So I go to start my 1954 Belair (235/PG), its warming up (Normal reading on the oil pressure) and I'm loading my family in the car...I put it in reverse then drive to make my way home. When I go into drive, my tells me she hears a low noise...but I couldn't hear it so we drive off...then all of a sudden around the corner from where we left from I hear lifter noise....then so its gets louder..I look down and my pressure needle was all the way to the left. I immediatley turn the car around and milk it back to the house we left from...I turn off the car...I look under the hood and my rear hose fitting on my oil filter...broke off spewing oil everywhere. I'm gonna buy a new hose and fitting tommorow and fix it... Is there a way to see how much damage I did, if any to the motor? the distance traveled was less than a 1/4 of a mile in a neighborhood...
they may survive that should have killed it when you first saw gauge go down they got shims in the mains fix it and fill oil and you will know if you lost a lot of oil pressure you better tear it down and check
The hose was 3/16, not sure. Its been on the car awhile. Anything you suggest I use to handle the pressure?
they hadoil pressur hoses for sale long ago you could use -3 or -4 line with adapters would solve the problem i use motorcycle brake lines for oil gauges
Myself,I would pop off the valve cover and refill your crankcase by pouring the oil over the valvetrain and the pushrods giving it fresh oil on srartup.maybe overkill but i would.
Probably crapped out due to age rather than what it's made out of. If it has two hoses I'd replace both of them.
Fix the hose and fill with oil. Start it up and have your wife listen. If you don't hear the lifters or the rods slaping, you are probably o.k. Next time you are 1/4 mile from your house and have no oil pressure, park the car and walk home. Neal
A friend of mine once drove a 235 without oil pressure for about 100 miles on the freeway, after losing oil pressure past midnight on a S-CA freeway. Kept driving that engine after fixing the pump and eventually sold the car to a buddy who drove it for over 20 more years with annual round-trips to Mexico...
you're probably fine. Fix the lines and fill it with oil and try it. If it quiets down and has good pressure, then don't waste your time tearing the motor down. The lifters are likely to rattle some until pressure has built up as you have pumped them dry. If the canister it attached to the engine, some brass compression fittings and copper tubing can be used as a substitute for the hydraulic lines.
There isn't much ,if any, oil pressure inside the bypass filter,it sort of drains out faster than it fills. Any quality hose will work. Some guys use brake tubing for hard lines since the filter is bolted to the engine.
Update! My dipstick was not reading at all when I checked it. So I got a new hose on (that was fun and messy) put 4 quarts in her and I cranked her over. She chattered a little bit then started to quiet down quickly....except for for a little chatter...I let her idle for a little bit and cut her off. Then I added a little bit more oil (1/2 a quart) and let it settle....my stick read full at this point. I then started her back up and the chatter got a little quieter...but it was still there espically when I gave her a little gas. Question: I haven't driven her yet, should I? Do you think that will help push more oil and hopefully eliminate that last bit of chatter? Should I add some more oil? Another 1/2 quart?
Don't add more oil if the stick is showing full, the chatter will probably go away when you dirve it but will probably come back at idle. I wouldn't worry about it as long as it holds oil pressure.
Grease gun lines work very well for the oil filter lines. Truckedup is right, there is very little pressure if any in the lines. These are some of the toughest engines out there. If you want to see what kind of cam damage you might have, remove the valve cover, pull the rocker arm assembly, pull the pushrods, pull the lifters and look down at the lobes. Odds are your perfectly fine. This would also be a good time to clean the rocker arm assembly to make sure it keeps flowing oil over the upper end. Total it wont take more than an afternoon and its a nice piece of mind.
Where is the chatter coming from? Top or bottom of the motor. It may have sounded the same before, it is just that you are listening closer for it. Neal
Sounds like the motor is back to normal now. I drove her a good 15 miles today on the highway and she did fine. A little lifter noise if I listen hard, no biggie. Pressure and Temp were normal as they were before. Thank you everyone for your words of wisdom. I'll drive her for now, put some more miles on...before I break her down for a nice tune up!
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