COLD!

[MikeG]

And pickles......

 

[1990RangerinSK]

Well of course its flat. You've just reached the edge where it's cold because that's farthest from the sun.

If the earth really was flat, cats would have pushed everything off by now.

 

[1990RangerinSK]

Can you tell where the oil came from?

He blew a gasket. Obviously.

 

[1990RangerinSK]

That’s a possibility I will have to check out. So basically if it freezes, blow by pushes oil through the seals right? When I got home I pulled the crankcase vent line off and didn’t feel much air there. None through the fill hole in the valve cover either. I just hope I caught it early enough to not do terrible damage to the engine.

Yes. There's a lot of pressure in there. The PCV valve relieves that pressure by blowing it into the intake (right?). If the pressure builds up too much, then.....











BANG!!

 

[1990RangerinSK]

Check the PCV valve on the Ranger, it may have moisture in it that froze and caused a pressure build up.

I'll second this. It happened to my dad's 1989 Aerostar on a cold winter's day in the middle of nowhere. Van sounded funny. Dad limped it to the nearest dealer (I don't remember if he checked the oil or not), dealer replaced one or both of the valve cover gaskets and the PCV valve (because it had frozen).

 

[sgtsandman]

If you need to escape the cold you can all come hang out in my basement. It's very warm down there. There's also plenty of soup and its not even a dangerous pit of despair from which you will never escape or anything. Nope just a nice warm haven of soup and happy fun times.

 

[bilbo]

Yes. There's a lot of pressure in there. The PCV valve relieves that pressure by blowing it into the intake (right?). If the pressure builds up too much, then.....











BANG!!

I always thought the negative pressure in the intake created a draft through the engine. The path would be from the air cleaner housing, through the tube to the vented fill cap, down through the head and into the crankcase, out the breather, through the PCV, into the intake, and finally into the cylinders. The PCV just controlled that draft based on vacuum. If the PCV froze, I'm not sure if positive pressure would be able to form as it would just vent through the valve cover at that point. Unless there's a check valve there; I'm not sure whether there is.

 

[19Walt93]

With the PCV valve restricted pressure would build up and push oil/oil vapor out. Old engines had vents on top and a road draft tube hanging down underneath. As the vehicle moved down the road, air rushing by the tube generated the draft and pulled the vapors out. That's why the roads used to have a dark strip down the middle of the lanes and motorcycles knew not to ride in the center but to stay in the wheel tracks.

 

[bilbo]

With the PCV valve restricted pressure would build up and push oil/oil vapor out. Old engines had vents on top and a road draft tube hanging down underneath. As the vehicle moved down the road, air rushing by the tube generated the draft and pulled the vapors out. That's why the roads used to have a dark strip down the middle of the lanes and motorcycles knew not to ride in the center but to stay in the wheel tracks.

Yes it would build some pressure, but would it be enough to catastrophically blow anything apart? If there were lots of blowby I could see it not being able to make it through the 3/8" hole in the cap fast enough and build pressure. But on a decent running engine would there be enough blowby to do that? There's still a vent and tube on the top, it's just connected to the air cleaner housing.

 

[Uncle Gump]

You said you just changed the oil... maybe your new filter popped at the seam... filter didn't get tight and seal leaking... oil pressure switch let go...

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

You said you just changed the oil... maybe your new filter popped at the seam... filter didn't get tight and seal leaking... oil pressure switch let go...

Or double gasket on the fitler...

 

[bilbo]

The filter may be popped, or the gasket pushed out. I've been down the double gasket road before when I worked at Firestone many years ago. There was a certain brand of filter that was notorious for leaving the gasket behind but I can't remember what it was. Anyway it's something I check and it's the first thing I checked when I got home as the old filter was still in my garbage can, with the gasket. It had to be something on the way home as I had driven to the gym and to work (about 60 miles) with no issue. I could definitely be wrong but with the amount of oil under the truck dripping off it had to have been coming out rapidly, so I don't think it would have lasted the morning trip.

I saw the weather looks like it might improve in a week or so. It's kind of depressing I'm excited about 10-15 degrees, but that is 32-37 degrees warmer than it was this morning when I left the house.

 

[Uncle Gump]

Yes... the double gasket could be a possibility too.

I give the OP benefit of doubt that he wiped the filter sealing surface clean before installing the new filter.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

With the PCV valve restricted pressure would build up and push oil/oil vapor out. Old engines had vents on top and a road draft tube hanging down underneath. As the vehicle moved down the road, air rushing by the tube generated the draft and pulled the vapors out. That's why the roads used to have a dark strip down the middle of the lanes and motorcycles knew not to ride in the center but to stay in the wheel tracks.

I don't know if negative pressure really does much for that, farm tractors used the same thing.

Yes... the double gasket could be a possibility too.

I give the OP benefit of doubt that he wiped the filter sealing surface clean before installing the new filter.

I might have missed it but I never saw who exactly changed the oil...

 

[cbxer55]

29 and raining, not good for the trees.

We had that happen in late October. There are still piles of tree limbs and stuff on curbs here from that. There were so many trees down in this area, they're still cleaning up from it. In late October, the trees still had leafs on them. Made it far worse as there was more surface area for ice to cling to. Entire trees broke and toppled. It was and still is a mess.