Try cleaning out the slot with the triangular end on it closest to the engine.. Cover most of the slot with your thumb and blow air up in it by whatever means possible. That will blow air directly down the pickup tube and into the oil and should make a bubling sound.. If that works, I would look at the booster plate and it's associated gaskets because it should have sucked that vaseline right out of that slot..
Well, I blew air in the slot closest to the engine and I heard the bubbles so I have a pick up tube. I guess I need to look at that booster plate now. Any other thoughts?
I just noticed something very troubling in the picture of the gear pocket. The side clearance between the drive gear and the pocket is absolutely HUGE...it should only be a few thousandths of an inch. Does the driven gear have this much clearance too? Do you have a different set of gears to try? All money is on this as a root cause based on what we know so far. Devon
I think your seeing the shadow from a chamfer on the corner of the gear that makes the clearance look huge
ok.... take the cover off.. pack the oil pump with your lube. button the pump up. turn the oil pump shaft with your hand. you should instantly see the stuff come out.. if not your gasket is on wrong. that is the ONLY thing in my opinion unless someone stuck a plug on your pressure side out of the pump/ timing cover. any other thoughts?
Ok, I have not separated the booster plate from the pump yet as the gasket may be difficult to obtain locally. Looking at that gasket compared to the regular pump gasket I have difficulty seeing why using the regular pump gasket on the booster plate would cause issues. My oil galley plugs were changed for the screw in type. I guess if they were too long it could block passage. I will look at shop manual to assess how close they intersect to the block surface. ok.... take the cover off.. pack the oil pump with your lube. button the pump up. turn the oil pump shaft with your hand. you should instantly see the stuff come out.. if not your gasket is on wrong. that is the ONLY thing in my opinion unless someone stuck a plug on your pressure side out of the pump/ timing cover. any other thoughts? If you look at some of the earlier pictures I posted you will see that the top of the oil filter is full of vaseline, so that would mean the goop moved through the pump right?
I'm sorry.. I'm with Devon on this one.. And I'm still a 48 yr old newbie, but are the gears as deep in the pocket as they look. This pump, if set up anywhere near correct will suck a golf ball through a garden hose with vaseline..
Looking at picture 5.. The area at the 6 o'clock position of the gear where the vaseline is, is where it would pull oil through the pickup tube it hasn't even sucked the vaseline out.. Right??
No problems with gear clearance, just illusion of pic n shadows, just got back from garage. I am not sure which hole is exit, but yeah, if that's it, there is goop in there. I did not get around to grabbing that scope from work, but looks like it may be worth it before I start taking frt cover off. Yuk.
If you are talking about the "TA_1707A" gasket shown in the link, it shouldn't be difficult to obtain locally at all. This is the same gasket in every buick oil pump kit, available everywhere. The other gaskets are used to set the proper end clearance of the oil pump and I think are only available from TA. The oil galley plugs are definitely something to look into. TA even sells a special plug set that has one long and one short plug for these oil galleys. http://www.taperformance.com/proddetail.asp?prod=TA_1519 I actually bought a set last week from Gessler for like $6 or $7 and had them in two days. On my 300 it looks like there is enough room to use a standard depth plug, but with the pipe threads I needed the special plug set to keep the plugs from sticking out the front of the block and hitting the cam sprocket.
Yeah, I didn't really look at the depth of the gears in your pic the first time- on mine, the gears are practically level with the pump body, which is the way it should be. Are your gears really that far from the pump body gasket surface? With the cover installed and the gears in, can you push/pull the oil pump drive shaft? If so, you either have the wrong oil pump gears or perhaps the front cover is machined for the high volume gear set???
The gears should be protruding from the pocket, not sunk. The end clearance comes from the gasket. Devon
Thanks to all of you for the support and assistance in attempting to resolve this issue, I REALLY appreciate it. I know I have threaded plugs at rear, I may recall builder saying that he could not use threaded plugs at front due to clearance issue. At this point it looks like pick up tube to pump may be ok, an that issue may be after pump.
According to the TA Performance site, their high performance pump assembly/front cover for the 231/300/350 uses the high volume (deeper) gears. Does the GN have that same front cover and higher volume pump gears? Not sure which cover you have, because the TA Performance "high performance" cover comes assembled with gears installed and packed with vaseline. If the GN has a higher volume oil pump, and you have the 300 oil pump gears installed, then that there is your problem.
Devon and David, Went to garage, measured clearance as per shop manual, gear protrude, slipped a .0025 feeler gauge between straight edge across gears and the oil pump pocket mating surface. (not sure if it makes sense, as per book)
Good thinking there. But if I recall correctly, the difference is 1/4" or something like that. I think it would be tough to put the ones in that would be too sort by that much? If the shop didn't use the threaded plugs at the front, I sure hope that they used some plugs there. That would lead to no pressure too if those plugs were accidentally omitted. Another stupid question, maybe try another oil filter? I think you have a Wix on there and that's what I use, but maybe that filter is messed up for some reason? You may have to end up pulling that fron cover if all else fails.
the oil pressure guage hole is between the oil pump and the lifter valley i think. if it will not prime up the gears have to be wrong unless you have the wrong gasket on the wrong side.
