Has anyone ever had an oil pump lock up? I was driving home and the engine shut off. after 20 minutes of looking through the engine and trying to start it i noticed my distributor wasnt turning. Turned out that the pin sheared on the distributor. After removing the distributor gear i put the distributor back in and tried to turn it. I couldnt turn the oil pump.:confused: A friend helped me tow it home. I've never had this happen before, not sure what could cause it. I havent taken it apart yet, i plan on doing that first thing tomorrow morning. Does anyone have any idea of what could cause this? I guess I should be happy this didnt happen on the highway.
It happend on my Turbo Coupe after I spent way to much money making it go faster at 10k and 3 clutches later:evilsmile after the rebuild it locked up not cool at all. I sold the car after that as a rolling body and later sold off the turbo upgrades.....
never heard of it myself...but 2 reasons come to mind.....no oil.....but the engine could/would/should have seized as well... something broke in the oil pan....oil pump broke a gear.....etc.....cause it to seize... take the oil pan off....take the 2-3 bolts that hold the oill pump in place.....go buy a brand new high volume oil pump...($29.99 at checker) put it in with a NEW shaft....make sure you prime the oil pump and oil system BEFORE you start the car good luck
I just did a post mortem on a 351 from a commercial van last week for a buddy that sounds very familiar. We replaced the 351 with a 302 that I sold him so that he could get the van back on the road ASAP. Pulled the motor because the distributer did not turn and found half the teeth missing on the distributor drive gear. Looked down distributor hole and cam was missing teeth. After motor was out - pulled the oil pan and pump and found pump was seized. Discected the pump and found some metal particles had been "smeared" in the gerotor making it an interference fit. Scraped off some of the stuff and ran a magnet over it and found the metal was mostly aluminum. HHHHMMMM where did that come from? Most likely souce I found was the timing chain was so sloppy it was slapping the cover and ate away about 1/2" from the divider and skinned a little off the water passage. Seemed like that should have happened gradually as the timing chaing stretched... so I kept digging. Wasn't doing it any good but I didn't think that killed it. Found a badly burned piston, blown head gasket, two holes had broken rings, and a little gauling on the bearings. I think the death blow was the lunkers that were leasing the van let it run low or out of oil and probably overheated it as well. Cleaver
I re-sealed and put bearings in a 429 a while back. The bearings were badly worn and scorched basically. When I pulled the oil pump the screen was full of rubber valve stem seals. The pump was also full of very small pieces of rubber making it extremely hard to turn. It had'nt sheared the gear pin but I'd bet it was'nt far off. That's why whenever I hear about someone replacing their valve stem seals I recommend they replace the oil pump and clean the screen. clint
One of my Mavericks had an oil pump freeze. When I took it apart it was full off dry rotted valve stem seals ...
Thanks everyone for the info. i'm about to go outside and start tearing it apart. this pump was a brand new high volume oil pump from advance auto parts. i only have about 80 miles on this engine so far, i bet there probably was something floating in the oil. i'll keep you guys posted on what i find. thanks again for the info.
I would advise against running a high volume oil pump with a stock oil pan (if that is what you have). You run an increased risk of sucking that pan dry if you spend much time at higher rpm levels and most motors do not need a high volume pump anyway.
I've seen the stock fiber cam gears come apart and do this also. The shear pin did it's job, it saved you from running the motor without oil pressure.
That happen on my mustang, the cause was a piece of carbon from the inside of the pick up tube. It came lose from the cleaners I use on these parts. I will never use a used pick up tube again there is just no way to get it completly clean. BTW both my mustang and the maverick have HV pumps and stock pans Mustang has 43,000 miles and the maverick has 20,000 with no starvation issues.
The starvation issue is largely a myth for small block Fords. Can't answer to other engines. I had one lock up on a new motor from a piece of valve stem seal as well. I re-used the old pickup screen after what I thought was a thorough cleaning, and it turns out that these screens have a hole about the size of a quarter in them that serves as a bypass. It's under the shroud. Also, the ford style pump is not a gear pump, it's a rotor type, and clearance is very tight. A rep at Melling even told me that a piece of wire could lock up the Ford pumps, while the Chevy pumps could chew up and spit out dimes. Also, that "shear" pin is made of steel, and it usually doesn't shear. I wiped out a distributor gear and a cam in the process.
