No oil being pumped to heads

[Ferris95]

Ok, so I finally got around to putting my 68 ford F250 engine bay back together after replacing the rusted radiator core support. Fired it up after getting lots of new parts (was worried it might not after adding so many new parts!), and I am getting no oil up into the heads. I assume it comes up the hole in the push rods? And it wouldn’t run if the distributor wasn’t all the way down, right? The dist hold down looked flat. I took out the DUI (which it already had), distributor and looked down the hole and I can see the oil pump rod. I took some long extensions and a 1/4 socket on a Milwaukee driver and spun the oil shaft and still no oil coming up. I was so excited to see it run (been over 2 years) and can’t run it with no oil pressure. The dipstick shows full. Any suggestions? Hate to take the oil pan off…

[cep62]

first make sure you spin the drill in reverse , like the distributor turns.
did you have the rocker shaft off ? I think on F E motors there's a tapered bolt in one spot so oil gets to the rockers.

[Ferris95]

Ok, had it running and wasn’t really seeing any oil into the heads. Had a little dribble out between number 3-4. Same milky looking stuff. Oil has been siting in there for a long time. The two pics show what kinda oozed out after shutting the truck off. Want really coming out during. And bank 5-8 had nothing! Fire the oil come out from the hole I’m pointing at?

[cep62]

This is from memory . So correct me if I'm wrong.
The oil comes up past the rocker arm bolt and goes through the shaft.
one of the center ones , it depends on which side of the engine you're on.
There is a special bolt with a reduced shank to allow oil past it.
I would remove the two center bolts and spin the pump with a drill to see which one it is.
The drill has to spin the way the distributor turns.
Is your drill big enough? I had a corded Milwaukee 1/2 inch and you could tell when it started pumping oil.

keep us posted.

[Ferris95]

Ok cephalopod, I’l try that. Spun a drill on it for a while yesterday and it was leaking out of each rocker on 1-4 and less on 5-8. Just don’t believe it’s enough to oil everything in there. I’m used to having to put on rocker clips or oil would be everywhere with the valve covers off. I’d love to see a video of an FE engine running with the valve covers off to see how much oil is coming out.

[cep62]

I don't think you get the splash like when the oil comes up the push rod.
It's been a long time since I've been in a F E.

[DuckRyder]

CEP is correct it comes up through the block to the head and feeds through recessed hole with the reduced shank bolt.

There should be a lot of oil if they aren't restricted.

need to check rockers shafts and maybe pull one see if you're getting oil to head.

[Ferris95]

So maybe change the oil and take off the rocker rails and spray some brake clean through them? Or should I just drop the pan and replace the oil pump and pickup?

To drop the pan, I’ll have to unbolt the motor mounts and raise the engine? If so, jack it up under the trans? Or is it safe to do it under the harmonic balancer? The put a piece of 2x4 under each side?

[DuckRyder]

More later but I certainly would no drop the pan yet.

[DuckRyder]

So to be clear, you do have oil on both banks?

How far apart has it been, have the rocker shafts been off? It's been a long time since i had a factory rocker apart, but i believe there is a top and bottom on the shafts, if you had them apart i would look into that.

cleaning them isn't a bad idea but i don't really think brake cleaner will do it. You'll probably have to knock at least one of the end plugs out, clean it and then replace it/them.

I think you're pointing at a core plug in the head.

There are two really good FE forums:

https://fepower.net/simplemachinesforum ... ?board=2.0

and

https://www.fordfe.com/332-428-ford-fe- ... um-f74182/

Lot of the same folks. but you will get faster answers there.

If you're sure you got the oiling removed definitely change the oil.

[Ferris95]

Ok, so I drained the oil and took off the rocker rails and pushrods. Cleaned those all up and removed the rocker assembly. Had one push rod on number 6 that had some carbon build up on it. Only one that wasn’t clean. Poured in 5 qts of oil and a quart of engine cleaner. Turned over with dist cap off and wires off the plugs. Got zero oil coming out of the hole on number 2/3 and number 6. So took out the dust and put the drill on the shaft and got no oil at all coming out the holes. Could the shaft have fallen out of the pump? If I can see it, can it be out of the pump? Is there a way to get it back in without taking the oil pan off so I can check? Can I take off the intake and get the oil pump shaft out and back in place?

I want to change the intake to alum and get a 4bbl carb. Looking for suggestions on what intake and what carb for a stock engine. Thinking Edelbrock Performer intake and Edelbrock 1906 carb. If I went as far as changing the cam and timing chain, any suggestions on cam and lifters? Should I replace the rods as well? Can and should I change to a double chain like the Edelbrock Performer-Link True Roller Timing Chain Sets 7808?


Oh, and my compression tester and oil pressure tester just got delivered, so I will check each cylinders compression and plug the oil pressure gauge to the oil sending unit hole and turn over the engine with the remote starter, and see if I have any pressure. Assuming I won’t.

[DuckRyder]

The Stock oil pump drive is pretty notorious for twisting in half and yes it could fall out but they usually fall all the way into the pan. Ive fished them out trough the distributor hole with a magnet though they are supposed to have a retainer on them. ARP makes one with and increased diameter that's hard/impossible to drop all the way into the pan.

You need to figure out what's up obviously, oil should be shooting out these feed holes....

Frankly i pulled the pan once in the truck, maybe twice and id pull the engine if i had to do it again. Especially if i had an inkling of hchanging the cam (done that in the truck too, not great fun.).