I was running my 95 z28 thru the gears and suddenly lost all oil pressure. I pulled off the road and shut it down quickly. I didnt loose any oil so i dont think i blew a gasket but im not sure. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

Its possible that the oil pick up fell off,could have stripped the teeth off the oil pump gear drive,or cam.Or could have a bad oil pressure sensor.

 

i second that.. what ever u do, dont drive it until u find out. same happend to me when i first got my car. mine turned out to be a clogged oil line full of oil sluge where the previous owner didnt change the oil and let it sit for a year. and it only had 49,000 miles on it. the pump was fine

 

I have almost the same problem. What is the easiest way to check this? Iirc, the little plastic coupler to the oil pump is not accessible from underneath right?

 

I had the pickup fall off on mine at 48K miles. Got a new crate engine under warranty

But it does suck as I spun the #4 rod bearing and I was only at a stop light idling when it happened.

 

Probably spun a rod bearing.

 

The motor did not make any noise when I lost pressure so I'm not thinking it was a bearing. I spun a main bearing in a mustang and it still had oil pressure. Why would a rod bearing make me lose oil pressure? I'm going to take the oil pan off this weekend and see if the pick up tube fell off and go from there.

 

The good thing is you caught it as soon as it happened from the way it sounds.

Good Luck

 

Did you check the cable/connector going to the oil pressure sensor?

 

With proper oil level, oil should still get into the pump even if the pickup fell off (except on quick take-offs or hard braking). You can drain the oil and rap on the bottom of the pan with a rubber mallet to see if the pickup bounces around (meaning it fell off). You might try checking the sensor wire. If grounded, it will zero the gauge. Unplug it from the sensor and it should peg the gauge.

 

Mine did not make any noise after it lost all pressure either.

After a while, it started to knock. Even after it started knocking, sometimes it would not knock so noticeably, other times it was easy to tell. It had me thinking it was the pickup tube bouncing around.

So I drained the oil and tapped the pan with a mallet. I could hear something in there but not big enough to be a pickup tube.

So I pulled the pan and it was the oil level sensor bouncing around. No rod bearing in the pan though. So I checked by rocking each rod cap until I found a loose one. So I pulled that cap and sure enough there was a rounded bearing, totally spun and half the size it should be. That part of the crank journal was also way smaller than the rest of the crank, so I had to replace my crank.

Once the pan is off you will know exactly what you're dealing with. But not all rod bearings sound the same when spun. On my 4 cylinder it was knocking like crazy, super loud. When I got the motor out the bearing was totally gone and turned to dust. This was not the case with my LT1.

 

Go to your local parts store, pay about $20.00 for a cheapy direct reading oil pressure gauge. Hook it up to your motor and see if it has oil pressure. When a SBC runs out of oil pressure the first thin it does is star rattleing the rockers. If they aren't ratteling the I will bet that you have a gauge problem. My .02$

 

Thanks for all the input. After i stopped i turned the engine over and it had a pronounced tap. Had it towed to the house and will start with the pick up tube. Was running it thru the gears pretty hard and as i came to a quick stop when i lost the pressure. The guage did not show any pressure when i turned it over either. Im hoping its the pick up tube and will be digging into it tomorrow morning.

Also, last time i changed the oil, about 100 miles ago, there seemed to be pressure built up when i took off the filter. I had already drained the oil and when i broke the seal on the filter, it squirted oil out of the top of the aluminum filter assembly. I found that the part i screw the filter on was feely spinning. It had a bolt like head about 1/4 of the way up the threading and i tightened it. Any chance there might be part of the issue there? Thanks again.

 

Well have the oil drained and saw little gold looking flakes. so im sure some bearings will need replaced. Will i be able to do this without pulling the motor? Ill oost pics tomorrow.

 

i say ur crank will need work or be replaced also. need to go thru bottom end. no since in fixing one part and another on its way out. pull motor. how many miles are on ur motor?