How can I tell an oil pump is bad?

04-14-2001, 09:12 PM

Man, that sucks, here's my only theory:
Did you clean out the oil passages in the crank when you got it. I rebuilt an engine in school about 2 months ago and we got a brand new crank. Just for the fun of it i took a wire brush and found an insane amount of metal shavings and crud inside the passages that wasn't cleaned out. Main bearing oil pressure determines overall oil pressure, and if you're getting no oil through the mains, none of it is getting to the galleries and that is where (if i'm not mistaken), where the oil pressure is measured. I assume since you took out the plugs (from what it sounds like) from the oil galleries that you cleaned out the galleries, that's another possible thing to be plugged as well. IF i were you i'd go ahead and take the block back out, clean out all the passageways, and check to see if the bearings are toast. If you cleaned all this stuff out, then i'm stumped also, but if it's an old high mileage block then the most likely culprit is sludge buildup (i found an unbelievable amount of sludge in my 150,000 mile 302 and all older 302's i've seen are caked with sludge). Good luck man, i feel for 'ya.

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'84 Mustang 5.0 T5, FMS aluminum radiator & 180* t-stat, 1 5/8 shortys/2.5" duals, '88 GT tail lights and wheels, Holley 4160 4 BBL, FMS smog pump idler

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04-14-2001, 09:12 PM	#2
84stangLX Guest Posts: n/a	Man, that sucks, here's my only theory: Did you clean out the oil passages in the crank when you got it. I rebuilt an engine in school about 2 months ago and we got a brand new crank. Just for the fun of it i took a wire brush and found an insane amount of metal shavings and crud inside the passages that wasn't cleaned out. Main bearing oil pressure determines overall oil pressure, and if you're getting no oil through the mains, none of it is getting to the galleries and that is where (if i'm not mistaken), where the oil pressure is measured. I assume since you took out the plugs (from what it sounds like) from the oil galleries that you cleaned out the galleries, that's another possible thing to be plugged as well. IF i were you i'd go ahead and take the block back out, clean out all the passageways, and check to see if the bearings are toast. If you cleaned all this stuff out, then i'm stumped also, but if it's an old high mileage block then the most likely culprit is sludge buildup (i found an unbelievable amount of sludge in my 150,000 mile 302 and all older 302's i've seen are caked with sludge). Good luck man, i feel for 'ya. ------------------ '84 Mustang 5.0 T5, FMS aluminum radiator & 180* t-stat, 1 5/8 shortys/2.5" duals, '88 GT tail lights and wheels, Holley 4160 4 BBL, FMS smog pump idler