I'm not pulling the engine, just picking it up a bit. What I need to know is ... what do I have to disconnect in order to do it ? Do I unbolt the exhaust manifold, do I remove the driveshaft ?

The engine needs to go up what .. 6 inches ?

 

Why do you need to change the oil pump?

 

Ive never changed an oilpump with the engine in the car, and our tunnels arnt that tall, you will probly have to unbolt the bellhousing (Or take driveshaft out and take the engine and trans out together)

Manifolds will probly wanna come too. Anything sticking ot of your engine will be an inconveinance.

 

What he said.

 

Rebuilt the engine, put it back in the car. During this I also replaced the oilpump. So what happened is the oilpump shaft and the distributor won't line up properly, me and a buddy tried for two hours. He looked down and said it looked like the shaft may not be straight up. So I was going to do it from the bottom instead, and reuse my old standard volume oilpump.

 

That's not your problem. Which oil pump drive shaft are you using?

 

Uhmmmm the one which came with the oil pump I ordered from Summit ??

Not good not good .. .going through this .. and divorce and other crap at the same time ... LOL

 

Did it have a metal or a plastic collar on it to connect it to the oil pump drive?

 

I honestly don't remember, I did this several months ago. I had way too much going on in order to fix it right away.

 

Do you have a part number for it or the pump? Have you looked down the distributor hole yourself to see what's going on?

 

I didn't look down there myself, but my buddy did. This was after 1 1/2 hours of work, and after trying to bump the engine. He grabbed hold of the shaft with the screwdriver .. and could turn it... but he said it looked like the shaft wasn't quite centered.

Nope, don't have the part number anymore. I could try to figure out which one I bought but I doubt it.

 

Any ideas ?

I know they got two mechanics certified people at the auto hobby shop on base where I'm taking my car, but I'd like to maybe have a bit more of an idea as to what's wrong with the damn car.

Still need to run by soon to become ex-wife's place today and grab my old oil pump from the garage *l*

 

You don't need to change the oil pump for that. Put that out of your mind. That's just crazy talk, all that work for nothing.

There's no issue with "centering". That's not the problem.

The problem is, the dist shaft turns as you drop it in, so if ou line up the oil pump shaft to where you THINK the dist will hit it, you'll usually be wrong.

Put the engine to #1 firing, by finding compression at the #1 spark plug hole. Bump the engine with the starter until compression occurs there, then turn the crank by hand in the correct direction (NOT backwards) until it reaches the timing you want, say, 12° BTDC on the tab. Turn the pump shaft with your screwdriver to where it's at about a 45° angle. Then drop the dist in with the rotor pointing about 15° toward the front, from being straight toward the driver's side, and holding the dist body in the position it needs to be in when in the car. The shaft will rotate as the dist drops in, and end up pointed about 30° toward the driver's side from straight ahead. Should go right in all the way. Once it's in, put the bolt in, and tighten it until you can still turn the dist, but it's hard; pull up on the shaft and turn it CCW as far as it will go (take up the slack in the gears basically), and while holding the shaft like that, adjust the dist body until the star wheel teeth line up. Put the rest of the car together, and reach in the window and fire it up. Your timing will be within a couple of degrees of wherever you set the motor earlier on.

 

So there's no way the shaft could have gotten damaged ? Like warped/bent ?

I'm gonna print this out and bring it with me to the hobby shop, need to go there anyway, since I need put a hose on the lower tranny cooler line and probably change the shifter cable. Yes I was dumb enough to buy the autozone one, and it took me hours to grind the plastic off to make it fit on both ends, and it's still jacked up.

But wouldn't the dizzy drop down if I would bump the engine, automatically ? Especially since my buddy was applying light pressure to it while I was bumping the engine.



I think I'll write a book about what can go wrong when you rebuild an engine, everything has happened. Including a snapped exhaust manifold bolt, I had to remove the head and replace it with another one.

 

None at all. It's a piece of solid 5/8" steel.

 

ok ... i guess it's just a little bit harder to do than i imagined. I'll give it a shot ... hey remember I'm Polish ... takes three of us to change out a light bulb



(And yes people, being 100 percent Polish born in Poland, I am allowed to make those jokes hahahaha !!!)

 

is there a possibility that you did not get the oil pump shaft in the clip correctly mated together and then when you tried to turn the motor over the dissy engaged the shaft and broke the plastic shaft bushing

just thinking in worst case

if your friend put a screwdriver down the intake and tried to move the shaft and it would not budge remove the oil pan

it easy, you are military right, I was a SEABEE, construction mechanic, remove the motor mount bolts. since the dissy is already out you dont have to worry about it. get a 2x4 and cut 2 2 inch lenghts.

loosen you bolts that hold your exaust pipes to your manifolds just enough so that they can piviot

if you have a engine hoist use it if not a 6 inch 2x4 vertically placed under the harmonic balancer with a jack will get the motor high enough to the small 2 inch 2x4s between the motor mounts and the clam shells.

go to town on the pan

DO NOT put a used oil pump on

I heard about your autozone story but you can get a m-55(melling) pump for 14 bucks. do not forget to replace the pump screen $6 and use autozones screen installation tool

good luck

 

Unbelievable !!

A buddy looked at it, told me I probably need a spacer, I told him this engine hadn't been milled at all. He looked again.. .and figured it out.


The slot in the oil pump shaft was too small for the dizzy to fit into !!!! What's the chance of that happening ? And where did I buy the oil pump ? Summit Racing !!!


Now I gt her started, had some white smoke, could be old oil, could be blown valve seals, will see if i get white smoke again next time. Oh yeah the white smoke was just at the initial startup.

I do have a ticking sound, sounds like it's coming from the driver side valve cover, so a rocker adjustment seems to be needed.


Now I gotta bypass the stock tranny fluid cooler and install an aftermarket one, due to a leak.

 

White smokes sounds like antifreeze. A blueyish tinted smoke would be oil.

 

But a blown head gasket would mean constant white smoke. this was just at startup, once I had it running, timing set, no smoke.

 

Smoke is normal, if it was the initial start-up there'll be oil/assembly lube/whatever in the cylinders to be burned off.

How did you get the distributor to fit? Did you replace the oil pump drive shaft or the distributor?

 

My buddies used a dremel to grind down the distributor end a bit so it would fit. It's not a loose fit though, u gotta give it a gentle tap.

But who the hell would have thought about it ????


I'm still pissed about it.

 

I am glad it worked out for you

I had the same problem when i replaced the dissy in my grand prix w/3.8

 

Well it could be leaking from the head gasket overnight, when your engine cools down and everything contracts. All it takes is a bit of a leak overnight to get some antifreeze in the cylinders and you'll get white smoke on startup, but won't notice it again because A) It is a slow leak, and B) It may not leak when the engine is warm and everything has expanded from high temperature.

 

Great .... hope that's not the case

How can I check whether it could be a head gasket ? Compression test wouldn't show it would it ?


The distributor didn't have like purely clean oil on it, was bit hmmm grayish or so .. but that could also be remainders of pre lube not fully disolved

 

Alright, I'll just face reality, it probably is a blown head gasket.

I'll pull the valve covers as I start the engine, too see how the oil looks throughout the engine. If it's milky right there, and if I get white smoke at startup, I guess heads gotta come off.

 

Probably just condensation, and build-up oil burning off. Probably not head gaskets.

Yes, a compression test would show it, if it was. Kind of hard for there to be such a HUGE leak for water to be able to leak INTO a cylinder, and yet that cyl still hold compression; don't you think?

I'd let it run for a bit, maybe drive it and see if there's any other bugs, before getting all excited about tearing heads off.

You seem AWFUL eager to find excuses to just dive right in and start taking this thing back apart. Is there anything about this that you haven't confessed to us yet?

 

Yes, that my car's been down for hmmm a year. Me and a couple of buddies pulled the engine and tranny. I spent time cleaning everything, tons of oven cleaner etc

Didn't do bearings nor rings ... did everything else ... then this oil pump shaft messed it all up.


What about the oil being milky though ????

 

Iunno...

What about it?

Drive the car. Quit being so paranoid. How does it run?

 

I haven't driven it yet, need to do the transmission cooler install, and adjust the rockers (probable reason of the ticking noise).

Once I set the timing at 4 advanced, she ran nice and smooth (sure the ticing noise was there but besides that, smooth).


While I was working on the car a while ago, I did have it limp around the block though, and it sounded like a nascar, backfiring, complete loss of power, that was due to the distributor not being seated properly, so I may have damaged it then.

I'll get the gasket set just in case, but I'll start her up, see if I get any smoke, and do a compression test.

 

Prolly not...

Quit being such a worry-wart!!! Get out there and DO IT, and have fun. It's just a car. Millions and millions of people have successfuly done what you're doing, and (speaking strictly for myself) ALOT of them are PRETTY DAMN DUMB, and yet they managed it somehow; so surely somebody as much smarter than me as you are, should have no problems.

Trust yourself and your work, until something ACTUALLY goes wrong. Then at that point, fix it. Until then, stop worrying.

 

chocolate milk for oil=internal coolant leak

could be a intake leak but you should do a compression test so you dont have to pull both heads if its a head gasket

having to take your work apart is human!

 

That's all well and good; but he has to RUN the motor a little bit first, before he'll know any of that.

 

running the engine is not a bad idea but if there is a ton of coolant in the oil and more coming in then it could hurt the bearings and the lifters.

Sofa you are the man, hands down, I am only speaking from my experience with the 3.1 that came in my berretta. they had notorious intake gasket leaks and I could never get rid of the lifter ticking after I sold the car and the girl gave it back to me with the chocolate milk oil

I just thought of this- why not try retorqueing the intake and the heads and changing the oil before ripping it apart

 

He doesn't HAVE chocolate milk-shake oil.

If he runs the motor and then he does, then yeah, time to do all that. Hasn'
t happened yet though.

He's just worrying himself to death about "what if"!! He needs to not try to cross the bridge until/unless he gets to it. That's all I'm saying.

 

Compression test done ... all good .. all cylinders equal

Cooling system pressurized ... well good except lower radiator hose is leaking


I did have anti freeze inside the rockers ...so I'm figuring .. either intake gasket .. maybe slight internal leak somewhere ... the guy at the hobby shop recommended just use a good sealant... try it out.. rather than changing both head gaskets