Drove approximately twenty mile after losing oil pressure, started making knocking noise

1999 FORD RANGER
165,000 MILES • 3.0L • 6 CYL • 4WD • MANUAL
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JASONLE
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I lost oil pressure drove like twenty miles turned it off see if gauge was not working or would come back up when it started. it started making a nose not really a knocking like a spring broke on the valve. i drove twenty more miles home. do you thank an oil pump would fix it? Do you think a valve spring broke if it was knocking? Did i drive it too far causing the engine to blow up? i don't really know what to do right now and it has some what of a mess now. also when it did this i dogged it hard going around a big truck. but like i said no nose until i cut it off then started it back. can any one give me a idea what i should do or where to start? oil look like has little bit metal in it also not bad you can just see if look really good.
Mar 28, 2019 at 4:01 PM
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SCGRANTURISMO
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Hello,

If your engine lost it's oil pressure, was driven that way, is knocking, and has metal shavings in the oil, I would lean towards it having complete bearing failure, i.e. it's blown up. I actually have some experience with a 1996 Ford Ranger 4X4 with a 3.0L engine and this issue. I was driving semi trucks and during time off went four wheeling with a friend. I hit and damaged my Oil Sending Unit. I didn't realize this. I let my girlfriend take truck on 500 trip. When she was 30 miles from where she was going, the Oil Sending Unit failed, dumping all the oil out. She drove the truck the last 30 miles, on Interstate 5, to her location. When she got there number one connecting rod had come apart and was sticking through the side of the engine block and engine was completely ruined.
The metal shavings in your oil are filings of your engines main and connecting rods bearings going metal to metal because of the lack of oil lubrication. Your engine will most likely have crankshaft and camshaft journal damage as well. Sorry to tell you this, but my estimation would be to replace engine. Let us know if we can help in other way.

Thanks,
Alex
2CarPros
Mar 28, 2019 at 4:18 PM