agree motor is toast. It's about an 8-12 hour job for a newb if you are inclined. PS..I'd clean it down before doing the swap to make it nicer on the guy doing the work.

**bassamore** · 04-23-2012

Checked that website. I can find one locally for about $550 the cheapest listed. Plus Im sure theres room for lowballing. The rest say to call. Im going to see what I can come up with. Do they not just make crank bearing kits and rod bearing kits?

**Scottydoggs** · 04-23-2012

most of the time its cheaper to get a used block than pay for all the machine shop work that is needed to do it right, most of the time if you just slap new bearings it wont last long.

**bassamore** · 05-04-2012

Well, I decided to give the rod bearings a whirl 1st. It was $40 bux for the bearings and $50 for the oil pan gasket. I figured what the hell, $100 vs $1000+. I didnt notice the oil pan lacks about 1/2" - 1" from coming out due to the stupid motor mount. Pretty rediculous! I spent all day tearing it down. Then went and got a crotchrocket..so..should be finishing up tomarrow and Ill let you all know how it turns out. Damage looked minimal, I pulled the worst one off to see if I would be finishing it tomarrow or just getting a new motor and it didnt look that bad at all, so hopefully the rod bearings will have me rolling again!

**Rico** · 05-04-2012

You're wasting your time. I did this to my GT and it only lasted 6700 miles befoe it went again.

Your motor ran low on oil.
Lack of oil caused rod damage
Most likely the main bearings have been compromised as well
Increased main bearing clearance will likely cause rods to fail again
Even if mains are good the rod bore is now OOR ---> causing failure

If you insist on doing this I would highly suggest installing a oil pressure gauge. This will prevent the inconvenience of being stuck somewhere and having to call AAA. When the oil pressure at idle gets down to 10 psi swap the motor with a good short block or rebuild it correctly.

I've had much success with rebuilding high milage motors, 140K to 200K, that are still running good. A good running motor is usually within spec, regardless the amount of miles; rod and main bores are still round. This enables me to rebuild the motor without all of machine shop expenses associated with rebuilding one that has had a catostrophic failure.

It's amazing to me that people buy a good running 150K 3800, bolt it to an engine stand and not replace the bearings and hone the cylinders. The last one I did started as a bare block and 9 hours later I had the entire motor put together with all clearances checked. The cylinders were honed and piston clearances checked as well. ARP fasteners pulled everything together.

Plastigauge is your friend.