I finally finished up installing my carb'd LS1 into my daily driver '72 C20 Suburban. It started right up the first time with strong oil pressure but I had to shut it down after about a minute for various leaks. Over the course of trouble shooting multiple leaks, the motor was started about a dozen times with no issues. I finally got all of the leaks taken care of and backed it out of the garage to let it warm all the way up and then take it around the block. After about 5 minutes, I noticed that the oil pressure was reading zero so I quickly shut it down. Its a wet line gauge so Im fairly certain its accurate. I pulled the valve covers and quickly started it up just to verify and as suspected, no oil in the top end.

I drained the pan and opened the filter....no metal at all. I can't drop the pan in the car because of the front crossmember, so Im down to either pulling the motor, or attempting to change the oil pump from the front with the motor in the car....if we think that is the problem. The pump was a rebuilt, ported LS6 unit from a local shop...that being said, theres nothing to say that it was rebuilt properly.

Any input would be greatly appreciated....I was hoping to drive this thing to my wedding in Texas in Sep, but it doesn't look like thats in the cards.

Thanks

 

Hopefully you can drop that pan an inch or jack up motor enough to loosen pan enough to check pump/o-ring.

 

yea thats the problem.....Ive got very minimal sunshine between the Holley Muscle Car pan and the crossmember.....maybe half an inch

 

Half an inch should be good to get the bolt started again on the oil pump.

 

ok cool....just ordered a Melling 296 pump and a new crank bolt....not excited about this adventure since I just put the damn motor together...

 

Tip...tie some dental floss or small mono to that oil pump bolt so not to drop it!!