Sudden loss of ALL! oil pressure
 

past sunday at the track i let my supervisor drive my car. he has a 2002 Gt and runs 13.6's i figured he knew how to drive....
after he made a pass, i heard valvetrain clattering. then TO MY HORROR the oil pressure was crapped OUT! my engine only has 5000 miles on it and i still owe $2000 on the rebuild. do you think I am $h** out of luck???? it ran for about 20 seconds w/out oil pressure. :eek: please help me!!!!!:confused: i dont care about whats wrong i just want to know if you think i could smoke new bearings an a matter of seconds at idle. ( i drained my oil and didn't see any large metal filings but were some very small sparkles in it) almost too small to see. i had to check like 4 times to be sure.

I drove from cape cod basically back to boston with about 1 cup of oil in the pan a month ago. I didnt know this at the time, I just felt the car really not wanting to run. When I got home, I took a look and the dipstick was dry. I went to go drain the oil and almost nothing came out. Apparently, the synthetic oil just goes woop right past rings and out the tailpipe. Filled it back up and no problems since. So at idle compared to this, you shouldnt have a seizeup or ground bearings. Probably, the oilpump driveshaft came loose and is getting into the machinery

The real tale will be in the filter. Take the filter and cut it apart so that you can see what the element has trapped. If it's copper, you've got problems. Have you pulled the distributor to see if the oil pump shaft is intact?

Yeah, oil pump shaft would be my guess too.

--nathan

Another vote on the oilpump driveshaft.

I have a feeling you will end up having to remove the engine, and then after you pull off the oilpan, you will find a few pieces of what looks to be a steel "Twizzler" and the oilpump locked up.
Upon further inspection, the bearings will be scored, and needing replacement.

This happened to me a couple years back.

Also, if you decide to cut the filter open to check for particles, you will have to cut it open with a large tubing cutter, or some other cutting tool that won't get metal shavings into the filter while you are cutting it.
I would think that cutting an oil filter open with a hacksaw or similar device would introduce more metal shavings into it, and you wouldn't be able to tell which ones were from just cutting it open, and which ones were there before. Am I thinking right Jeff?

Actually, I use a set of tin snips. They don't really introduce any particles to the element, but even if they did its pretty easy to distinguish which ones have been there for a while and were planted there by oil. For bearing damage you're looking for copper anyways, so that's real distinguishable.

if it was me, I'd pull out the motor, take the oil pan off, and look at the main caps and rods caps, to make sure.

ITS THE TWIZZLER LOOKIN THING!!!
 

Yea, well i unbolted the mounts lifted the motor and pulled the pan and found the remains of a twisted shaft and a seized pump thanks for the help.................... car runs great!!!!!

So I'm assuming you didn't check the bearings?

When it happened to mine, about half of the main bearings were shot.

Doing the bearings would be relatively cheap insurance. I do hope it all works out O.K. for you though!