My car died, oil light came on, saw smoke, then it fired back up like normal

[rowjelio]

Pretty much what the title says. I was driving down the road. The car runs perfectly fine. Very smooth, then out of nowhere the engine just died, my oil light came on and smoke was coming out the passenger side!! I grabbed my extinguisher and opened the hood as fast as I could!...I looked around the engine bay and....everything looked kind of normal? I hesitated but I was able to fire the engine back up. No more oil light. Started like a match, No problem. Still runs smooth too!. I pulled over to the side of the road. Tried to check the dipstick, seemed low. I keep a quart with me so I put it in the car. Got to my parents house a few blocks away.. still seems like it's running fine and I see no leaks on the floor. Any ideas ? I'm kind of scared haha I had the Air Temp control on, using it for the heater... The car still sounds fine no weird klunks or anything. Any ideas ?

Temperature never got past 1/4

I'm wondering if I overfilled it with oil last week when I filled it on the driveway (on an incline) ?

 

[HWYCRZR]

It is normal for the oil light to come on as soon as the engine dies. If the engine is not turning the oil pump is not turning. Not sure what your puff of smoke might have been? Oil dripping from your valve covers onto the exhaust manifold?

 

[rowjelio]

It is normal for the oil light to come on as soon as the engine dies. If the engine is not turning the oil pump is not turning. Not sure what your puff of smoke might have been? Oil dripping from your valve covers onto the exhaust manifold?

Okay so I got to my parents house and waited, it is overfilled a little yeah.

Waited 45 minutes, then drove to pick up my son at the park, ran perfectly normal. Drove it home just fine. I turned off the air. AC doesn't work and I was using it for heater. Not sure if doing that introduces electrical gremlins. Also turned off the radio.

When it happened, it was at a stop sign and It died very quickly like turning off the key. It didn't sputter or hesitate. I'm still not sure what happened.

I also found a peice of foil underneath the intake manifold for some weird reason. I don't think that has anything to do with what happened but what's that about ?

 

[Luke Pokrajac]

What engine do you have in the car?

 

[rowjelio]

What engine do you have in the car?

400 with a quadrajet. All kinds of possibilities are going through my mind as to what it was. It was so bizarre. It literally fired right back up afterward. In the middle of the street.

 

[HWYCRZR]

Foil pack was normal back in the day. There was a foil wrapped insulation pack that went on the belly pan just below the intake manifold. Some say it was to keep engine heat from the intake manifold to help prevent vapor lock. Other say it was to help reduce lifter noise in the engine.

 

[livininharrow]

why worry about it as it may never happen again. if it does than try to figure it out. not a lot to go on here.

 

[Detroit_Lives]

Pretty much what the title says. I was driving down the road. The car runs perfectly fine. Very smooth, then out of nowhere the engine just died, my oil light came on and smoke was coming out the passenger side!! I grabbed my extinguisher and opened the hood as fast as I could!...I looked around the engine bay and....everything looked kind of normal? I hesitated but I was able to fire the engine back up. No more oil light. Started like a match, No problem. Still runs smooth too!. I pulled over to the side of the road. Tried to check the dipstick, seemed low. I keep a quart with me so I put it in the car. Got to my parents house a few blocks away.. still seems like it's running fine and I see no leaks on the floor. Any ideas ? I'm kind of scared haha I had the Air Temp control on, using it for the heater... The car still sounds fine no weird klunks or anything. Any ideas ?

Temperature never got past 1/4

I'm wondering if I overfilled it with oil last week when I filled it on the driveway (on an incline) ?

Are you sure the temperature gauge is working and somewhat accurate? maybe it overheated and spit out some steam from the overflow? coolant level good?

 

[rowjelio]

Are you sure the temperature gauge is working and somewhat accurate? maybe it overheated and spit out some steam from the overflow? coolant level good?

Coolant level was a little low? Like very little. I refilled the reservoir, been keeping an eye on it, seems normal ? I'll have to replace the thermostat to be sure. I have literally no history on the car so I have no idea how old that job is.

I think Gauge looks accurate because it warms up, then you see the thermostat kick in and the temp goes down. But who knows maybe it's not and what's low is actually really high right lol

It hasn't done it again, but I haven't driven it much since that happened, just around the blocks with the kids hah

 

[75LandYacht]

The “pickup coil” on my 75 NYB started going bad and had the same symptoms as you described.. replaced the dizzy and no
More issues..

 

[rowjelio]

Thanks for this, I'll keep it in mind and maybe replace the whole distributor

 

[Big_John]

Thanks for this, I'll keep it in mind and maybe replace the whole distributor

No need to spend the money and get a crappy offshore built distributor. Just replace the pickup. Pretty easy.

That said, I would drive it some more before firing the parts cannon at it. Right now, you are thinking about replacing parts for the sake of replacing parts and that's a recipe for disaster. I see this all the time here. Folks end up spending $$$ on crap they not only don't need, but not as good as the OEM used stuff already on the car and it doesn't fix the problem. In fact, it often makes it worse.

I know you are looking for an answer, and I appreciate that. Sometimes it's just bad gas. IIRC, this car is new to you. Take the car out and drive it. If you are afraid of it, drive close to home where your AAA card will tow you home, but get out and drive it. See what happens. If it does it again, and I'll bet it won't, then start looking at what's wrong.