The shop is going to take the shaft that drives the pump and give it a spin. If it doesn't put out any oil then the pump has gone bad or the shaft is too small. The pump is a Moroso high volume pump. The filter screen is clean. I saw it when they took the pan down to inspect the bearings. The gas / oil mix would likely have washed anything out of it. The previous owner has flushed the engine out from what we can see. When they drained the oil it had about 4 gallons of gas in it. I'm going to call tomorrow and keep you posted on what they find.

 

That sounds possible. I know Ford has 2 different size shafts. (5/16" and 1/4" hex I think) Could be the pump is for the larger shaft and it held for a little while until the corners wore down on the shaft.

 

That (wrong shaft) would be possible, but it seems pretty coincidental that the fuel pump would act up at the same time. I would think that the engine would last only minutes if the shaft started slipping, and from what I can surmise, it has had low pressure for a while.
Let us know how it turns out...

 

Well . I just got back from the shop and they took the distributor out. The gear teeth was worn thin. They gave the pump a spin and its pumping cause they can feel the resistance from it pumping the oil. He took off the plastic hose to the oil pressure gauge and nothing came out. It's likely the engine spun a bearing and oil isn't getting up to where it needs to go. But hey I got a job while I was there. The kid who cleans up there had to quit cause of school. So now I got his job. I know I will need an engine. Yet now I got a way to pay for it. I wonder when I will ever see that money. It's got a predetermined destination before it ever gets to my hands.

 

biggreen4x4, Are you going to pull the motor out to investigate this further?

 

Well I got no choice but to pull it out. I will have the long block in the back of the truck rebuilt if it can be. When I take the engine in the truck out I will have to take the oil pan off anyway to put on the rebuilt long block so I will take the rod caps and main caps off to find out what happened. At least I got a way to pay for it all now. I will try to see if there is a chance that I can do all that work up at the shop.

 

Keep us informed on what you find.

I may be wrong, but I did not think even spinning a bearing would cause absolute 0 oil pressure. The oil can still continue on through its other passages, it would just not get to the affected bearing properly.

But I may be full of it too.

 

Did the shop try spinning the oil pump with the oil filter off? At least you'd know if oil was getting to that point.

 

At this point the engine is known to be damaged. If I had oil to the filter it won't do the cam any good. It was obvious the distributor drive gear was worn and no oil was coming out of the oil sending unit port at the back of the intake. They did check to see if it was clogged and it wasn't. If anybody has one im looking for a running 400 modified.

 

does the M/400 have the oil port hiding behind the fuel pump? just curious if you read any pressure there? it is almost directly off the pump.

 

Can i ask you this? Why would i want to know if im getting oil off the pump? It won't do the scored cam bearings any good. I mean even if it was pumping 500 gallons per minute my cam and probbally the crankshaft bearing are scored beyond help. The distributor drive gears teeth were worn thin. At this point the biggest question to help me now is "I got a perfect 400m. Do ya want it?" Which I might come across since we got some wrecked cars out back behind the shop.
Today was my first day of work and I got alot done. You can see alot more of the floor. Well now im just chilling out till I find an engine.

 

I have a 351m that I just pulled out. Ran but : ) had low oil pressure. I'm just above atlanta, but I don't know where Hezakiah (or whatever) Ga is. If you have a 400 around, then that would save you getting a crank, but I can cut you a real deal on the 351 if you want it.
Enjoy the new job!
sfh

 

biggreen, the reason I was asking about the oil flow was curiosity more than anything else. I know the engine is damaged and I feel for you. I really do. It's just that it's not too common to lose all the oil pressure and if there was some explanation it might help someone else that had the same problem.
Good luck.
Greg

 

i still can't find where in the post evidence is that the engine is 100% for sure a loss...

problems:

1) fuel pump dumped some fuel into the engine... no huge deal, but a pain to fix... change the oil several times with some run-time in between to clear all the gas out of the passages... but you can't do that until we solve the oiling problem

2) no oil pressure - you said the oil pump shaft may be the wrong size, thus no pressure would be generated by the pump... fix = try a different pump

3) Distributer gear shaft is worn thin. fix = replace the shaft with a new one.

it's not a waste of money to try either #2 or #3 because even if the engine is toast you can use these parts on your rebulid!

also, there's no way to tell if the cam bearings are scrated or toasted without removing the camshaft, has that been done??? doesn't sound like it.

there's also no way to see if the crankshaft main bearings are toasted unless the pan has been dropped and the available mains removed.... if I read a prev post correctly you've already dropped the pan - was there small shiny metal flakes in the bottom of the pan? no???? then you may still be in luck...

my personal opinion is spend the money on a new oil pump, distributer drive, and fuel pump and try again after draining the oil and turning the engine by hand a bunch of times to try and circulate new good oil everywhere... that's maybe $200 for decent parts instead of $850 and not being 110% sure your current engine is wasted.

my $.02

 

danimal, I think you made some very good points here.

I, like you, don't think this motor is dead in the water.

The distributor teeth being worn thin has nothing at all to do with oil pressure. The distributor drive gear was doing its job, it was not slipping on the cam, as the motor still ran. And like you said, the cam needs to be removed to check the conditon of the cam bearings. I have also wondered, where it was mentioned earlier that there was a performance oil pump in it, if a standard non hardened, oil pump drive shaft was used, and it has rounded off and slipping in the oil pump or the distributor. I have not seen it noted if that was checked as well. As I said in a much earlier post, I think the fuel pump issue should be forgotten about for now and find out why its not getting oil pressure.



biggreen4x4, We are just trying to help you realize there are a lot of things to check before you give up on your engine. Pull that motor out of your truck and hang it on a stand and check all these things we have mentioned before you spend a dime on a new motor.