I ran the car at the track today, and on the return road I noticed the oil pressure guage display was blinking and showing 8psi. I idled back to the pits and cut it off. After it cooled off a little I cranked it back up and it still showed 8psi. Then a thought popped in my head! I cut it back off, turned the key on, it still showed 8psi! So it had 0 oil pressure from some point on the track all the way back to the pits! No valve train noise or knocking that I could tell. Back at the shop I pulled the dist out and stuck the oil pump primer in. After running for about 5 seconds, it had oil pressure again. What's going on? o No:
Check the bottom of the distributor shaft to see if the interface between it and the oil pump shaft has sheared. Just a guess. Devon
There's actually 2 gauges, a digital gauge and an old mechanical gauge. The mechanical one is harder to see, so I usually look at the digital one. The mechanical gauge showed 20 lbs, the digital one showed 67! At this point I'm willing to pull them both out and chunk them in the trash can. I just had an ugly thought. I've heard of blocks cracking at the main web but the girdle keeping everything together, and the oil pressure not acting right.
Although this won't diagnose nor help your oil pressure problems but I have a Autometer oil light mounted right next to my tach and shift light. I see it as a little insurance policy. I know I am busy looking at the tach and shift light and not down at the gauges so if I ever have a total loss of oil pressure I want that bright red light to come on right in front of me. Hope you find the problem and it isn't serious ray: Bill
If all checks out ok with your oil pump, and dist. drive gear, remove your timing cover and then your timing gear and chain, check to see if your main galley oil plugs didnt pop out, more so the pass.side plug. I just had this happen on my 350, the only noise I noticed were the lifters started chattering, then I looked at my AUTOMETER MECHANICAL oil press. guage, it showed 0 psi, thats when I shut it down. Ditch the digital guage, those are for show cars of the early 80's not for serious monitoring of the engines operating condition. Mark
Alan, This problem is sometims tough to diagnose. I can tell you about an issue we once had. Oil pressure was fine. We would get to the starting line and was fine. About 100 feet after the launch the car would shut off because of my low oil pressure switch. I later found out that the bottom of the oil pan was "oil canning" and sucking up against the oil pickup. Let us know what you find!
Does anyone need copper flakes for a paint job? ou: Pulled the oil filter off and it's full of metal. I don't know what came first, the engine chewing on itself or the oil pressure weirdness. It has to come out now anyway, so along with whatever else it needs, it will be getting an oiling system upgrade!
If it's like everything else I work on, it should be back together by 2017 or so! ou: I REALLY want to take it to the Nats in May!!!!!
That's bad news, but if you have to find a silver lining somewhere it would be that you caught it before more severe damage occurred. Bill
Update: Turbo engine still does not play well with transmissions! ou: Looks like the S.P. converter ballooned and ate the thrust bearing. Maybe it needs a Lenco! :idea2:
Yikes, Alan. I don't think I've heard of anyone reinforcing a VP converter to resist that much pounding, don't know if it can be done. It may well be time to look at alternatives. Devon
i was talked away from s/p about 15 yrs ago and never went back divorse the s/p and get a quality converter i like midwest out of rockford arent conveters made to balloon a little?make sure the body converter you/they choose has enough room to grow a little ken
Watch the converter has clearance between it and the flexplate. If the converter balooned it will not return to it's original shape and you'll have virtually no clearance when you try to push the converter back into the transmission. If someone pulled the trans onto the block when installing it that will take out the pump and bearing too, and you'll have no clearance-usually people notice no clearance when they have done that but sometimes they just force the converter around to bolt it up. It should have 1/16" min -3/16" max clearance between converter and flexplate otherwise if not enough it will push the oil pump gears into the stator in the pump as well as the crank into the thrust bearing. Too much clearance and it will dissengage the pump gears, or barely drive them. Excessive trans pressure can add to the problem too as far as balooning is concerned, but this usually is only in -3 kit or manual valve body units that get driven daily. I guess what I am saying is check the clearance and have the pump pulled out by a trans shop to confirm if it is damaged before it goes back in. Maybe even check the line pressure in drive on a stall test when you put it back in, or before you pull it if you get engine oil pressure back first. Hope the new year goes better. :beer
was this a stock sp converter or from from jimweise/trisheild performance??? cause i'm still flipping to th400 to sp400
