I'm afraid it is so. Saturday, while trying to save 20 bucks searching for scrap boards instead of buying 2 planks at Home Depot, I took the liberty of running over a rather large chunk of tree trunk. Utterly embarrassing. I was merely circling (very slowly) the wood scrap pile, my eyes focused on the pile, when BANG! Not good. While I sat there stunned a smaller, rapid bang bang bang bang could be heard. When I got out and looked, a cross section of a tree trunk was wedged under the oil pan; (course I did know it was the oil pan at that moment-I wouldn't have know an oil pan if I fell over it!)
I called David, my long time rescuer. He, his son, and future son-in-law all arrived and within minutes had the chunk out. Great! Except for the return of the rapid banging noise upon starting the engine. David said "sounds like the crankcase is hitting your oil pan". They all took a look and found a significant dent in the pan. Not being a mechanic I didn't have a clue what that meant. What it means is bad, very bad.
They took my E-150 into the huge shop where they work on the trucks. The shop has a mechanics pit since you can't put big trucks on a lift. For a long time they worked to improvise a way to get the dent pushed back down so I could at least drive home. Oh my. I had the dogs with me and had planned a full day of tilling, seeding etc. Now I was facing an hour towing job. Well those men really were ingenious! They got it pulled down far enough so the crank was not hitting the pan. Bad news is the pan must be replaced.
Suffice it to say it is a huge job-trans has to come out, engine has to be jacked, ei yi yi. As I write this my faithful E-150 is getting "surgery".
How I wish I had pics of all this, but at the time I was too upset, more like sick to my stomach, to think about the camera.
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