Hello all..........I have a 390 that I've owned for about 10 years.....I had the heads professionally rebuilt about 10000 miles ago but have never touched the bottom end.....last week I was driving it when the oil pump piled up.....I shut it down as soon as I heard the lifters rattling but can't help but think it didn't do the motor any good......I've since had a new oil pump installed and it appears to be running ok......is it reasonable to assume that the motor didn't suffer any lasting damage or should I expect troubles in the near future.....I've just transfered the motor into a 76 f600 out of a 76 f150 so she's working harder and reving higher than she's used to.......can't help but think the mechanic got a piece of gasket into the works when he did the transfer and thats what piled up the oil pump....any feedback or comments would be appreciated

 

I think it'll be ok. The bearings will have some oil in 'em for a while anyway, and the oil from the top gallery will flow down, which it did.

 

The pickup tube for the oil pump has a steel mesh screen on it so that should have stoped the big chunks from getting into the pump. Anything that is small enough to get through that screen should easily make it through the pump and get caught buy the filter. If there were several larger peices they could block the pickup tube and that would cause some problems though. Did your mechanic find any debree in the pan?

 

can't imagine my mechanic would admit if he found anything in the old oil pump as he is the one that did the motor swap...it's just a theory and doesn't matter now...I'm glad to hear someone else thinks the motor might be alright as that is my hope.....thinking maybe I'll have it totally rebuilt sometime as a winter project but it would be nice if it would behave itself till then...thanks for the comments guys

 

Had a 302 some years ago that locked up an oil pump.The pensil shaft looked like a drill bit when I pulled it out. Pulled the pump apart and is was locked up tight, looked at the pickup tube and it was pluged with small and large debree. Don't know where it came from. Not quite sure how long the engine ran without oil,1-2 minutes max. I checked the bearings befor installing the new pump and they only lost just over .0005" , lifters still looked good, no visable blueing.

I just put it all together and it ran just fine for a couple of years when I replaced it with a 429

 

Should be fine if it had a decent number of miles on it - a new motor is so tight, it'll go bad almost immediately.

Um, the pickup screens, don't they have that bypass thing built into the screen? That narrow flat piece of sheet metal that goes across the screen, isn't there a brass grommet in the middle of the screen so the pickup can go into bypass?

Or was that just my mother's Fairlane 500 wagon w/289?

Speaking of that 289, it had 120K miles on it and my mother blew the oil idiot-light sending unit spraying oil all over - ran it until it was DRY for miles rattling all the way... brother put oil back in it, couldn't find the leak, and she did it again on the way home. Ran it dry, I tell you! I found the leak, fixed it, and refilled with oil. Sounded like a diesel, ran another 40K miles until I tore it apart for a rebuild and even was still able to reach 110 MPH. Even ate the oil pump shaft (and locked the pump) once from valve-seal remnants making it past that pickup screen. All the rods checked out round and straight, crank was trashed though, couldn't even be cut.

My point? A high mileage motor will tolerate a little more time without oil. And, I think these FE pickup screens (at least in the 60's?) had that bypass built into the pickup screen.

 

I didn't know about a bypass. Now I'm going to have to take one apart to see.