My buddy ran over the infield berm and smashed the bottom of the oil pan on the 351-C in our dirt car. I didnt have a working oil pressure guage in the car that night...ran a 25 lap feature on a 1/4 mile track. After we installed the new op gauge we saw a big zero on the gauge...found the oil pump laying in the pan... reused the bearings...light scuffing on the pistons. Ran the engine another season and a half with no issues. You may have similar results.
Here's what happened to mine. Similar scenario, start up after some work on the 340, but caught it within seconds of failure. Happened to be looking at the oil pressure gauge went it let loose.
That appears to have happened because the pump was not bottomed out all the way. That's actually a fairly common failure.
True. The pump in this case was working fine since I got the car and ran it for a few years. Didn't touch it, had good pressure on the first start up, ran for a few minutes, then the pressure bounced around for a few seconds then went away. I definitely dodged a bullet .
How about giving us a measurement from the bottom of the oil pump drive gear to the end of the shaft.
fingers crossed! Im grasping at any glimmer of hope ... Divenut; I think this is what im looking at too. RRR; I failed to trust my old gauge. I think I get where you are going, but im having a hard time figuring out how to precisely measure that distance. Let me ask you this? Are the two radii (cam gear and shaft gear) supposed to meet exactly at their widest points? Mine was more difficult to remove this time. It was slightly below the apex of the cam gear radius. My priming tool extends down 11 11/16" from the top of the block down into the pump.
Not worried about the priming tool. I’ve seen guys use stock oil pump drives with a high volume pump and shear the hex drive off so clean it didn’t appear damaged, till you measured it and compared it to a new one. If you give us a good measurement we can measure a good one and compare lengths.
really? hmm my (what i think is original) intermediate shaft is 8 11/16", the tip is beveled not square but it looks like it was machined that way or at least not done recently. it's wicked shiny inside and out ??? If the motor goes back to the machine shop, it'll be the on the list of questions I ask.
The pump shaft housing is a really tight fit. Sometimes they don't bottom out completely even when the bolts are tightened.
Hmm that's got me wondering because I didnt feel like mine looked deep enough but the bolts bottomed so I just assumed it was right.
I’m just finishing up a 340 that had a high spot on the oil pump mounting pad. It wasn’t a big lip, but it was noticeable. I didn’t catch it when I was installing the crank or I would have filed it off. My thinking was it’s run like that for years, and I use a gasket under the pump so I was going to send it. Then I got crossed up the compression ratio and had to remove all the pistons so I could mill a bit more of the dome off to get that right and I said screw it, pulled the cap and filed it down. I feel much better and I glad I didn’t send it. Anyway, my point is there was the possibility that had it let it go, even if the pump drive part of the housing had been in the main cap, it would have been ever so slightly cocked on the cap. When you stick the pump drive in there you’ll have an alignment issue and it could cause problems. I know it was running like that, because I know where that block came from. Knowing my luck, it would have bit me right in the ass and I’d be fixing it. So I’m glad I missed on the CR and fixed it.
You need to tear it down by a new set of bearings cam rod and Main. Clean the block really good after removing all the galley plugs.... use soap and water air hose to dry it off immediately and WD-40 to spray on to it. Then you can start putting it back together. If the cam is any good....buy all new lifters And re break them in... OR you can take yours all apart and make sure there's no debris inside them ..and inspect all the bottoms to see that they still have some crown. *Buy a new oil pump & hardened intermediate shaft*. You can maybe 'brake clean' to ckean off all the pistons and rings as an assembly and reinstall them in their cylinders. ...*Buy new gaskets of course*...so basically you got to start over not full-blown ,but close.
Looks like the pump failed due to an alignment issue when installed. Everything cleaned up well and no other damage was found!! Waiting on another pump and intermediate shaft. If I get as far as the hood back on and a new inspection sticker, I'll let you know...
