Greetings gentlemen.
Ill be short and to the point.

1999 Ranger XLT. 148k miles.
Replaced water pump, power steering pump, serpentine belt. No other previous issues.
Ran 5 oz of Seafoam in crankcase, drove 8 miles. Drained oil. Replaced oil with 5 qt. Pennzoil High Mileage 5w30.
Ran at idle for 30 min.
Oil pressure guage went wild, eventually dropping to zero. Resumed normal pressure after giving it gas, dropped after accelerator is released.
Valves clattering heavily. Blue smoke from tailpipe intermittently.
Gave it a break after an hour. Started her back up. Normal oil pressure.
Backed out of the driveway, drove down the street 100 yards. Valves clatter, oil pressure steady. 200 yards and oil pressure drops. Immediately pull into my driveway, depress clutch and she dies.

Im defeated. I pay obscene amounts of child support and absolutely need this truck to get to work and see my kids.
Any thoughts?

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I have a 99 XLT 4x4 Ranger. It had an oil pressure indicator issue. FYI - The oil pressure gauge is an idiot light and not a real gauge. If it senses 7 psi oil pressure, the needle is rock solid in the middle of the gauge.

You might try changing the oil pressure sender. That fixed my issue. It is pretty inexpensive and if you are flexible, you can do it yourself.

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1999 Ranger XLT extend cab 4x4 V6-183 3.0L Flex 5 speed, and it's Oxford white!

Did you actually read his post genius? Bad pressure sending units don't cause valve noise and oil smoke. Sounds like a bad oil pump and the engine is damaged.

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Could be the pan gasket debris got sucked into the oil pump pickup screen and blocked the incoming flow. There was a gasket that came apart and turned into granules which performed that way. I do not know the years.
You may have disturbed the stuff at the bottom of the pan when you did the oil change. Some were successful(partial at least) using a coat hanger or other stiff wire to scrape around at the bottom of the pickup to move the material towards the drain plug hole. Access through the drain plug port, obviously.
If you have valve clatter, but have not gone further, you may still have OK con and main bearings. The lifter/supports are the last thing fed by the oil gallery, so they would 'starve' first. Only one way to find out.
If you don't feel good about scraping through a very small hole, you might drop the oil pan( you have to lift the engine, and may have to pull it or almost pull it to gain room) and clean the pickup. (And replace the pan gasket).
tom

You didn't say how often you've changed oil and filter, and for what reason did you use seafoam in the oil. If it was because the oil looked black and hadn't been changed for a long period, it might have loosened up some crud in the oil pump causing the valve to stick open. I'd change the oil and filter first and see how it goes.

sounds like the pickup is clear from no suction when turned off for awhile then when started the whatever is sucked onto the screen blocking flow if you have oil pressure when first started I would think that you have not fubared it

roscoe

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roscoe 0202
hi newb here truck 94 b4000 mazda aka ranger
truck is stock just runaround
have project bronco II
i'm 74 and retired
roscoe