Good to know. Thanks.

 

Glad to hear you resolved the problem.

Since you've confirmed that someone had been in there and cleaned things out, you can be pretty certain that the engine wasn't well cared for all the time. I had a similar scare, which turned out to be the oil pressure sender going bad. Still, I knew mine wasn't the best cared for either. I ran some motor flush through it. Saved some dirty oil from a previous oil change just to flush out the solution, then changed to fresh oil and filter. Going forward, if you aren't already, use a good full synthetic oil and a high filtration filter with synthetic media. I'm about to hit 280K on this old boy and it's running sweet.

 

If the top end is as clean as what I can see through the oil filler, it had to have been a very thorough engine flush as it looks spotless. I firmly believe that regular maintenance and not procrastinating on repairs is the key to longevity. I'm not a fan of synthetics, but use a quality oil and a Wix filter. The early Hemi Durango in my signature has 280K miles on it running the original engine & transmission.

 

How did you manage to remove the oil pan? I removed the bolts on my 96 4x4 and couldnt get the pan out. It was hitting something. I reached in the pan and removed the pick up tube. Thought maybe that holding the pan up but it wasnt it still wouldnt come out? Reinstalled the pick up tube and put the bolts back on the pan. Lost 1 bolt in the gravel driveway somewhere? As far as the bolts on the oil pump it looks like you have to remove the timing cover? Theres a youtube video of a guy removing it. He removed the entire front of the engine parts to get to it. Belt, alt, ac pump, water pump, smog pump, harmonic balancer. Looked like quite the job.

 

Yeah, the oil pump is part of the timing cover..... There is a plate bolted on from the back side, and at one time, there was an issue of those bolts working loose, and losing oil pressure. (which may be what happened to you?)

On my V-8 truck, I had to lift the motor some to get the pan off......

 

Isnt that somethin? Have to lift the engine up to remove the oil pan? I thought only japanese vehicles were that way? Just bought a honda civic and you ahve to remove the driverside tire to remove the alternator? That V10 pan is extra large! Seems like mine has 3 different sized bolts on it? The truck was built in canada and half the bolts on it are metrics! Gonna see if the junkyard still has the blown engine I brought em to get the oil pump housing from it?

 

For a buncha years, cars/trucks had a mixture of standard and metric bolts/fasterners..... I suspect some american cars are still like that.

What happened to the previous motor? If it self destructed, the pump/cover on that one may be trashed too.

 

Previous motor had either a cracked block or a cracked head?

 

So, pump/cover *should* be usable.