got the new motor in and I think I toasted the pump, I only get 10-15 lbs. of pressure at idle, it won't gain pressure unitl I rev it on startup, and when getting in the throttle the pressure drops quickly to 0.


I floored the car to 6500 rpm a quart low on oil and I think it may have sucked the pan dry and fried the pump... the weird thing is that when it is cold it acts almost normal. I changed the oil and filter and it helped a little but it started dropping just when I get to 4 grand now.



Any suggestions on how to change the oil pump quickly and easily would be great, and tips or problems people have run into while doing it would be nice to.

 

Dude you better get a manual gauge and confirm that . It almost sounds like a spun bearing oil pressure wise. does it make any noise?

 

I dunno, but I'd fix something quick before you need to change out some bearings!

 

My suggestion is not to treat your engine like this (especially not a new one).

IMO, sounds more like damage to bearings than an oil pump.

 

no noise... yet


I guess I should tow it to wherever i fix it.

 

I don't understand how that could be damage to the bearings????\




how would it act like that?


you guys have me freaking out right now.

 

I am going to have to agree about the damaged bearings. Sounds like cam bearings, but if its not the bearings, were you running a high volume pump because if you were, it could have very easily sucked the pan dry. Are you running a stock pan? Of so, then it could have run the pan dry, but at this kind of abuse it could have spun a bearing.

 

I thought that I should be able to hear a spun bearing, I haven't heard any sound of the sort.

it has a brand new cam in it, could this have hurt the situation, I didn't realize it was low on oil until later.

 

Every car I have had that spun a bearing held good oil pressure until you stepped on it , at which time it pegged the 0 and then slowly climbed back up, sometimes it takes a little while for the rod to start knocking (or the piston).

A high volume pump will simulate this but not drop to "0" on the gauge, I had a HV pump in my 93 for a while without baffling and tray , and it would act like this, but when I added the baffled pan back and just a factory windage tray this phenom went away.

 

it doesn't have a HV pump,

is it even worth changing out the pump or should I just change out all the bearings and hope nothing is scored?

if it is spun then is it definitly scored?

 

SBC pumps are very stout peices from the factory, I doubt the pump is bad. I would check the pick-up level , or maybe it even came off. if its there you got problems. pop rod caps til you find it, hopefully youll just need the rod journals turned.

 

alright, I'll put a mechanical gauge on it first, if that isn't it (which I doubt it is) then I'll pull the pan, and take a look around.

I also was told that it could be the pin at the top where the distributor goes but I did put that in. could it be messed up?

I've got a extra cam sitting here and hopefully it can't mess up the rest of the valve train.

I still don't understand how a spun bearing would have those symptoms.

 

Its kinda like water, it flows the path of lease resistance. when there is no resistance the pressure drops, the oil pours out the spun bearings area. At idle the pump is turning slower and the resistance is there up stream.

 

I thought when you spin a bearing you actully cap off the journel, but I'm definitly going to check it out either way, I think I'm going to try to just replace the pump first, if the bearing is spun then it will still have the pressure issue, if I really mess something up then I've got another motor to pick and pull from, and if it has to go to the machine shop then it is going to get some forged lovin.