ChristGilley
GMT400less GMT400 Member
I know it's been kinda slow around here but I figured I'd post in here for some opinions on an issue that started here recently. I moved to South Carolina right before this whole COVID mess started. Since I couldn't find work, the truck ended up sitting for a little bit (I got lazy, that's my fault). I started it, drove it for a bit and everything seemed fine until the oil pressure dropped to 0. I turned the truck off until I had to drive home. It drove and acted fine but that needle kept dropping. I wasn't sure if it was the voltage tripping the gauges out, it's an old battery and I had to boost it to get the truck started, or what was going on. Checked the oil, it was old but I hadn't lost much from the slow leak it has so I cranked it again and drove around the neighborhood. Oil pressure sat low, right around 20-25 but never dropped to 0. Well, we had a bit of a family emergency and I had to drive 2 and 1/2 hours to my moms. Truck was fine for the first 50 miles before I hit some traffic. When I came to a stop, PSI slowly dropped until it hit 0 and I started hearing the lifters ticking. I turned the truck off while I was in traffic and was able to make the rest of the trip with lifters being a little louder than normal (not crazy loud but a little louder than the normal GM lifter tick I'm used to). Once I got off the highway about 20 miles from my moms, pressure tanked again and the lifters got so loud, I was worried the engine was gonna give. I managed to limp it the rest of the way, oil pressure never hit 0 again but refused to climb past 20. Fast forward a week, we get back from our trip, I start the trick with 0 issues and it drove fine to pick up some oil and get an inspection. Oil changed, inspection done and the truck drives like it always had. Oil pressure sat at 40, dipping to 30 at idle and 0 lifter tick. I start heading home yesterday, I drive probably 130 miles with flawless performance from the truck until the pressure slowly goes down again. It never hit 0 but around 20 PSI, the lifter tick got a bit loud again. Not nearly as loud as it was last week, but still loud enough for me to hear over the road noise. I kept an eye on it, babied it the whole way home. It sat around 20-30 and would occasionally try to climb but would never get back to that 40 it normally sits at. I thought the oil was junked up and had clogged the filter, causing the bad pressure and it really had me convinced when we changed the oil and it drove fine that I had solved the problem. But now I'm not sure if the oil pump is gone, if the cam has worn out or what the problem is. I'm considered at risk, so even if places around me were hiring, I've been getting told by employers to wait until it's "Not as much of a liability" for me to work. So I can't really just toss money and parts at the thing until something sticks. So hit me with your thoughts and opinions. I've seen people fix this issue with an oil change, with a new oil pump, or by completely rebuilding the engine
