Check Engine light on- Oil Light on.. clank clank noise! Help!

[goat455]

Last Thursday, I was noticing that my 1997 Montana was hesitating intermitently thru out the day. Later on that evening I was driving down the freeway when all of a sudden the "service engine soon" and shortly thereafter the "Oil Pressure" light came on. Luckily I was coming upon a freeway exit and quickly got off the freeway and found a nearby hotel right off the exit. I parked in a stall, shut off the engine and that's when the engine starting clanking.. clank, clank, clank, clank. Soooo... my question, what does this mean, besides a big buck repair job? I've heard that 97 Montanas and up were notorious for headgasket problems. Is this my problem too? I love my Monty, original owners of the first year Montys. Now I'm not sure it would be worth the fix. Any advice guys?

[1Bradymichael]

That clank clank is most likely gonna require a few dollars worth of hard internal parts,I am afraid.Head gasket might have aggrevated this but sounds to me like you might have starved the engine of oil or worse.
Maybe your oil pump failed as well.

[umina]

If you had an internal coolant leak and it went unchecked for awhile, it sounds like you snapped your cam shaft. There have been numerous reports of this happening, since the cam is hollow and will tend to snap in half if not lubricated properly. This usually means new or rebuilt engine is in store for you as valves are probably bent too if the cam snapped. When it snaps, nothing turns the oil pump in the pan, causing more damage and a low oil light. The vehicle will also not start or if it does will have NO power and run rough. Sorry for the misfortune if this is the case, as a new engine will run you close to 6k and one from a junkyard will be 2-3K.

[goat455]

Man, I was afraid of that. I hoped for the best, but expected the worse. Maybe time to sell. Anyone interested in a 97 Montana, 92K miles, fully loaded?