cyteone

iTrader: (1)

I was driving home today and when I got on the freeway I hit the gas pretty hard and got up to about 65 mph. After that I let up and when i accelerated again slowly it started ticking really bad. I thought I blew a header gasket. About a minute later I noticed I had no oil pressure. I pulled off the freeway immediately and checked the oil level, it was fine. The engine was ticking pretty bad and sounded like it was coming from the valve covers. I am thinking my oil pump went out.

I did drive it for about 3-5 minutes after the ticking started but I was barley hitting the gas. It did not get hot during those 3-5 minutes. Do you think I could have damaged the engine?

What would be the advantage of using a high volume or high pressure oil pump? Anyone know the part number for a good oil pump?
Is there anything else I should replace at the same time with the oil pump?

RamAir95TA

iTrader: (2)

Hate to say it but it sounds like it's rebuild time. Just replacing your oil pump won't fix the ticking which is undoubtedly rod knock. Hopefully I'm wrong though - get a mechanical gauge on it to verify the low/no pressure reading.

SS RRR

iTrader: (2)

Ticking could be a rod knock. Could be a spun bearing to where there is enough oil pressure loss that it can no longer keep up with your valvetrain. Regardless, it reads like it is indeed time to pull the engine.

JL_94z28

iTrader: (6)

I had a case like that. I replaced the oil pump at first. The car held pressure unit it got warm, at which time the pressure would drop to single digits.... Doesn't take much to trash main bearing! When I tore mine down, sure enough, they were torched.

quik95lt1

iTrader: (7)

yup dont run it anymore you prob have some parts you can save at this point......if you lost oil pressure and it ran any more than a few seconds there is probably damage to bearings in the bottom end which is undoubtedly the noise you are hearing...........time to tear her down.....

great421

iTrader: (1)

Either your oil pump drive assembly (located under your intake manifold) failed, or your oil pump drive shaft (which connects the drive ***'y to the oil pump) failed - Ask me how I know.

If you remove the drive ***'y and the gear which meshes with the camshaft isn't destroyed, then go below and pull the pan, pump, and driveshaft.

You might be ok, once you replace the failed part and remove the shavings from your oil pan. Mine lasted an entire day and a half before an exhaust valve snapped and shattered my No. 2 piston.

Good luck!

93 LT1 Vette

Pop the oil filter off and cut it apart. look for the evil silver glitter. if it's present a bearing most likely gave up the ghost. Good luck

1963SS

With any luck the lifters are doing the ticking. I would still have to check all the bearings though. It's not a good thing to run 3-5 minutes with no oil pressure.

+1 on the oil pump drive shaft potential problem as addressed by great 421.

cyteone

iTrader: (1)

I finally got my car back on the road. I ended up pulling my oil pan and found out the oil pump drive gear had stripped out. I also checked the clearances on the bearings and they all were fine.
I replaced the gm gear with a lunati everwear gear, and bought a billet oil pump driveshaft to replace the cheap stock plastic one. I also got a melling oil pump and a gm white spring for it (my old oil pump appeared to work fine, but since I had the pan off I decided to replace it anyway).

I had to pull off the intake manifold to get the oil pump drive out. While the intake was off I cleaned it up and gave it a fresh coat of paint.
After getting it back together it ran fine but started leaking from my rear main seal. So I got a new rear main seal and also decided to get a new clutch because you have to remove the clutch to get the rear main seal out.
I got a Competition Clutch Stage 2.

Well everything is finally back together and it's running great with no valve-train noise. On startup my oil pressure is about 70 after warming up it's at about 45. This is a little higher than it used to be because of the GM white spring.
The stage 2 clutch grips a bit harder than the OEM clutch but it still works great around town. I can't take off as slow and smooth as my old clutch but it's not that big of a difference, I thought there would be more of a difference.

It feels great to finally be driving my supercharged Formula again.

wrd1972

iTrader: (12)

Better enjoy it for a day or two then plan on pulling that Lunati gear or your at risk yet once again of losing your motor. I sweated minor wear with 10K miles of use on the OE GM gear and needlessly replaced it with the Lunati everwear gear and that piece of **** was wasted in 1K miles. After inspection, 95% of the surface of all the teeth were totally worn off meaning it was on the edge of totally failing. This has happened to others as well and there is a big thread over on LTxtech regarding it. Better get that gear out real soon and address the real issue as to why you have accelerated oil pump drive gear wear.

esoteric18

don't mean to thread jack but where do you get a billet oil pump drive shaft at?

ls2pontiac

iTrader: (1)

Herron's Performance. I got one for my car when the motor was done a couple years ago..probably the best 150 bucks you can spend. I went with a new GM gear too, not the Lunati junk thankfully. Why not just rebuild the motor while your at it? 2000 bucks worst case, and you can sleep at night knowing you can drive the car and not worry about stuff.

RamAir95TA

iTrader: (2)

The driveshaft itself is from Melling (comes with the 10554 pump).

The aluminum gear housing comes from Herron. It would be a solid piece if it actually fit.

sweetbmxrider

iTrader: (13)

We had to take my buddy's hold down off with a slide hammer

wrd1972

iTrader: (12)

You talking about the aluminum Herron stub?

sweetbmxrider

iTrader: (13)

Yaaaaa

the_merv

iTrader: (88)

Got that at Autozone back in 2005 for $6....