We were left stranded on the highway when the oil pressure gauge went all the way to zero and the red engine light came on in the 89 f150. Luckily we were able to get it off to the shoulder and get it shut off quick. It didn't lock up. So we finally changed the oil pump yesterday. I just wanted to give people advice on doing this. The truck has a 302 (5.0L) V8 which is fuel injected. I had to lift the engine about a foot to get the pan out... This required removal of the upper intake manifold, the motor is basically as high as it will go, touching the cowl and floor. This great amount of clearance is needed to clear the transmission bell housing (ford AOD) and the oil pump, which is located at the front of the engine. Here is one pic after the pan came off, I will load more later, it's already all back together, the motor just needs to be dropped back in:



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This can be done in an afternoon with basic tools, a floor jack and pieces of wood to set the engine on.

 

I changed the oil pump in my 93 in just a few hours too.
One thing I'd like to add is jack the body up with out the tires leaving the ground. it helps give a bit more clearence and working room.

 

cool, glad you made it to the side of the road safely without toasting your motor

 

It can be done without removing the upper intake. I changed mine out by just jacking up the engine until the upper intake was against the firewall. Then when you pull all the pan bolts you have to reach in and unbolt the oil pump and then you are able to remove the pan.

 

oldblue89, what oil and change interval have you been using?

 

Conventional 10w-30 (usually valvoline/castrol/advance auto parts brand) every 3,000 miles or so. Why?
Recently, the truck has been running like a piece of junk, the check engine light was on but it wouldn't read any codes, so we took it to a shop and they found that the head was cracked (low compression in one of the cylinders), it had a chunk missing out of the valve and a crack around it, it was the intake valve if I recall correctly. We had them replace the head (we probably should have just done it ourselves). We noticed there was a lot of sludge on the top end of the motor, while the head was off. What I think happened is they sloppily cleaned the top and washed all the sludge into the bottom of the pan, clogging the pickup screen or damaging the pump... Despite the new head the truck still ran like junk (but not as bad as before). It just gets terrible gas mileage (10mpg, the truck used to get 15-18) and has no power. The truck has had a rough life, it was used to do the duties better suited for an F-350 for construction, hauling multiple pallets of bricks on the back, sand/gravel and other heavy construction materials. It has a new EGR valve, new idle air control, and new plugs and wires and we have a new distributor and ignition module we're going to put in. Hopefully those upgrades will help it run better.

 

It looks pretty dirty and the sludge on the top end doesn't surprise me either. The oil ought to be taking care of all that. Something's been not right with this motor for a long time and it's just now coming to a head.