So far so good, going to change the oil after work and am leaning towards driving it to VA beach tonight.

 

500 mile road trip and she was golden. Crazy how durable these motors are.

 

And for Voyager, that shiny iPhone 6 got washed with my dirty pants and is now dead, so while I didn't drop it in the oil, my oil soaked pants did take it down in the laundry. CHECK YOUR POCKETS BEFORE YOU THROW DIRTY PANTS IN THE LAUNDRY!

 

Damn! I did that once, luckily I was able to tent mine in aluminum foil, and put it in the oven with the door slightly cracked, had it on 180, 30 minutes per side then threw the phone in rice for an hour and it was fine. HOWEVER, it was off while in the wash. So I guess the water and electricity didn't mix lol.

 

So the issue is still here.

I've been having to change the oil every 500-700 miles as that's when it starts to fall again.

Why would nose slightly up vs nose slightly down cause zero oil pressure for 15 seconds when the nose is up and it's been sitting all night? I don't know the oil path of these motors, what the hell causes this? I've let it sit on ramps for 6 hours with the drain plug out hoping crap would fall out, but every time it's 30-40 degrees out and the nose is up (not a lot, maybe 1') it has 0 oil pressure and the "check oil pressure" light comes on, then it jumps to 20psi after about 15 seconds. If its parked the other way in the driveway, nose maybe 1' down, it jumps straight up as soon as it starts.

Why would cold oil pressure be less than warm? Warm, running down the road it has 45-50, idle is 35, but cold it's barely 15-20 at idle and 20-30 running down the road. I cut up the oil filter last night expecting it to be full of sludge, thinking that as it filled with sludge it inhibited oil flow, but nothing really was in there. The oil is black as hell after 500-700 miles. I've been using 5w30 Penzoil or castrol GTX for the high detergents to pick up the gunk, and a purolator filter.

When I change the oil I run a coat hanger along the oil pickup tube screen and pull out a little sludge and try to knock any off the pickup screen, but I'm getting less and less.

Would a worn oil pump not move as much oil when it's thick and cold? I just changed the oil and am going to drive 1000 miles over Christmas, then I am thinking I finally need to drop the pan and replace the oil pump and clean it out.

When I ran Marvel Mystery Oil for 100 miles, after that it had perfect oil pressure for the next 400, but then it started dropping off again. I don't want to do another round of MMO, I don't want it to eat all the seals, but it was perfect with it in and after for 409 miles. It's super thin like gas consistency, so I thought it was just making the oil thinner at startup.

 

Found this thread.

http://www.silveradosierra.com/vorte...t22404-10.html

And it looks like the o ring between the pickup and pump deteriorates, and lets it draw air through instead of pulling up the oil when the oil is thick and cold. Sucks, but looks like I need to drop the pan. I am guessing that when the oil is filled with deposits, its slightly thicker, causing it to be harder to suck, which is why changing the oil helps.

I can see now that if the nose is down, the level of the pan lets the oil cover that O ring, so it gets pressure immediately, but nose up it must be out of the oil, sucking air. So honestly I should be letting it warm up nose down each morning, let the oil warm up and thin out, then start driving. Looks like a PITA job to replace the oil pickup O ring.

 

Have you taken the valve covers off yet? Before you go through the trouble of pulling the oil pan pull those valve covers off and see if it looks like peanut butter inside.

 

Toss a qt of ATF in there, it will clean things and swell the dreaded POS o ring.

 

ATF will help but you really shouldn't drive it with any ATF in there... around the neighborhood might be ok.

If you think its still got ALOT of sludge in there you can pour in a few quarts of clean kerosene right before you change the oil. Idle the engine for 5-10 minutes to power wash the internals. Then drain the oil/kerosene mix while its warm and let it drain for a few hours to make sure all the kerosene is out.

 

The kerosine or MMO or seafoam I'm afraid will clean the rest of the sludge that's holding that O ring as sealed as it. I'm driving it 1000 miles this weekend, it's warm out so it builds oil pressure fine if I park it nose down. Next week I'm going to drop the pan and replace the O ring I think. How common is that O ring failure? You said "dreaded" so I'm assuming common?

 

Very common. Here is a video. I did the same thing to my pickup tube as the video shows so it was easier to put bolt back in.

 

I've been using ATF in the engine oil for 40 years. It won't hurt anything. I've been using it in my LS1 for 20k.


As far as the video above I DON"T BELIEVE the o ring was his sudden loss of oil pressure. Maybe the pump relief valve stuck open?

The o ring doesn't fail with sudden loss of oil pressure. The o ring slowly deteriorates over time letting air into the oil steam. This causes noisy lifters and if let go long enough lowering of oil pressure but NOT SUDDEN NO OIL PRESSURE.

Be careful what you read on the net, its not necessary the WHOLE truth.

 

Are you losing any antifreeze by any chance? You could have a cracked head and it will snot up the oil pan and pickup badly. I would drop the pan, it is probably sludged up around the pickup. Clean that up, put a new pickup o-ring in, and you will most likely have decent pressure again. If it is putting antifreeze into the oil it will sludge up again however.

 

I was using the video to show how you can cut the tab on the pickup tube. Then you can rotate the hold down so you can use the top bolt on the oil pump. Makes things way easier to install bolt if you aren't dropping the oil pan. I also found it way easier to disassemble the oil pump to slip it back on to pickup tube. I also used assembly lube on the o-ring. Slid in real nice.

 

Good idea here is another http://www.classicindustries.com/pro...s/1026000.html

 

Doesn't work on the truck pickup tube. Ask me how i know. I still have that on my shelf.

 

I was thinking cutting it in half and using it on the upper hole!

 

Yep me too .. sigh haha even though the website says it will work..

 

You might be able to do that but cutting the tab and spinning the hold down took about 2 minutes.

 

I am hoping when i put the gm hotrod oil pan on my new motor that it will work on that pickup tube. I didn't get the oil pan yet but when i do i will let people know either way.