WCT13

iTrader: (1)

So i was driving and seen yhe light for gages come on and looked no oil p. so i pulled over and looked under hood. normal. but i heard a ticking from the rocker area. so i got it towed. got home oils in the heads and rockers look ok but a tad loose. what could it be?

SS RRR

iTrader: (2)

It could be sudden loss of oil pressure. Get a mechanical gauge, place in port just above oil filter and verify it is not your sending unit. The ticking would be a bad sign of no oil pressure, however.

94zrag

iTrader: (3)

Could be that your pick-up tube came of the pump.
If you drain your oil, you can tap on the bottom of the pan with a rubber mallet and see if you can hear the pick-up bouncing inside.
Also, check for metal shavings in your oil.

96LT1Z

I'll put money on a the oil pump drive gear under the intake.
Did you put in a after market cam? Stock oil pump gear?
Buddy of mine, his cam ate his oil pump drive gear and had this exact problem.

WCT13

iTrader: (1)

Ding ding ding. you win a gold star! We put a hotcam in it. high velocity oil pump. the gear is shreaded!

shbox

HV pumps do that to 'em.

ipaq3115

Somebody needs to warn all the LT1 noobs out there somehow. I made the exact same mistake last year. Hotcam and HV oil pump. My rods waved goodbye about a week after I fixed the gear.

96LT1Z

Glad you fixed it!

WCT13

iTrader: (1)

Woah there....don't go scareing me! We bored it over and replace the pistons but not the rods and new bearings. i swear if it does this I'm selling it and buying a mopad.

ipaq3115

Haha, sorry. What I didn't mention is that I was really close to home and like an idiot I drove about a mile home after I lost the gear. I'm guessing that's what did me in. I've since learned my lesson and it sounds like you did the right thing and got towed right away. Can't hurt to pull the bearing caps just to be sure while your under there swapping the oil pump out though.

96capricemgr

iTrader: (1)

HV oilpump is usually a bigger problem than the aftermarket cam, some aftermarket cams have been sold with the wrong gear but the HV oilpump was just an extremely ignorant move that has been beaten to death here, people don't find that out though unless they are open to learning. Now if you made a choice that bad what else was done wrong? Lower compression, heavier pistons, LT4 springs with the heavier LT1 valves? I wish you luck but at the same time I would say prepare for the possibility of needing to find a used stock engine to replace this.

shbox

The warnings have been all over the LT1 boards for many years. Ya' just gotta listen.

96capricemgr

iTrader: (1)

Too many newbs come here for blind praise of already made decisions or only to ask for help solving the problems they already caused like this. The first step in learning is being willing to learn, once that is refused something bad has to happen to open their mind.

WCT13

iTrader: (1)

The oil pump? Its fine isn't it? I thought we just had to replace the gear.

WCT13

iTrader: (1)

We bought the cam used. Its just a little old hotcam. We got spring rated for .650 lift not sure of the name though, Not sure of the valves. I know we reused the intake but not the exhaust.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fed-Mogul-Premium-Engine-Rebuild-Kit-SBC-LT1-350-030-Bore-Stock-Rods-Mains-/331145444767?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item4d19ce7d9f&vxp=mtr
thats the kit we bought to rebuild the car with.

96capricemgr

iTrader: (1)

So you put in heavier pistons with thicker rings that came with an oilpump that might have just destroyed the engine.

I would run a junkyard engine over that.

WCT13

iTrader: (1)

From what we read when we rebuilt the engine, the "rebuild kits" are designed to be dropped in without having to rebalance the engine. My car is NOT for strip use, its for a DD. a fun DD...the only reason we didn't use the old oil pump was because it looked like it was on its death bed. along with 95% of the stuff we pulled out of the car. This car will be LUCKY to see one strip visit in its life. the only reason we bored it over is because the piston walls were oval shaped. We had it bored .030 over along with it honed. The crank had to be turned from something cutting grooves in it.

This was a very extremely low budget rebuild. We can't afford to drop 800$ pistons into our car and go on with our lives. Those pistons have given us no problems at all yet. The bottom end was professionally put back together by a decent shop around here. If he thought it would of been a problem he would of told us.

1997bird

iTrader: (2)

You do not need a HV oil pump, the most I go in my customers racing engine builds is a 10% higher volume oil pump. The oil pump that you installed is 25% higher volume than the stock oil pump and puts a lot of stress on the oil pump drive gear. That drive gear will break even with a stock oil pump let alone adding more stress to it.

WCT13

iTrader: (1)

Well is their a fix to the drive gear that can hold the new HV pump? We found that the Mallionized gears can hold them alot better then some of the other gears.
To replace that pump, we would have to take off something in the suspension to get the pan off right? And then we got to tac weld the pick up tube back in place.

shbox

Your best bet is to put in a SV pump or you will be risking everything all over again. Some of the old "professionals" do not understand that the SV pump is actually better for most applications.