440- Got hot and got noisy and lost pressure

[jerry]

Fairly recent rebuild, always reliable. Just put on eddy heads, new adj rockers, lunati hyd cam and lifters. Couple weeks ago ran it hard for a bit, and started ticking in driveway. Shut it down , let it cool, noise went away. Drove since, no noise, runs great. Took it out today for good long drive, ran great. Stopped to get gas when almost home, got on it pretty hard, and ticking came back and didnt stop. Babied it home, ticking all the way, let it cool, and started it again. Ticking still and oil pressure never came up. Shut it down. Ideas?

 

[khryslerkid]

Did your oil pressure drop the first time it got noisy?

Is it ticking, or are all the valves rattling?

I'm thinking if all your valves are rattling, you lost your oil pump. Could be just the valve hanging up inside it, or it wiped out. You can also loose some teeth on the oil pump shaft or the shaft can break. Easy enough to remove and inspect.

 

[Dennis H]

I "lost" a blue rag in the motor doing valve guide work. After driving to and from Los Angeles and Reno, it finally clogged the pickup and oil pressure was lost. Any unaccounted for items after the head work etc?

 

[miller]

How hot did that thing get? Overheating, for whatever reason can do terrible things to parts and pieces.

On your motor, oil pump is a easy check. Look at it first. Pull your distributor, and the pump drive gear, to make sure the drive gear is still in one piece. Gear end could have slipped, hex end could have busted, blah, blah. Also make sure the oil pump turns okay, even if you have to pull it. Look hard for any signs of parts that have taken heat...cooked...turning blue from over-heating.

Just thinking your oil system could have some kind of 'problem'. You need to find out, or many of your nice parts will become scrap metal.

Pull all your spark plugs, and rotate your motor by hand. Your looking for any drag thats not normal. Should visually look at most of your parts, to check for parts burning. Unfortunately, talking about pulling the intake, and maybe even the pan.
The signs are something bad is right around the corner, unless you find it first...and fix it.

Good luck on it!

 

[tallhair]

I "lost" a blue rag in the motor doing valve guide work. After driving to and from Los Angeles and Reno, it finally clogged the pickup and oil pressure was lost. Any unaccounted for items after the head work etc?

Me too LOL ..

I had the rag laying on the valley pan as it had a crack and was throwing oil out. Eventually the rag soaked up enough oil to positively seal the crack and whoosh sucked the rag right in.

wound up getting it all picked out and everything was OK.

 

[jerry]

I didnt mean overheating hot just a good long drive (temp 190).
It just seemed to me that when oil got thinned out both times, and I
stopped and started up again, valvetrain made noise. I will pull dist
and report back. Thank you all.

 

[Cranky]

What weight oil are you using?

 

[jerry]

10w40 oil. About to pull dist and have a peek. Here is photo of the patient.

 

[nm9stheham]

The car is upsdie down....all the oil drained out.... (Sorry...could not resist)

Hope you caught it in time, Jerry. Almost sounds like something started to loosen in the oil pickup system and finally got bad enough to lose the ability to prime the pump.

Cut open the oil filter too... just in case. Somone on one of the forums recently reported a collapse of the internal element in a filter.

 

[sleepar]

I would pull the oil filter and send a sample through a kit Napa sells and have it analyzed for what's in it... then after the sample is taken cut the filter open... I suspect you have a fram filter? ...... Or oil pump went down....

- - - Updated - - -

10w40 oil. About to pull dist and have a peek. Here is photo of the patient.

Running the car upside down will cause the sump to go dry...

 

[jerry]

Haha. Sorry about pic. Pulled dist today, all looked good. Shaft is fine. Filter is k and n. I just cant see an oil pump taking a dump like that. Made sense if something got sucked up into it and blocked, but doubtful. I will order a melling pump and replace mine. Should have it tuesday. I also have primer rod and will make sure oil getting up to rockers. If not i will yank pan.

 

[daredevil]

Adjustable rockers? Maybe bad adjusters and they backed off.Just a little at first and more the second time. What ya got?

 

[IQ52]

I mean really, have you pulled the valve covers and had a look?

 

[sleepar]

Test the oil... see if there are any spikes for bearing babbit...
Pressure spring could have stuck... pick up tube could have cracked... but unlikely...

 

[Dennis H]

The rods were found to be bent in mine after the oil pressure loss episode. There were 2 with significant bends as detected by removing and putting in a power drill to spin. Replaced them and it is running fine. Still a little more spinning mass noise overall than before nut can't tell if it is my imagination due to listening too closely. I think the Amsoil 10-40 used prevented further damage. It is advertised to cling longer.

 

[clazar]

If you got the Melling pump, they recommend the bolt kit also. The bolts are slightly longer that hold the new pump in.

I had a similar problem with mine & had to change the pump also.

Chuck

 

[Durandal25]

.....you can look up my thread on a similar issue, but the pump was part of it.....the Fram filter the other......

 

[MikeStahl]

get a priming shaft to spin the oil pump with a drill, have covers off too...might get a indication whats going on.

 

[jerry]

I got my primer today and we are removing pump tomorrow. I hope to find a problem in the pump. Will post results. I will spin the primer in there first to get a feel before removing.

 

[miller]

For the heck of it. I'm not a fan of spinning the priming shaft with a drill motor. My thinking has always been, if turned too fast, possible to cavitate the oil. I simply use a speed wrench.

At any rate, pull BOTH valve covers when you prime it, so you can watch your rocker arms. They are about the last areas that get oiled, and kinda tell you if the rest of the motor is primed.

Probably should keep your oil pick-up tube in mind, too, if any probs show. Watch for air bubbles in the oil, as your priming it.