well i was stumped for a bit took off the intake and the drive gear was good ..pulled the oil pan and replaced the pump .Cut open the oil filter and found aluminum flakes and a piece of aluminum that was balled up the size of a match head ..Well after searching i found that the syptoms i have witch is no oil pressure after warmed up and 15 pound at 3000 rpms ..it has to be the front oil galley plug on the drivers side behind the timing gear..cause the oil was not grey it was clean just the pieces of aluminum in the filter no glitter in the oil .. Looks like the plug came out and was chewed up by the timing chain ..I did the air through the block at the filter area were the plug is for testing your pressure with a mec gage i blew the air into the motor and there was no resistance it just blew right through ..the motor has no knocks or rattles just noisy valve train at top end ..Im going to pull the timing cover this weekend but from every thing i read my syptoms are dead on with every one who has had the front oil galley plug missing ..I bought the car this way it had a burnt rotor in the distributer and that was all that was supposd to be wrong with it .But after starting it the oil pressure was 15 lb at cold idle and 0 to 7 lbs after warmed up .Well after pulling the oil pan and finding a hv oil pump installed i new they had oil pressure problems befor i got the car good thing the rotor whent right after the oil pump install and new clutch install ..i even went and bought a corvette 4 bolt motor complete just had a bad rod bearing ..Could not pass the deal on the motor it came with the corvette lt4 valve covers with all the hardwear the motor had the 643 heads and the corvette intake complete the person that swaped the motor in the vet put a 1994 fbody lt1 motor in and did not use the corvette intake fuel rails oil pan or the valve covers ..i hope the guy can change the oil cause the corvette pan drains from the rear not the side ..And yes i stole the motor for a whole $200 cash the comsite corvette valve covers are selling for $200 to $250..also bought a 1994 lt1 with 77000 miles on it very clean motor with the 374 heads complete for $350 guess i will have a stand by motor ready if 1 of the motors fail in my 2 z28s ..Will update this weekend when i pull the timimg cover off..

 

has any one ever had one of these oil galley plugs come out ..And does this sound right cause the motor has no rattles or knocks and only 81000 org miles .and i know the galley plug is aluminum and thats all i found in my oil filter when i cut it open no glitter no silver oil clean oil just aluminum pieces nothing else..

 

Well bad news looks like its time for new crank and main and rod bearings.

 

at least none spun ..

 

All good info. I did not know where to start to look for this problem.

Hal

 

I suggest replacing the cam bearings as well. Or, just fix the vette motor.

 

well i also bought a 1994 motor with 77 tho miles on it ..i might just put it in and build the vet motor and the 97 motor im pulling for backups .Seeing i have 2 lt1 cars..