Ok I just finished building my 302. It is .040 over. Oil Clearances on the rods and Main are withing specs. I got a rebuild kit from Northern. Ordered a High Volume oil pump, 290 cam and all the other normal goodies.
Prelubed the heck out of anything with a bearing.
Well I broke in the cam as requested. 1000-1500 rpm for 20 min
I started driving the truck last night for about 10 miles Oil pressure was 42lbs at idle of 900 rpm, then today drove it another 4 miles. Left there and came to a stop sign. It died. I figured it was just my carb loading up or something. pulled onto the road ran it up to 2700 rpm went to second and looked down. Something just didnt feel right.. No knocking or anything like that.. it had a flutter or something.. NO oil Pressure.. AHHHH I shut it off and pulled over. Have to trailer it home tonight.

So Im going to test the oil pump with a primer and see if that might be the problem. Other than that Im in the air.. any suggestions.

Thanks
C

 

I would pull the distributor and check the oil pump shaft. I hope you replaced it with a heavy duty one.

 

DOH!!!!... no one mentioned anything about a HD oil shaft.. well guess I will find out here once it stops raining.
Thanks
C

 

While you're at it, check the gear on the distributor that is driven by the gear on the cam. I wiped one out on a 400 once.

Thank goodness the engine dies when those break.

 

Ok we just got a torential down pour while I had to load it on the trailer. It was rattling pretty bad when I bumped it up on the trailer. Going to be a couple days until I get a chance to pull it apart. Cross your fingers. I know Bearings are in order for sure. ... I just feel sick to my stomache to know I just spent all this money and time.. to have it run like a top and sound just like I wanted it.. THEN.. shoot craps on me..

Cya guys. talk to you soon..
Maybe I should start a donation fund for new bearings LOL.. wife is going to crap a brick over this now!!
donations can me made to my paypal LOL

 

also cam break in is at 2000rpms so if you where running it less then that you may have wiped out a lobe or two. also be sure not to use a fram filter. wix, purolator and motorcraft are all that should be used.

 

I did the break in as they specified 1500-2000 for 20 min. I did it for around 30 ..

I just pulled it off the trailer today after the rain and will start removing it tomorrow.
keep yall informed.

 

Im just lucky I think. The oil pump definately did lock up. It twisted the shaft all the way up and broke off the top 1.5 inches. After pulling all the bearings out and rechecking clearances cylinder 5 showed substantial wear compared to others with scaring on the crank. everything else is still within the .00015-.00010 range
Now after a couple phone calls to Melling and Northern Autoparts it looks like the are going to make good. I will keep you all informed of the outcome. Anyone can say they are going to cover it .. when they do is another story. .. Crossing my fingers for now.
Could be worse!

 

You are very lucky that she stopped working on you. Check your timing chain, cam gear, distributor drive gear as well. You may have stretched the timing chain or put some major wear on the gears. If you wiped a cam lobe you would have seen what looked like sparkles in your oil. I have a pretty good example of the damage caused by a loose timing gear bolt that ate all but 2 or 3 lobes on my cam. Other then the engine not wanting idle at the same RPM and needing to reset my valve lash I would have never know. Ebay has a bunch of ARP Billet Oil Pump Shafts listed for cheap insurance. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ford-...Q5fAccessories

 

carburator service thats all you need