Lost oil pressure

[ToddK]

After fitting new brakes to my 63 Galaxie, I took it out for a test drive today. After a few stops to bed in the new brakes, I found myself on a nice straight stretch of road, so I decided to give the 406/462 a bit of a workout. Dropped the clutch in 1st, straight up to the rev limiter at 6900rpm, power shift to 2nd, more tire smoke, power shift to 3rd, still smoking the tires, into 4th. Backed off the throttle, looked down and noticed the oil light on. A quick check of the oil pressure gauge showed zero pressure, so I quickly shut it off and pulled over to the road side.

After doing a quick visual check to make sure no obvious problems, I checked that there was oil in the pan. After letting the car sit for a few minutes, we tried starting it. It fired right up, but no pressure, so shut off again. I had the car towed back to my workshop, where we pulled the distributor to check the pump drive shaft. It looked intact, no obvious problems. We tried to turn the drive shaft with a 1/4" socket, but couldn't a small enough socket down onto the shaft.

Tomorrow, I plan to go back to my workshop with my oil pump priming tool, and a small oil pressure gauge I use for priming. At this stage it looks like I may have to drop the sump, if not pull the whole engine.

[jayb]

You could have lost the pump pickup, or broke the pump shaft when you got on it.  I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that the motor needs to come out yet; even if you did some damage you might be able to pull the pan and just replace the bearings.  It is amazing what the engines will take before they need a complete refurb...

[fastback 427]

X2 to that. My first 390, new build, had 100 psi oil pressure at idle. Builder said it would come down as it broke in. During the 30 mile trip home, middle of nowhere, the pressure dropped to 30. This was before the days of cell phones,so I drove it to the first station and called the builder to ask if that seemed right. I got, no, don't touch it, I'm on the way. After inspection,  we found a press in galley plug had been pushed out. The bearings were replaced, even though they still looked ok. That engine is still running today. Also the same builder fired up his Shelby 482 on the run stand after some upgrades, brought it up to temp to check the lash. Then he checked the oil. Couldn't see it on the dipstick, because he forgot to add it. Oops . There was no damage on that one at all, it still runs today. I'm hoping your good as well.

[machoneman]

n/m

[machoneman]

Then he checked ipstick, because he forgot to add it. Oops . There was no damage on that one at all, it still runs today. I'm hoping your good as well.

Me too! Reminds me of a true story about former F/C race Gene Snow. In those days, most racers had a pickup crew (free labor!) of guys willing to help during rounds. On fire up, he noticed a fluctuating oil pressure gauge, not unusual in a blown nitro 426 Hemi. Well, near the finish line the pressure was zero! He peddled it through the lights and still won. On teardown, no oil! Seems his crack helpers failed to add oil!

This is a true story as Amalie Oil Co., on hearing the news, actually ran a print ad in National Dragster and other rags of the era promoting how well their 70W nitro oil worked even with only film! Here's another guy who remembers that ad as well:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/did-i-just-kill-my-new-engine.783774/page-5
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[troublemaker427]

Does your 406 have a small hole at the oil filter mount area of the block that is normally covered by the gasket?  My '63 427 block has this hole and I believe most early blocks do.  It goes completely threw the block.  My guess is it could have blown threw the gasket at this hole.  I had this happen to me years ago.  We tapped the hole and put a set screw in it.  If the gasket blows out the oil bypasses back into the oil pan.  I have no idea why Ford put that hole there.

Also could have blown out the oil pump gasket or broke the pump casting.

I'd bet though you blew out the gasket at the oil filter mount. 

Also, cut open your filter and look for bearing material.  You may have gotten lucky and not hurt it.

[ToddK]

Good to know about the hole in the block at the oil filter mount area. If I get resistance from the oil pump when I prime it, that will be my next area to check.

I may be able to get away with just raising the engine a bit to remove the oil pan if I have to. If I go that far, I will check a few of the bearings too.  I had planned on dropping the oil filter and cutting it open to check for damage.

[ToddK]

I managed to get to my workshop today and start the problem solving. First, I put the oil pump priming tool on the pump drive shaft and found I could turn the shaft by hand, but with some resistance. I connected my small oil pressure gauge to the oil filter mount and used a drill to turn the oil pump. This showed zero pressure. So next I removed the oil filter mount to see if the hole in the block was present and causing the problem. My 406 block does have this hole, but as you can see from the photo below, the gasket was still intact.



I cut open the oil filter and was relieved to see it was relatively clean.

So, at this stage, my best guess is the oil pump pickup has somehow come loose. Tomorrow, I will attempt to raise the engine enough to allow removal of the oil pan. Hopefully that will reveal the problem. With the pan off, I also plan to inspect some of the bearings. The oil pump is a standard volume Mellings from POP. Is it common for these to crack or fail? I have had a 385 series oil pump fail on me, but have not heard of FE pumps failing.

[jayb]

I've never had an FE oil pump fail, but that doesn't mean it couldn't happen.  If you had some resistance when you are turning it, but it didn't drag the drill motor way down like it was pumping, I'm guessing the pickup came loose.  Pull the pan and you will find the problem...

[thatdarncat]

I had the bypass spring fail inside the pump of my bracket race 428 once, I had zero oil pressure at low rpms but did have maybe 5 psi when the motor was revved up a little. I wasn't sure at first if maybe the gauge had failed, tried a different gauge, same result. Most of the oil was just bypassing, but some was getting to the motor. Replaced the oil pump and all was fine. I mention it because there was nothing to see externally, no obvious visual failure. My machinist correctly guessed the problem, he said he has seen it a few times before.

[cjshaker]

Or the pickup could have cracked and is sucking air or sitting in the pan. That's why the better ones have strap bracing on them. It's also why all the bolts related to the pump and pickup should be safety wired.

[ToddK]

We managed to get the oil pan off with the engine still in the car, and happy to report we found the problem. The oil pickup bolts had come loose at the pump body, and the pump was sucking air. Everything else looked in good condition.

Not sure exactly why the bolts had come loose. I put this engine together, so only myself to blame. They are ARP bolts, and I am pretty sure I torqued them to spec. I may replace the bolts with some with a bigger head so I can drill and lock wire them. Or should I just reuse the ARP's but use loctite?

[63gal427]

That must be a huge relief that it was just the loose pickup and no visible damage was done.
Makes you wonder why it was loose though.

[blykins]

We managed to get the oil pan off with the engine still in the car, and happy to report we found the problem. The oil pickup bolts had come loose at the pump body, and the pump was sucking air. Everything else looked in good condition.

Not sure exactly why the bolts had come loose. I put this engine together, so only myself to blame. They are ARP bolts, and I am pretty sure I torqued them to spec. I may replace the bolts with some with a bigger head so I can drill and lock wire them. Or should I just reuse the ARP's but use loctite?

Have any regular bolts laying around?  I use "non-fancy" bolts, with lock washers and blue Loctite.

[Barry_R]

Red Loc-tite here...