Lost oil pressure

[83cuttychop]

Hey fellow Gbodians my Name is Mike I drive and 83 cut supreme with a swapped 79 350 in it, new here so hopefully this gets some help….. (I was driving on the Eway and all of a sudden the car shuts off. Idk why but it does do that from time to time. It ALWAYS starts right back up though, well yesterday it didn’t and I couldn’t get oil pressure back at all. I’m guessing it’s the oil pump but hopefully can get any helpful feedback. Thanks.)

 

[ELCAM]

If you take the oil fill plug off and look/feel inside the valve cover do the valves move when you crank it?

 

[83cuttychop]

If you take the oil fill plug off and look/feel inside the valve cover do the valves move when you crank it?

I tried to turn it over once it shut off and everything sounds as it should, no banging no loss of oil, I did notice the oil fill cap came off but the engine bay is clean.

 

[69hurstolds]

I'm assuming it's an OLDS 350. Is the 350 all stock? Rebuilt?

Oil level ok? No metalflakes in the oil? I'd start by popping off the distributor cap. Manually turn the crank using a 1-1/8" (I think it is, IIRC) socket and breaker bar to do it. Turn the crank and if the distributor moves, then your timing chain is at least hooked up. If it doesn't, you probably have a messed up timing chain. Original ones had nylon cam gear teeth that didn't last forever.

If it's a Chevy, do what those guys suggest.

Do you have an oil pressure gage on the car? If not, get one. At least so you can check to see what it is under the hood. The tap point would be the sending switch behind the water pump on the block.

Then, pull the distributor out of the block and see what happens. If no hex rod comes out with it, great. If it does, see if it's broken, twisted, or stripped out on either end.

If all that's good. Make sure the hex pump drive rod goes back into the engine and engages with the oil pump. Then, using a reversible drill motor, set up a 5/16" socket on the end of the hex drive rod and spin the oil pump counter-clockwise.

Watch the oil pressure gage. If the oil pressure still doesn't come up, something is wrong in the oil system.

 

[83cuttychop]

Hey fellow Gbodians my Name is Mike I drive and 83 cut supreme with a swapped 79 350 in it, new here so hopefully this gets some help….. (I was driving on the Eway and all of a sudden the car shuts off. Idk why but it does do that from time to time. It ALWAYS starts right back up though, well yesterday it didn’t and I couldn’t get oil pressure back at all. I’m guessing it’s the oil pump but hopefully can get any helpful feedback. Thanks.)

 

[83cuttychop]

I'm assuming it's an OLDS 350. Is the 350 all stock? Rebuilt?

Oil level ok? No metalflakes in the oil? I'd start by popping off the distributor cap. Manually turn the crank using a 1-1/8" (I think it is, IIRC) socket and breaker bar to do it. Turn the crank and if the distributor moves, then your timing chain is at least hooked up. If it doesn't, you probably have a messed up timing chain. Original ones had nylon cam gear teeth that didn't last forever.

If it's a Chevy, do what those guys suggest.

Do you have an oil pressure gage on the car? If not, get one. At least so you can check to see what it is under the hood. The tap point would be the sending switch behind the water pump on the block.

Then, pull the distributor out of the block and see what happens. If no hex rod comes out with it, great. If it does, see if it's broken, twisted, or stripped out on either end.

If all that's good. Make sure the hex pump drive rod goes back into the engine and engages with the oil pump. Then, using a reversible drill motor, set up a 5/16" socket on the end of the hex drive rod and spin the oil pump counter-clockwise.

Watch the oil pressure gage. If the oil pressure still doesn't come up, something is wrong in the oil system.

My brother bought it off an older guy who said the engine had some work done to it. I don’t believe I broke anything, could be totally wrong but like I said the car tends to shut off, I’m assuming carb tuning, but it always starts back up.. just not yesterday morning smh

 

[ELCAM]

Sorry assumed it was a chebby 350. Agree with above gonna need to remove the distributor cap and crank the engine and see if the distributor turns.

 

[83cuttychop]

Sorry assumed it was a chebby 350. Agree with above gonna need to remove the distributor cap and crank the engine and see if the distributor turns.

No worries I’m just looking for any info or help at all so I appreciate the responses.

 

[83cuttychop]

Sorry assumed it was a chebby 350. Agree with above gonna need to remove the distributor cap and crank the engine and see if the distributor turns.

So a buddy is telling me my brother had the same issue and it was the control module in the distributor… everything cranks so I’m going to try that.

 

[69hurstolds]

Yeah, that'll do it. If you have an HEI distributor, I'd change out the ignition module with a new one. Make sure to put some HEAT SINK (specifically this) grease between the mounting pad and the module or it may burn up the new one.

Sometimes the module will quit periodically or act up. Other times it just dies forever. You have symptoms of a dying/dead module.

But if you have no oil pressure...I'd worry about that first.