Lost Oil Pressure
Le Mans Master
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 7,739
Likes: 630
From: Unreconstructed, South Carolina
I'm all for working smart ... saving time & effort ... but where lost pump at speed, pan is off, pump's trashed ... suggest pull caps & inspect & be prepared to replace bearings & possibly polish/turn crank.
Melling did offer hi-po iron pump for BBC having THREADED inlet for SCREW-IN pickup tube for around $75. You might check w/ Melling tech George Richmond ( grichmond@melling.com ) he's been a very helpful gent.
Melling did offer hi-po iron pump for BBC having THREADED inlet for SCREW-IN pickup tube for around $75. You might check w/ Melling tech George Richmond ( grichmond@melling.com ) he's been a very helpful gent.
Race Director
Joined: Feb 1999
Posts: 16,978
Likes: 7
From: In Dreams There Is Truth Ohio
Matt, I will disagree with you on this point....bearing surfaces can be scored, to the point the crank has to be turned, yet won't knock , also, the rod or any number of rods can seize, and upon startup, you have more problems than you've bargained for...
Safety Car
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 3,652
Likes: 49
From: Bridgewater nj
A Simple Test
Like everyone has said pan is down beg, borrow, steal or buy a mic. and check the #1 journal and bearing if they are still with in tolorence and their is no visible scoring on the crank you can be 95% sure with a new set of bearings and oil pump you will be OK. You will have all of $100 bucks and 10 hours work into it. If it blows 5 years later you had that much more time to save your money. BUT if its # matching PULL IT!!
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 1,242
Likes: 12
From: Kalispell MT
Update Continued
First thanks for the continued suggestions and tips!
I'm still slowly going thru the what caused the failure right now. Earlier I referenced the offending piece of metal that stuck between the oil pump gears that froze it up creating the destruction of the oil pump. I've been trying to determine what it came from and if there is more.
There should be 4 photos at 25X enlargement of the very small piece of metal if photobucket does me right. Please remember what you are seeing is smaller than a grain of rice. What looks like gear teeth you can only barely feel with a fingernail. The opposite side is radiused and polished and looks like it should have had a hole about 1/2" in diameter. A couple of the photos have line measurement marks and a legend at the botom right corner.
I've shown the fragment to at least 20 car buds and nobody can positively ID it yet. My current guess is that is part of the hardened insert of a roller rocker, but I can't find even the slightest nick on any of them. You guys seen anything like this?
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Last photo is of the oil pump drive gear and the 2 ripped shards of the shaft that were in bottom of the pan.
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Yes I will be pulling the rod and main caps for inspection as time permits.
Thanks again guys!
I'm still slowly going thru the what caused the failure right now. Earlier I referenced the offending piece of metal that stuck between the oil pump gears that froze it up creating the destruction of the oil pump. I've been trying to determine what it came from and if there is more.
There should be 4 photos at 25X enlargement of the very small piece of metal if photobucket does me right. Please remember what you are seeing is smaller than a grain of rice. What looks like gear teeth you can only barely feel with a fingernail. The opposite side is radiused and polished and looks like it should have had a hole about 1/2" in diameter. A couple of the photos have line measurement marks and a legend at the botom right corner.
I've shown the fragment to at least 20 car buds and nobody can positively ID it yet. My current guess is that is part of the hardened insert of a roller rocker, but I can't find even the slightest nick on any of them. You guys seen anything like this?
[IMG]
[/IMG][IMG]
[/IMG][IMG]
[/IMG][IMG]
[/IMG]Last photo is of the oil pump drive gear and the 2 ripped shards of the shaft that were in bottom of the pan.
[IMG]
[/IMG]Yes I will be pulling the rod and main caps for inspection as time permits.
Thanks again guys!
Race Director
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 15,048
Likes: 79
From: central FL, near the beach.
I worked as a judge at NADA auction: knock = refund. No knock= no refund. good policy imo. Scoring evidence not allowed.(they are all scored)
Le Mans Master
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 7,739
Likes: 630
From: Unreconstructed, South Carolina
pure guess
Am I correct the "teeth" have a pitch of about 40 to 55 per inch?
How hard is it? Malleable? If it's soft ... Pure guess ... a piece of a mangled external star washer.
How hard is it? Malleable? If it's soft ... Pure guess ... a piece of a mangled external star washer.
Race Director
Joined: Feb 1999
Posts: 16,978
Likes: 7
From: In Dreams There Is Truth Ohio
Jackson, the oil pump gears are made of soft metal...when two of my roller lifters went south, the tiny bearings chewed the living daylights out of the pump gears, gouged them, took chunks of metal out of the gears.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 7,739
Likes: 630
From: Unreconstructed, South Carolina
GDaina:
Yep ... typical op gears a relatively soft powdered metal ... race op gears billet steel. I'm trying to guess what that little rice grain piece is that has "teeth" ... if it's hard maybe a part of some sort of insert ... a chunk of a distributor shaft bushing ... the teeth for retention in housing bore ... I dunno ... I'm guessing ... It's kinda fun trying to figure that one out. Hopefully they'll check OK, but I'm glad for Ray that he's gonna look at bearings-journals.
Yep ... typical op gears a relatively soft powdered metal ... race op gears billet steel. I'm trying to guess what that little rice grain piece is that has "teeth" ... if it's hard maybe a part of some sort of insert ... a chunk of a distributor shaft bushing ... the teeth for retention in housing bore ... I dunno ... I'm guessing ... It's kinda fun trying to figure that one out. Hopefully they'll check OK, but I'm glad for Ray that he's gonna look at bearings-journals.
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Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 1,242
Likes: 12
From: Kalispell MT
Don't be fooled by the fact that at 25X magnifaction they look like teeth, again when you run your finger nail across them you can barely feel them. In the one photo where the teeth are vertical you can clearly see where half of width is scored like it's been pressed into something. It's definitely hardened steel. I still think it's a chip off of the aluminum roller rocker insert. When you look at these there is a small radial section of them that extends outside of the flush side of the surface.
Further curiosity to see if I can find more pieces of this crap lead me to cut apart the oil pick housing and filter. No more metal fragments found but inside the pick up housing was a big wad of paper, 2" long by an inch thick. Must have come from a cheap oil filter in the past.
Further curiosity to see if I can find more pieces of this crap lead me to cut apart the oil pick housing and filter. No more metal fragments found but inside the pick up housing was a big wad of paper, 2" long by an inch thick. Must have come from a cheap oil filter in the past.
