Used or rebuilt engine certainly seems to make the most sense. These engines are known to go for 300K miles, so used is a reasonable gamble.

However, if you are determined to work on your engine yourself, consider this: The rocker pivots are the "last place" to receive oil pressure. Pull a rocker pivot bridge off. If it the mating surfaces are nice and shiny, then maybe the engine has not been driven very long without pressure, and maybe, your lower bearings are not all shot. Still, you'd have to find the pressure leak in the lower half, and also worry about any lower bearing that sees this reduced oil pressure further down the oil distribution flow from that leak. Please take this idea in the context that I am certainly no expert; this is just a thought for discussion; ridicule is welcome. I still vote used or rebuilt.

JohnEP

 

Did you turn engine over by hand before using starter? If you did not, there is a good chance (especially after 7 years) that a valve was stuck and you bent a pushrod. Have you verified oil pressure with a test gauge? I would change filter and verify oil pressure before going any further. You NEVER crank an engine that has been sitting that long without first rotating it by hand with a wrench.

 

Occasionally it was started up and moved around the yard or to snow plow around it. While working on the body I was able to move it in and out of the garage.
I do like the optimism of this site. There's hope for every engine.
I'll keep ya all posted on any developments.

 

Did you happen to fire it up on a filter that was there for a year or more?

 

Its gonna come down to how much time you wanna spend getting it fixed . A rebuilts about 1,500 and a days work to replace .Rebuilding it your selfs gonna be lest costly but a lot more of your time spent .

 

Time and patience I have lots of.

 

Well you're going to need a machine shop too.

 

After discovering a a loosened off valve cover (thank you previous owner) I replaced the gasket and stopped the oil leak up top by tightening the bolts properly.
I bought a Napa gold filter and added a quart of Lucas heavy duty oil stabilizer.
The oil was fresh 10w30 from the recent oil pan change I did.
Topped off the coolant and hit the road.

Startup is smoother with the Napa gold filter, thank you all for the filter info.
No major pressure drop after I drove for almost an hour.
I went out to a property I have and came back running normal pressure.

While I was at it I did cruisers ground stud clean up on the engine and used contact cleaner on all connections under the hood.
I'd already added a ground from the battery to the fender so I added one from the fuel rail to the firewall.

I took the flywheel cover off and cleaned all the oil off of it.
There's still a little bit of an oil drip from the center of the rear of the oil pan down the shield. Could be old oil, it was leaking pretty serious, or I may need a new rear main seal.

 

Sounds like it's ready for a car show now.

 

Glad to hear your got that sorted!

Word of advice though: Ditch the Lucas. You are not doing your engine any favors by running it, you're actually reducing the level of detergents and critical anti-wear additives, and making it harder to start. If you want a heavier oil just run a heavier oil like 15w40. There's a link in my signature you can read if you want to know why I say this.

 

I did read your write up on oils last night. Very informative.
I was a quart low so I filled it up using the Lucas.
If I end up pulling the pan to change the rear main seal, (if it is leaking) I will be switching to the rotella 15w40 (t6?)
I did not want to waste more oil diagnosing leaks.
Run this stuff until it warms up outside.

 

I know that feeling, when I bought my XJ the VC gasket was leaking pretty bad, when I went to loosen the bolts to replace it I found the bolts were only hand (more like finger) tight, no wonder it leaked so much. Though it turned out to be beneficial, since the cover was so loose the "old" gasket never adhered properly so I didn't have to scrape it off. I replaced the gasket with a fel-pro perma-dry plus and torqued the bolts to spec and haven't had a leak from the valve cover since.

 

15W40 is T3/Triple Protection

 

I bought it from a guy that thought it was out of gas.
Bad coil had no spark.
Parking brake seized on.
A couple spark plugs were less than finger tight. Flat tires. Leaky windshield. Destroyed interior. No power steering fluid for a long time. rotten rockers and brake lines. Exhaust falling off.
It's been a fun one for sure.
I like to think I saved this one from the certain fate of the crusher.
I sold my 1996 with a 3" lift and went 6.5" with this one. I love it!

Salad, t3, I'll remember that. Thanks.

 

Right now I have installed a new rear main seal. It took all afternoon yesterday to remove everything and clean it all up.
I have ordered a new oil pump, pressure switch, and oil filter adapter seals.
Pressure stays up when running these days.
I got rotella 15w-40 to refill with after the pan goes back on.
Thanking everyone for all the write-ups and info on here. The rear main seal removal and install went perfectly.