Lordy, No Oil Pressure!

[Durandal25]

Team,

To get to it quick, I just lost all pressure on my 1969 383 Bee. The car was running fine since I replaced the seals in my older Melling pump. To give a quick history, I just recently changed out my pan seal and rebuilt my steering box, but all was going well until last Thursday. I pulled off the valve covers and looked for anything out of place there and all looked well. I also drained the oil and tried to see if the intake had fallen off and it seemed to be tight. I have since removed the pump and checked to see if anything was out of sorts there and it appears to be ok, free moving and smooth. The drive gear seems to be turning ok as well.....lord this is a pickle.

 

[Pops1967GTX]

Is there enough oil in the pan?(seem silly)..... Possibly a broken oil pump pickup when you replaced oil pan gasket....make sure that the oil pump pickup tube is not to close to the oil pan or that it is the right depth...... check, pull the bypass spring out & make sure that there isn't a piece of crap holding the by pass open.I would prime the engine with a drill,pulling valve covers & put a mechanical gauge on it.....hopefully its not a spun cam bearing....

 

[Wedgeamacallit]

Hope you figure it out. You probably sucked a mouse or bowtie in the engine

 

[Kern Dog]

The tip on the oil pump/distributor drive has been known to suddenly break and cause this. The distributor will still turn, but the end that drives the oil pump will not. Maybe it is just a way to make money, but I have heard it is suggested to replace the drive with any cam change or engine rebuild.
I always do and I am not an overly cautious person

 

[Durandal25]

Sir, thanks for the feedback. The Engine was running an oil was flowing when this went down. I'm trying to figure from the pan to the pump, there is a positive and negative pressure environment, fi oil is not drawing from the pan, than one would look to the drive gear?

- - - Updated - - -

.....I don't think this is the case, as there were not issues right before, and my pressure was good to go at idle an normal driving conditions.

- - - Updated - - -

Is there enough oil in the pan?(seem silly)..... Possibly a broken oil pump pickup when you replaced oil pan gasket....make sure that the oil pump pickup tube is not to close to the oil pan or that it is the right depth...... check, pull the bypass spring out & make sure that there isn't a piece of crap holding the by pass open.I would prime the engine with a drill,pulling valve covers & put a mechanical gauge on it.....hopefully its not a spun cam bearing....

.....I did check the bypass spring and it travels normally with no crud present.

- - - Updated - - -

The tip on the oil pump/distributor drive has been known to suddenly break and cause this. The distributor will still turn, but the end that drives the oil pump will not. Maybe it is just a way to make money, but I have heard it is suggested to replace the drive with any cam change or engine rebuild.
I always do and I am not an overly cautious person

The end is not broken off, but how does one pull it to check?

 

[69a100]

The end is not broken off, but how does one pull it to check?

I had mine break after doing a oil change, no pressure after re-start. The only thing I can figure is that with the sudden increase in pressure afterward snapped the tip off. To check it, you will have to yank the distributor and go in there with long needle nose pliers and grab the drive gear. It will twist about 1/4 turn to the left as you pull it out. Once out you will see if the hex shape tab is on the end of the shaft. You may have to drop the pump to get the broken tab out of the pump. Good Luck

 

[MikeyT]

Just curious.... How do you know it lost pressure? Did you check it mechanically or based on the gauge in the car? I would verify with a mechanical gauge

Mike

 

[tallhair]

Just curious.... How do you know it lost pressure? Did you check it mechanically or based on the gauge in the car? I would verify with a mechanical gauge

Mike

Thanks Mike! OP is the wire plugged into the sending unit?

 

[Durandal25]

Just curious.... How do you know it lost pressure? Did you check it mechanically or based on the gauge in the car? I would verify with a mechanical gauge

Mike

Mike,

I have the valve covers off, and no oil was present, but also the liter noise. It's not moving any oil for some reason.

- - - Updated - - -

I had mine break after doing a oil change, no pressure after re-start. The only thing I can figure is that with the sudden increase in pressure afterward snapped the tip off. To check it, you will have to yank the distributor and go in there with long needle nose pliers and grab the drive gear. It will twist about 1/4 turn to the left as you pull it out. Once out you will see if the hex shape tab is on the end of the shaft. You may have to drop the pump to get the broken tab out of the pump. Good Luck

Sir,

I have the pump out and as best I an tell nothing looks broken off. The HEX head seems intact.

 

[Pops1967GTX]

Pull the oil filter...Is it dry? filter open & see if it was collapsed? Then pre-fill filters. Did you? It could be air bound......try pre filling the pump also....Make sure the distributor is not loose. See if all lifters down past the pushrods........

 

[70rr-brian]

Replace the oil filter as pops suggest probably collapsed.

 

[ga66mopar]

I had the same thing happen years ago to a 383 I built. I was driving along after about 1000 miles of trouble free miles when I noticed the oil gauge had went to zero. I shut it down and had it towed home. I took off the oil pump and it seem to be ok. It would pump gas in a pan. I replaced the pump anyway and never had another problem. I have never been able to figure out what happened.

 

[Durandal25]

I had the same thing happen years ago to a 383 I built. I was driving along after about 1000 miles of trouble free miles when I noticed the oil gauge had went to zero. I shut it down and had it towed home. I took off the oil pump and it seem to be ok. It would pump gas in a pan. I replaced the pump anyway and never had another problem. I have never been able to figure out what happened.

Agreed, I ordered a priming tool and reinstalled the pump. I plan to see if it will draw oil via the tool and proceed with the repair. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[67steve]

pull distributor
get hex shaft
put on drill and rotate counter clockwise
check for oil pressure .
my race motor has to be primed if sitting for a few months, 2 line mildon pick up 50w oil
if you changed the gasket did you install the correct gasket?
DON NOT RUN MOTOR WITHOUT OIL PRESSURE.!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[A383Wing]

lost oil pressure in our 383 Charger one year...just went out...checked everything over, replaced pump...all went well..guess pump just died that day

Bryan

 

[696969]

The suspense is KILLING me!!!!

69a100 is that Curtis LeMay?

 

[RustyRatRod]

If the engine has a high volume oil pump and a stock intermediate shaft, my money is on a twisted intermediate shaft. Very common problem when people try to skimp by and cut corners. They'll spend 5K on the rest of the engine and refuse to spend 50 on a hardened intermediate shaft. Seen it a thousand times.

 

[Durandal25]

Rusty,

Just an update, and thanks for the feedback. The issue, after all the knuckle cracking, was that the old pump just was not pulling anymore. I replaced it and the filter and bought a good priming tool and went to town with the new Melling high volume one. It grabbed oil in about 10 seconds and rockers were nice Saudi sauced.

 

[Bolt-Action]

Don't know if it was part of the issue,
but Melling did have a bad batch of oil pumps released, check those pumps well before install.
Just FYI guys.
do a quick goggle search on melling oil pumps probs, ferd, cheby guys have had issues as well.
I've used melling oil pumps for years without issue BUT I sure do inspect the heck outta them well, before install now.

 

[Redhorse719]

Since you installed a HV pump, as Rusty said make sure you install a hardened intermediate shaft or you will be going through this again in the near future.