Ill keep this simple. fresh rebuild 302 and i was going to break it in today. -Started, ran 5 min with oil pressure around 75 then lowered to 50 -i tried taking choke off and it died -it was running ruff so we took off the distrubter and put it back on to get it lined up better -Started up right away and ran great at 2000rpm. -i was an idiot and forgot to check the oil pressure gauge untill 2 minutes into second attempt and when i looked at it it was reading no pressure. -i switched out the plastic oil line to copper. still no pressure. -tried another gauge and it said no pressure on both plastic and copper. -BUT oil would squirt out of the oil gauge line inlet when i took off the tubes. did my pump take a ****? i dont think the gauge is the problem because i tried a whole bunch of options. I just think its weird that i was getting pressure one second and after a couple of seconds of messing around with the distrubter i got no more pressure. Help would be greatly appreciated
Likely the retaining clip on the oil pump drive is either placed incorrectly or missing, that will cause shaft to pull out of the pump when the dist is removed and then fall down into the pan... Choices are install another shaft and ignore the one in the pan, try to fish it out through the drain plug using a magnet or pull the pan and install it correctly... EDIT I see yo said it's on there so retainer must have been too low on shaft...
Right now the drive is leaning against the shaft tunnel. its not straight up and down. Im guessing its not in the pump correctly right?? do you think its possible to somehow fish the shaft back into the pump correctly? i got the timing perfect (like i said before) then i can just drop the distrubuter back on and leave it..then if i have any reason to take it back off (not soon hopefully haha) i just gotta be careful
Good question but I'll guess it's wedged in the tunnel because it's not in the pump drive... If not wedged possibly a magnet or maybe a thin walled piece of hose will pull it up, but you're going to have to be very lucky...
if you have one of those flexible claws you may be able to grab it then maybe spin it back into place the retainer was probable to far down. another way may be put a 1/4" drive socket on a long extention and see if you can slip it over and rotate it back into the pump just be careful with the socket it could end up like the shaft or you may pull the shaft back up also.
use a magnet pen tool and slowly lift the rod out of the hole then you can silicone it to the distributor then stick it back in the hole together make sure you feel it "drop " in place
im pretty sure the shaft is in correctly..ill mess around with it more later today. I am trying to come up with other reasons why i would be reading 0 pressure. could the pump be clogged with assembly grease or something else? Do you think the oil filter could be clogged? when i get home im going to dump the oil and change out the filter. ill check the oil and see if there is any debree in it. do you think it could be a spun bearing? what i heard though if you spin a bearing you still should get some pressure, not zero. im just coming up with other possibilities now.
I seen a few engines assembled where a shade tree mechanic engine builder use too much silicon gasket material on the gaskets and when the bolts got tighten the extra silicon oozed out between the mating surface and got silicon into the oil galleries. A spun cam bearing will stop oil flow.
Nobody guessed a snapped off oil pump shaft. It's possible it's just sitting there in position looking pretty.
It would have to be one under the timing cover or there would be oil all over the ground I would think.
