Thoughts on 455 oil pressure drop?

At least the oil was well filtered!

 

You need to either pack the pump with jelly or re-prime the pump by spinning the oil pump from above with a power drill before restarting the car...

Assuming the pump is empty.

 

X3. If the oil pump is still wet with oil, packing the pump shouldn't be necessary. Just be careful while priming that you don't push down on the drive shaft/gear. If this doesn't do it, try the above tricks before resorting to packing.

Devon

 

A little too filtered. Still scratching my head how I could have done something so bone headed.

 

More of us have been there than would care to admit

Devon

 

Main bearing pics in order 1-5. Seems like there’s more wear at bearing parting lines? That normal ?

 

Smarter minds than me will chip in, to me the wear doesn't necessarily seem too much, what bugs me more is what is imbedded in the bearings? Maybe that's no big deal either. Did they plastigage ok?

 

I haven’t measured the with plasiguage yet. Wanted to see what bearings looked like in general first.

 

Here’s number 8 rod and bearing. Looks like marks inside the rod seat and back side of bearing. Not sure what to make of that.

 

Thinking I may be doing new bearings.

 

Now that im looking at the pics on my computer instead of my phone I amend my earlier statement, I would replace all the bearings for sure!

 

I'm not a pro by no means but to me it looks like your crank bores are out of round and that there's no wear at all at the cap to block seams in the bearings. Also it looks like something has passed through there and scored some grooves in the bearings, does the crank journals have the same markings? You maybe into turning the crank and oversized bearings.

 

Yes, some trash definitely has been thru there. The mains looked good no nicks or grooves so hopefully the bearings sacrificed themselves. I’ll look closer at the rod journals when I disassemble the engine further. Only checked #8 rod so far .

 

I would also
Just based on the discovery of the towel restricting oil flow thru the pick up tube

 

You had foreign particles in the oil. Dust, dirt, abrasives and/or metallic particles present in the oil supply embed in the soft babbitt bearing lining, displacing metal and creating a high-spot. The high-spot may be large enough to make contact with the journal causing a rubbing action that can lead to the eventual breakdown and rupture of the bearing lining.

BTW, you have an uniform wear pattern over approximately around 2/3 of the bearing’s surface, that is the correct wear pattern.

 

Update: Upon further inspection the #7&8 rod journal had some minor grooves you could barely feel. I took the crank to the machine shop and they said it could be polished out without having to turn it down more.
Dodged a bullet by pulling the motor when I did.

 

I maintain that whether its cars, or houses, or whatever, sometimes we all have a little "opps." Sometimes it costs us a little money, sometimes a lot. Most people don't like to admit it publicly, and some like to give people a hard time like they never did.

Happy for you that it turned out to be not terrible in the end.

 

All this talk about paper towel, a piece of paper towel or shop towel blocking the little round pump screen cost me many $$ to do full rebuild. This was before I learned you never run these cars without real gauges. The idiot light was basically there to tell me it was time to pull my engine.

 

Glad to hear I’m not the only one to experience this. Seriously just happy the damage was minimal. I have other toys to drive but still a little sore about not being able to drive the Buick up to Woodward this past summer (and a good thing I didn’t).