I just bought this ranger and have been driving daily for a couple weeks now. It's an '88 XLT 2.3 fuel injected with 94,000 miles on it. It had been sitting for about a year and has a few issues but nothing I can't work through. Today I was driving it back to work after lunch, only about 4 miles, and I started hearing a rattle coming from the engine. Well when I got to work I found out it was a quart low on oil and it gave me no warning, no oil light, nothing. I put in a quart of 5W30 and now when I start it I get a quick little rattle when it first fires up then it goes away. It does it whether the engine is warm or cool. Did I do any damage to it and what can I do to stop the noise?

 

OK, I got the rattle to stop by adding a pint of Rislone High Mileage and that stopped the rattle. Well now it's back. This thing has a slow oil leak and apparently I let the oil get a little low, no oil light though, and when I started it up the other day it's back. I topped off the oil with some 5w-30 but it's still doing it. You get a quick loud rattle when you first start it up but then while driving you can hear a small one that wasn't there before. Any suggestions?