97 2.7 5speed 382K...
So, there I was, sitting at a red light after a nice 45-minute trip on the highway, when I notice a subtle tick tick tick tick. A quick rev showed it was me of course, but circumstances going on at home required me to push on. Getting home I parked it, and there was a nice pool of oil underneath waiting for me in the morning.
It took me about a month to be able to get to it, but I saw a nice steady stream of oil coming out the front main seal next time I had the engine running. Turns out my harmonic balancer broke apart behind the pully. The front main was no longer sealed due to this hence the stream and pool of oil. Taking the pump cover off showed some nice carnage. The pump must have eaten some fragments of the balancer because the timing cover was quite chewed up. Drained the oil and found the finest of glitter mixed in with a couple of small chunks.
I wasn't happy with a leak down test which showed only two cylinders in the green. Those two just so happened to have some oil spill in there from leaking tube seals. I took the head off and tests showed valves were leaking like crazy. The machine shop found a crack in it too, so I just went ahead and ordered a new head. Cylinders also had a few scratches that I could catch with a nail. At this point I had ordered a new head, timing set, timing cover, oil pump, and water pump. Wasn't thrilled at the idea of putting all of that on a questionable 382k mile bottom end, so the old head went back on and the whole engine was hoisted out.
The rebuild process went quite smoothly. A couple of beard scratchers, but armed with the FSM and a new digital torque wrench, I'm quite happy with the way things turned out. Block was bored .5mm over, crank polished and still STD bearing size, new head went on without a problem. Even gave it a nice touch of paint. It's all now back in the truck with a new clutch too.
But now I've hit a bit of a snag. I can't for the life of me get this new oil pump to actually pump. I crank and crank and crank but nothing in the way of oil pressure. I took the pump cover off and the pump is still dry minus the assembly lube. I pulled the pan off and verified the pickup tube was good. I tried packing the pump with petroleum jelly. I tried back filling from the oil filter inlet. Nothing. At this point I pulled the new balancer out about a half inch so it's off the crank key but still spinning the pump gears. I could spin the pump and get some drips from my back fill to come out but that's about it. I plugged the filter inlet with my finger and spun the pump in both directions. I could tell it was spinning, but nothing in the way of any pressure or suction. Obviously something is not right here, but I'm having a hard time putting my finger on it. The parts look identical to the ones I took off minus the lack of gouges. It's not like this is a complicated system. Gears go spinny, oil goes uppey no?
In case it's of some relevance, the new timing cover is AISIN and the oil pump is SKP (because the picture showed it came with the hex bolts (it did not)).
Any help/guidance/ideas would be appreciated. I've spent two days trying to figure this silly issue out and I'm at my wits' end. :help:
So, there I was, sitting at a red light after a nice 45-minute trip on the highway, when I notice a subtle tick tick tick tick. A quick rev showed it was me of course, but circumstances going on at home required me to push on. Getting home I parked it, and there was a nice pool of oil underneath waiting for me in the morning.
It took me about a month to be able to get to it, but I saw a nice steady stream of oil coming out the front main seal next time I had the engine running. Turns out my harmonic balancer broke apart behind the pully. The front main was no longer sealed due to this hence the stream and pool of oil. Taking the pump cover off showed some nice carnage. The pump must have eaten some fragments of the balancer because the timing cover was quite chewed up. Drained the oil and found the finest of glitter mixed in with a couple of small chunks.
I wasn't happy with a leak down test which showed only two cylinders in the green. Those two just so happened to have some oil spill in there from leaking tube seals. I took the head off and tests showed valves were leaking like crazy. The machine shop found a crack in it too, so I just went ahead and ordered a new head. Cylinders also had a few scratches that I could catch with a nail. At this point I had ordered a new head, timing set, timing cover, oil pump, and water pump. Wasn't thrilled at the idea of putting all of that on a questionable 382k mile bottom end, so the old head went back on and the whole engine was hoisted out.
The rebuild process went quite smoothly. A couple of beard scratchers, but armed with the FSM and a new digital torque wrench, I'm quite happy with the way things turned out. Block was bored .5mm over, crank polished and still STD bearing size, new head went on without a problem. Even gave it a nice touch of paint. It's all now back in the truck with a new clutch too.
But now I've hit a bit of a snag. I can't for the life of me get this new oil pump to actually pump. I crank and crank and crank but nothing in the way of oil pressure. I took the pump cover off and the pump is still dry minus the assembly lube. I pulled the pan off and verified the pickup tube was good. I tried packing the pump with petroleum jelly. I tried back filling from the oil filter inlet. Nothing. At this point I pulled the new balancer out about a half inch so it's off the crank key but still spinning the pump gears. I could spin the pump and get some drips from my back fill to come out but that's about it. I plugged the filter inlet with my finger and spun the pump in both directions. I could tell it was spinning, but nothing in the way of any pressure or suction. Obviously something is not right here, but I'm having a hard time putting my finger on it. The parts look identical to the ones I took off minus the lack of gouges. It's not like this is a complicated system. Gears go spinny, oil goes uppey no?
In case it's of some relevance, the new timing cover is AISIN and the oil pump is SKP (because the picture showed it came with the hex bolts (it did not)).
Any help/guidance/ideas would be appreciated. I've spent two days trying to figure this silly issue out and I'm at my wits' end. :help:
