Hey everyone, i am new to posting here. i have read plenty of threads but i cant seem to find an answer so i am venturing out and actually posting something. :Comp: I am 16 years old, and i got my first car (81 Cutlass Supreme Brougham, 3.8, TH200) early 2012. last summer i bought a 76 buick 350 and th350 trans used. i heard the engine run on a stand before i bought it. o knocks, ticks, and it had great vacuum. so i picked them up. i did a re-seal and painted the engine and then a couple weeks ago i started the swap into the Cutlass. well i finished last week and it ran great. so i drove it to the exhaust shop with open manifolds and they welded up sweet true duals with an x-pipe and some pretty quiet mufflers. (going for the sleeper look). On the way home from the exhaust shop my oil pressure instantly dropped to zero (Mechanical sunpro guage) and i heard ticking. i shut the car down and had it towed home. it wasnt knocking at all, just lifter tick from no oil pressure i would imagine. so anyways, i took out the distributor and oil pressure guage fitting from the block (to check for oil flow) and spun the oil pump shaft with a drill and sure enough after 30 seconds of spinning oil came slowly at first then started flowing quickly and spurting out the oil pressure sender location. I then was puzzled. so i took to the internet and learned of main oil galley plug that if it popped out may cause this symptom. so i took of my timing chain cover and was very confused because i cannot find a plug anywhere. there is a spot where it looks like there used to be a plug or something but was cast full of iron. almost as if it was a change in the block casting. im very confused. so was there a ain oil galley plug in 76? and if so, where is it? because im lost. any other info on the oil pressure issue please feel free to speak your mind if you think you might know what it is. Thanks, John here's a picture of the block.
Pictures are a bit fuzzy, but the galley passages are on both sides of the cam. There are cup plugs that get staked in. Looks like they are still there, but it's hard to see in the pictures. Some rebuilders will replace the cup plugs with screw in plugs by tapping the block. These pictures are from a 455, but the 350 is very similar. http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s110/tspjim455/Blockmods021.jpg http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s110/tspjim455/Blockmods022.jpg http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s110/tspjim455/Blockmods027.jpg You could also have a loose/clogged oil pick up. Only other thing I can think of is if the distributor hold down is loose, the distributor can pop up and stop driving the oil pump.
From the pictures, it appears both your oil galley plugs are in place, so your good there. Sounds like you have a "leak" or a suction side restriction somewhere. You should have had oil pressure sooner than 30 secs. of drill time. I would pull the pan and check the pick-up for loose bolts, and or a clogged screen.
Okay guys thanks for your info so far. i can confirm those two plugs are for sure in the block. i have a rebuild kit for the oil pump and i installed a thrust plate when i resealed the engine. So i guess ill rebuild the oil pump while everything is off. ill be sure to check the end clearance on the gears, what should it be? i think i read somewhere it should be .002" or maybe that was the mains? hmm, if anyone can confirm that would be greatly appreciated. Also i have the pan half off right now, i am gonna lift the engine up a few inches on wed and get the pan completely off. ill check the pickup very thoroughly and make sure it is tightly bolted on with a good gasket. i also thought that the thirty seconds seemed a bit long also, im glad someone could confirm my suspicion about that. hopefully the oil pump being rebuilt and checking/fixing the oil pickup will do it. im still puzzled about it originally losing pressure because i havent really found anything at all that seems a reasonable cause for that issue. i hope the oil pump/pickup fix it and once i bolt it all back up ill be able to get pressure within a few seconds with the drill. ill be sure to pack the pump gears with Vaseline as well.
Hey replace that plastic oil pressure line while your at it ,they sell copper Line at most auto parts stores.
Yup, preferred end clearance is .002. Put "Oil Pump End Clearance" into the search function of this board. You can find anything you want with the search. It's all here. TA Performance sells a gasket shim assortment just for the purpose of dialing in the end clearance. http://www.taperformance.com/proddetail.asp?prod=TA_1704 Also, make sure the new pump assembly primes before you fire the engine. The Chassis manual recommends packing the pump with vaseline to insure priming. Some guys don't like that idea, but I have done it without problems. The pump may prime without it, just confirm pressure with a drill, and you'll be fine.
I actually finished bolting the engine back up and all is good. I rebuilt the oil pump, cleaned the pump housings spotless (there was gunk in them) and i took off the pan just to find a perfectly clean oil pickup. well it was worth the reassurance at least. one of the gears in the oil pump had a little chip broke off of it and i have a feeling that was at least part of my problem, and all the gunk in the pump. i filled the pump gears with vaseline and within ten seconds with a drill it loaded up and built strong pressure. I also swithec the pressure relief spring to the white one included in the rebuild kit, now cold the engine is sitting at 55 psi idling. once hot hot the pressure is 9-11 psi idling in gear at a red light. and the pressure instantly jumps when throttle is applied, under quater throttle acceleration the pressure was at like 30-45 psi, and i read that 10 psi per 1000 rpm is what i should be looking for. i have no tach but the pressure climbs strongly with throttle. so that is good. the next little thing to fix is to get the speedometer working again, i think the speedo gear housing is wrong i took it from the th200 and put it in the th350. the drive and driven gears are both installed but no speedo. ill fiddle with that this weekend. The engine gets too warm for my liking. in traffic today the temp climbed to 215 and that makes me uncomfortable. i blame the single core radiator and no fan shroud!:grin: i am gonna buy a nice two or three core radiator and i already snagged a lincoln mark viii electric fan that ill install this spring once it warms up.
Right now my focus is to replace the rear main, again. its a brand new rope seal but i have a feeling my friend who put it in messed something up, i heard theyre very hard to get right. so i bought a ford 460 rear main and im installing it while engine is in car in two days. wish me luck!
Nice to see a young guy with so much mechanical knowledge as well as one that has obviously studied the sbb. Welcome to the board and good luck with your project.
Yes i will for sure. i read it a while back but ill definitely go reread , the easier and quicker it goes the better. more knowledge is never a bad thing. And to exfarmer, i take that as a big compliment. i am trying my best to learn what i can, nothing beats the hands on experience.
