That is kind of scary You are referring to the crankshaft bearings right? Why would that be an issue? Would they move if they were worn out and block the oil passages? Does the oil sensor/sending unit come after the bearings?

 

I will check it out and see report what I find.

Zac

 

Well wouldn't it be just my luck that the Harbor Freight oil pressure gauge kit reads 0 psi at idle.

So does that automatically mean the oil pump is shot?
Is there another place I can test the oil pressure to see if the oil pump is actually working?

 

Oh FYI....The Oil Pressure Sending Unit is a Mother F-ing PITA to remove. You will just save yourself some time and A LOT of frustration if you just go directly to the auto parts store and buy the $9.99 special socket for 1" and 1 1/16" sending unit switches.

I do not look forward to changing the distributor cap, rotor and spark plug wires in the future!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Zac

 

If it reads 0 park it and find a melling high volume oil pump, and yes you tested in the correct place. No amount of positive thinking is going to change that. The oil level is full I hope. probably should have asked that first. Since you are going to be pulling the pan to change the pump you might find your pickup screen blocked with crap...I would still change the pump though. If you are lucky, and I think you might be, no damage has been done yet.

 

0 at idle is not good, pull the pan and see what's going on in the pan, if it's full of sludge clean it out along with the oil pump pick-up tube, reinstall the pan fill with oil and cross your fingers. Using a HV oil pump, thicker oil are just band aids to cover up sloppy bearings. I was down to 15-25 psi @ opt temp @ idle did not like that at all, installed a HV oil pump and 5w-40 oil, oil psi is back up to spec or more, but I know it's just a matter of time before something let's loose.

If the pan is full of sludge then most likely so is the lifter valley.

 

Pan was full of crap and it looks like someone cut the bottom of the pan off and re welded it back on. I took the old oil pump of and opened it up and it had some gouges from metal shavings but it still rotated freely. I did get a new pump and will install it right now. Hopefully that fixes the problem and I don't waste $19 worth of cheap oil ;-)

 

Okay lets start with the bad news first...
With new oil pump, and the dealership oil/filter the oil pressure reads...
0 at 500 rpm.
1000 rpm the gauge reads 6 psi
3000 rpm gauge reads 30 psi

Now onto what I hope is good news...
I successfully changed out the oil pump with a direct replacement from Autozone....
http://www.autozone.com/autozone/par...221_9420_1660_

The oil pan was full of junk so I scraped all of that out and cleaned it up real good...


The oil pump didn't seem too bad but there were quite a few gouges from metal shavings going through it...




While I was there I just grabbed the cheapest 5 qt jug of oil I could find 20W-50 (because I was going to have the dealership change the oil and filter 15 minutes after the install)
I still had the manual pressure gauge installed on the engine so I fired it up and this what happened...



So do I just need to use heavier weight oil for the engine to stay safe?
What else could be causing the low oil pressure with the lighter weight oil?

Zac

 

I hope you bought a High volume pump. That is the only thing that will give you more time. That pump looks pretty bad to me. those shavings are not good. Those came off of your bottom end somewhere and ended up in the oil pan, where it was then sucked up into the pump. I would start planning on rebuilding the bottom end. Should you need a HV pump I happen to have a brand new one made by Millen that I would sell you for $30 shipped.

 

Does look like bad news, as a stop gap measure a high volume pump with heavier weight oil will buy you some time but it looks like a bottom end rebuild sooner rather than later. So QuadCabLuv you were right...me and my glass half full attitude. You've heard the saying, "Hope for the best but plan for the worst", well with me it's hope for the best and don't plan at all. lol