On January 1st. Of this year I was lucky and found a 1996 ford ranger xlt with 79,000 miles for $1000. About 2 week ago I was driving the truck , heard a loud knocking and the check gauge light was on. When I look over the the oil pressure gauge it read zero. I pulled over , got towed home. Got under the truck and noticed that oil was covering the oil pressure sending unit , no oil in the engine. I replaced the pressure unit $14.00 filled the engine with Lucas oil stabilizer top off with oil. Started the engine and as I figured it is still knocking, but not near as bad. Basically hear the knock when I start up and when I put the engine under any load. I'm pretty sure it's a rod and I'm wondering what are my options, can I drive it like it is? The truck runs fine and is not smoking or losing oil. Is a total rebuild the only way? A 14.00 dollar part caused all this! Thanks for any advise or help I can get!

 

Welcome to the forum

Can you drive it, yes, should you drive, no

If you do have a spun connecting rod bearing it will get worse if you run the engine, because its not being lubed very well
And it could be a main bearing knock as well, if if gets hot enough engine will seize

Running out of oil was the cause, surprised you don't have a oil level sensor on the oil pan, pretty common on Rangers
It would have taken a long time to lose most of the oil thru a leaking oil pressure sender, months and months, so maybe rear main seal is leaking, not uncommon on a low mile 4.0l OHV
Low mile vehicles always have seal issues, because they sit for long periods and the seals dry out, then when they are used the dry seals tear a bit because they are stuck to the rotating surface, that applies to axle seals as well as engine and transmission seals

It is a bummer, the low end on the 4.0l OHV engine is usually good for 400k miles
Yes, pulling out the engine and replacing the bearings, if the crank is OK, is about the only option, and if doing that then a rebuild is not much more work