i started digging into the 63 t bird with a 390 i just bought for my girly a few months ago. we drove it home a hour or so and i started it many times in the garage, didnt drive it much after that because when she was going to take it out around the block it blew a brake line. so in waiting for the title and being a truck driver i finally figured i have some home time and will crack into it. got the new lines run and while i had it up on the stands figured i would also do a oil change. supposed to be a rebuild with 46xxx, looks clean so its not too hard to believe. last time it was titled was 5 years ago. anyways right after i started it up after changing the oil it ran fine as i was spraying the carb out with carb spray, then suddenly started slowly having valve train clatter. after talkin to johnny cliche and going back and reading about fram filters i went and got a napa filter, started it up and still no oil pressure. the fram filter was pretty heavy for a fresh filter. i am only going off the light and the fact the valve train sounds like beans in a coffee can. thinking i could try pulling the distributor and tape a socket to a extension in a drill and prime the oil pump without damaging the motor or having to pull the pan. only other thing i can think of is the new oil dislodged something that was in the engine just sitting for years in the valley or with the detergents, and clogged something. any other ideas? i been reading threads but am really hoping i dont have to rip that motor apart, but who knows. in the past when i had pumps go bad they took out the shear pin on my fords and just killed the motor, and i could maybe do the old kerosene trick, but dont wanna open that can of worms honestly and rob my bearings any more.
Pull a valve cover and crank it over? Plumb a real guage in it at least temporarilly? What did the oil you drained out look like? Do you still have the original filter you took off? Did you cut it open?
i seen valve covers on them old rides where the rockers were embedded with parafin. be a idea, but with the loud valve clatter and the light i am pretty sure pressures next to none, but i imagine a few lbs vs none would say a lot. the old oil was dark but wasnt really any thicker than new stuff like they were running 90w in it or anything. i will go cut the old filter open, but its just so strange to do something as simple as change oil, something i did a million times on other rides, and lose pressure like that. i dont know any history on this ride either other than i drove it home and the guy who had it before me drove it a few hours home and when i was bringing her home she went like a raped ape
i would imagine if it is something major like a pump, it doing it after the oil change could be purely coincidental. that would just be the dumbest luck, but story of my life..lol
Isn't the oil pump driven off the distributor? I would pull it and make sure it is ok, then try the drill trick to see if you can manually get it to build pressure. Then, unfortunately, you will probably have to drop the pan and get a close look at the pump.
Did you fill the filter with oil before installing? I've seen cavitation issues (done a few myself sad to say) with putting the oil filter on without filling it. When you pulled the first new filter off, was it empty? If it was, that may be the problem. At least a 1/2 quart in the filter before installing should do it. Just a thought.
in the past i had pumps go they usually took out the dist gear shear pin and just quit running, but imagine there are a few other things like 1lowtrk mentioned that could go wrong and not cause that. i knew other guys who started old motors to pull the intake and find a mice nest after it fried the bearings, but i drove this home n there was no sighn of that. first thing dist n check to see if its spinning like its pumping, then i guess it back under it and the pans coming off.
i had some oil in the new filter installing it, but when i pulled it it was full. could be my down fall there, i am gonna check the new napa one i just put on to see if it circulated or got dirty. just checked the new filter, level hadnt moved at all, was sitting half full yet, i topped it off more and started it and still nothing, it not pumping at all.
So, pull the distributor and a valve cover, then spin the pump and see what happens. Also as mentioned, put a real gauge under the hood to see what's going on. Don't be surprised to find you have to drop the pan, but you can hope.
If the dizzy had sheared a pin the motor would of died and it would be way out of time. Its possible the oil pump drive rod twisted(it happens) but not often. That leaves the oil pick up screen and oil pump. To me it sounds like a small particle of crap got in the pressure regulator in the oil pump and its held open-Usualy when this happens you may have 5 Lb. oil pressure by gauge. Thats how I see it
I'm not versed on 390s at all but I used to do a lot of oil changes at a dealership. Once and a while during an oil change, the oil pump would lose it's prime and wouldn't pump up. You'd have to wait a while for the oil to slowly make it's way up the tube and refill the pump then it would be ok. Could take a few minutes, could be an hour. We all never bothered to figure out why it happens but it does. I'm talking more modern Caddy engines here but maybe it applies to your engine somehow. Other than that is there a valve in that filter area? Maybe it's stuck from sludge? spin it off and push on it to see if it gives.
Pull the dist. and then the hex driveshaft. Fords are known for them to twist/round off. Sold a fair number of them back in the 60s-70s when there were lots of them old FEs an Y blocks around.
Just my 2 cents...a friend pulled his entire rebuilt early hemi apart for the same reason. He found it was all because the new oil filter did not have a check valve...I known its a different engine, but worth looking at. Do the simple stuff first!
I have seen the nylon upper timing gears come apart, the pieces can completely plug off a screen. you may have just lost the upper gear. If so you might get pieces of whitish plastic if you drain the oil again. The nylon was put on to quiet the chains down. Scot
Before I started pulling the engine apart I'd try a new filter. I've worked in a couple oil change places and experienced the cavitation issues that Gidaver mentioned. It can be caused by something as simple as trapped air. Sometimes taking the filter off and reinstalling it helps, although we always replaced the filter just to be safe. Had a district manager threaten to fire me for that one time.
i pulled the distributor and stuck a socket put my socket down the dizzy hole( i just wanted to type that..lol) well the sochet didnt budge, i put pressure on it both ways to see if the pump would unlock, and then the tool suddenly dropped a inch, guessing the shaft sheared when the pump locked. guess its just bad coincidence just like when we went to back it out of the driveway the first time sally was gonna get to drive it and the brake line broke. anyways its under the car for me and hope a new pump and shaft cures it. thanks all for your input, the hamb collective tends to be better than just one twiddlin his thumbs and wrackin his brain...lol.
have owned cars that had no known problem and sold/traded them and something mechanical fails shortly after new owner drives car. have had the same thing happen to me. shit happens
me too. id match up the old filter to the new on eand make sure th eo ring is in the same place. i had a few differnt oil filters in the cabinet. thought i grabed the right one for the cad and actually grabbed one for a sbc. oil everywhere, when it started to pump.the seal was just a hair to big.
My brother had an old lincoln and it had some sort of fiber valve seals or keepers that deteriorated, pieces broke off and clogged the oil returns. Just a thought
The two times that happened to me a few decades ago were- 1963 Chevy 283 Super Sport. Worst car mechanically I have ever owned. Girls loved it because it was cute and red, but it was powerless and troublesome. If I didn't carefully fill the oil filter very very full after an oil change, it wouldn't pick up "prime" again. Then I would have to pull out an oil gallery plug in the side of the block, and pump oil into the passages before the oil pump would put out pressure again. When it lost it's prime, it was hopeless until re-primed. The other was a Studebaker V8 that snapped off the oil pump driveshaft under the distributor because I had really thick oil in it, had a cold snap in the weather, and I forgot to give it a minute or two to warm slightly before revving it high and racing down the road after work. Oil gets hard to pump- snapp goes the shaft. Either of those scenarios could happen to almost any engine under just the right conditions.
i have no pressure in my ol' flathead.Had good pressure years ago when parked,but i got it goin again the other day,and now no pressure and valve train clatter,so i am "not talking" to it rite now as its leftside new water pump locked up and smoked the new belt at about the time my oil pressure issue arised, and i dont have $180 for a pair of speedway pumps....so dont feel alone,
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