First things first: I have a 1996 Caravan, 3.0l V6.
Plesantries out of the way, I probably destroyed the engine today. I was changing the oil as usual, tested it on idle in driveway, no obvious leaks (on quick glance, unfortunately), we were good to go.
Drove the car about half mile from the house, and oil light came flying on, dinging quite loudly. Drove it back home (so maybe a mile, tops of driving), crawled back under with a flashlight this time, and oil was just pouring out from where the oil filter was mounted. I know I mounted it tight enough, so I opening the thing back up, drained out what little oil was left in the car, and noticed that there was another gasket on the car's filter mount: The only thing I can think of was it was the o-ring from the old filter that had stuck when I removed it (one of them oil-can henry's generic things), and it was OK on idle, but slipped out when it got some pressure.
So I let the car cool off, got the filter back on the correct way, and ran a bunch more oil into it (unfortuately, just some generic Cheveron oil that I could get at the local store as the auto parts stores around here were closed and I had no car to get to anything that might have other oil). Starts and runs fine now (thankfully), however, there's a knocking noise that wasn't there before. It's not an unfamiliar noise, as it sounds like the same kind of knocking we hear when the car is low on oil, which we're familiar with as the car has a minor crank-case gasket leak, according to the mechanic, so we keep a quart in the trunk with us (as it'd be expensive to drop the engine to fix that gasket). I'm really hoping this knocking isn't anything more serious, but since I'm not remotely a mechanic (I'm a computer guy, but a quick learner, and can't afford a mechanic), I have no clue.
Should I worry about the knocking and just chaulk it up to cheap oil and everything not lubed up yet, or do I need to worry (the thing lost nearly all it's oil when the filter blew its top). A quick search on the forums here talk about the lifters knocking because they're not getting enough oil -- is this something horribly a pain to replace if it comes to that?
Please help so I don't have to cram my two kids and my wife in my itty-bitty Subaru
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Plesantries out of the way, I probably destroyed the engine today. I was changing the oil as usual, tested it on idle in driveway, no obvious leaks (on quick glance, unfortunately), we were good to go.
Drove the car about half mile from the house, and oil light came flying on, dinging quite loudly. Drove it back home (so maybe a mile, tops of driving), crawled back under with a flashlight this time, and oil was just pouring out from where the oil filter was mounted. I know I mounted it tight enough, so I opening the thing back up, drained out what little oil was left in the car, and noticed that there was another gasket on the car's filter mount: The only thing I can think of was it was the o-ring from the old filter that had stuck when I removed it (one of them oil-can henry's generic things), and it was OK on idle, but slipped out when it got some pressure.
So I let the car cool off, got the filter back on the correct way, and ran a bunch more oil into it (unfortuately, just some generic Cheveron oil that I could get at the local store as the auto parts stores around here were closed and I had no car to get to anything that might have other oil). Starts and runs fine now (thankfully), however, there's a knocking noise that wasn't there before. It's not an unfamiliar noise, as it sounds like the same kind of knocking we hear when the car is low on oil, which we're familiar with as the car has a minor crank-case gasket leak, according to the mechanic, so we keep a quart in the trunk with us (as it'd be expensive to drop the engine to fix that gasket). I'm really hoping this knocking isn't anything more serious, but since I'm not remotely a mechanic (I'm a computer guy, but a quick learner, and can't afford a mechanic), I have no clue.
Should I worry about the knocking and just chaulk it up to cheap oil and everything not lubed up yet, or do I need to worry (the thing lost nearly all it's oil when the filter blew its top). A quick search on the forums here talk about the lifters knocking because they're not getting enough oil -- is this something horribly a pain to replace if it comes to that?
Please help so I don't have to cram my two kids and my wife in my itty-bitty Subaru
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