HELP! No Oil Pressure, Oil Everywhere

So my girlfriend asks me to drive her XJ home the other night. 20 seconds into the drive, I notice that the oil pressure gauge is reading a big fat zero, with no idiot light on. Pull over, oil everywhere on the passenger side of the motor. Now it's back in our garage. Dipstick was obviously dry, but there was some sludge on the very tip of it...unusual. This was late last night, so I haven't had a chance to put some oil in it, start it up for a second, and find out where it's coming from. By the way, it ran fine before I noticed the oil gauge...no noises. Didn't look like it was leaking from the pan, and definitely not from the valve cover area, and it didn't look like it was coming from the front of the motor by the timing set. I think it's coming from where the oil filter connects to that piece mounted on the block. 200k on the 4.0 HO. Question 1.: Is there some sort of valve between the oil pump and oil filter that can get stuck shut and build up pressure from the pump, thereby spraying oil out from the seals? 2. Will the idiot light only come on when there is less than 1 qt of oil in the case, or will it come on when there is low oil pressure too? I ask because I hope there is still some oil left in there, and that my woman hasn't been driving around like that for some time...cross my fingers. Anyway, any help you guys could send would be appreciated. When I come home from work, it would be nice to have some leads.

recent oil change???

The only time something like this happened to me was when I put a (free) HO filter on my non-HO motor. I half-cranked it a few times to build pressure...- not letting it fully start- then when it didn't build, I said "F it" and fired that guppy up. When OP still didn't rise right away I cut it off for a peekaboo. Of course there was my fresh oil everywhere...the HO filters won't 'seat' like the non-HO :doh:

I'd look into getting a new (correct) filter and some clean oil... hopefully that's the issue.

It sounds like it's coming for the seals on the oil filter bracket. There are three O-rings in the bracket. When I changed mine at 175k two of the o-rings had gaps in them and were dry and btittle. So I'm thinking catastrophic failure of one of the o-rings. But then again what do I know.

Change the o-rings and fill er up with oil and see how it runs.

ditto, o-ring kit from the dealer is cheap, make sure you have the right filter, they changed and I did the same thing woody did, also check the oil pressure sending unit. It mounts near the oil filter. I've blown a couple of those and some times they let oil spray out and read O for oil pressure... A couple quarts of oil and a spray can of engine cleaner should set you up to find the leak.

replace those 3 o-rings for the oil filter adapter...

$3.22 is it

Also PRIME TIME for changing the RHS motor mount is when the oil filter neck is off... it has to come off to do the r/h MM and at 200k, well, look at them MM and decide...

It looks obvious where the large o ring goes but where do the two smaller o rings go?
-greg

Inside the mount on the mount bolt - you'll see when ya pull the mount bolt out.

Those o-rings don't usually fail suddenly and catastrophically.

I had the exact same thing happen years ago on a Toyota PU. I had just done an oil change and wasn't paying attention. The rubber gasket from the old oil filter stuck to the adapter rather than coming off with the filter. When I screwed the new filter on, I wasn't seating rubber to the metal flange, I was trying to squeeze two rubber gaskets together. It held for a couple of days, then decided to blow when I was towing a boat for a friend.

Also -- are you aware that the non-HO engines used a metric oil filter and the HOs use an SAE (American) oil filter? The difference is the thread of the post. Problem is, they are close enough that you can screw the wrong filter on ... and it may loosen up or blow within a short time.

Before going into those o-rings, double check to be sure you didn't have two gaskets on the filter, and be sure that the filter that was on there is the correct filter for her engine. What year is her XJ?

Mine suddenly blew the oil pressure sending unit, sprayed oil everywhere. Easy, inexpensive fix.