93 Ranger engine whine.

[Stromnoodle]

Hello, and thanks for any help. My 93 ranger 4.0 4x4 5speed gives me a terrible engine whine and the pressure drops when the rpm any gear goes above 3,000. My guess is my pump is bad and It runs somewhat dry so my pistons and cam ain't getting enough oil so that's where the whine comes from.... Any thoughts? Cuz I really don't want to take it to a shop if I don't have to. Also now that I think about it, the pressure drops round 2500 when I gas it hard.

 

[RonD]

Pressure drops?
Oil pressure?

Ford hasn't used analog oil pressure gauges since the mid-80's, they switch to "digital", 0 or 1, off or on, lol.

On the engine is an oil pressure switch, below 6psi switch is off and gauge shows 0 pressure, if at or above 6psi switch is on and gauge shows 1/2 or there abouts.
If needle moves up and down at all then it is an electrical issue, if it drops to 0 then yes oil pressure could indeed be dropping below 6psi.

Cold engine
Loosen and remove fan belt from crank pulley.
Start engine, you can run a cold engine for a few minutes without water pump.
See if whine is still there.

Oil Pressure dropping could be an alternator issue(electric) at higher RPMs, and alternator bearing is causing the whining.

While fan belt is off check each pulley, spin it, same for idler and tensioner pulleys

 

[Slammin Sam]

I don't think if you are losing oil pressure, you would hear a whine, you would hear a lot of clatter and perhaps knocking. As Ron stated, the oil pressure gauge is nothing more than an off/on switch. The whine could be your alternator bearings since it is at higher RPMs. At lower RPMs I would guess the notoriously noisy Ford power steering pump.

 

[enjr44]

I have never heard of low/no oil pressure causing a whine. Tick, click, thump, knock and then bang, followed by stop is the usual low/no oil pressure symptoms..... The oil pump pushes less oil at idle than at high rpm. So if it was the oil pump, the gauge would show low at idle and OK (on/off switch) at 3k rpm.

Do what Ron suggested and I think you will find a bad belt, idler or tension pulley, or accessory (alternator is first guess). But, don't run it without the belt for longer than 3 or 4 minutes from a COLD start.

 

[Stromnoodle]

Thanks y'all, I get my alternator checked asap. And it could be my belt then cuz that son of a gun is a bit noisy. And the whine idk but it ain't the power steering as that thing has always been noisy.

 

[Andy D]

If the battery is bad and the alternator has to constantly work hard to charge the battery, it will whine.