In a 1967 Cutlass with a 330, engine still in the car. Is it possible without taking the engine out?

 

It is really hard to pull a pan with the engine in the car, and anything that would have resulted or caused an oil pump to fail pretty much necessitates pulling the engine and opening it up.

 

It is possible, just not practical. Its much easier to do it out of the car.

 

I did it on my 71 CS 350 sbo. You need to jack the front of the engine up 4" to negotiate removal of the oil pan. It isn't so bad. What's bad is laying on your back reinstalling a new oil pan gasket after you install the new oil pump but I'd say it isn't a death wish.

 

Are you sure the oil pump is bad? They don't have a high failure rate. Dual exhaust would make it easier, but not easy. Not a difficult engine too pull, it would probably be easier to remove the engine and do a timing chain at the same time IF the pump is the problem.

What are the symptoms?

Good luck!!!

 

In your previous post, you mentioned 10 psi oil pressure at hot idle. Changing the oil pump may not help. There's a possibility the oil pump pickup screen may have chunks of nylon from the original nylon timing gear, or not. Bearing clearances, mains, rod and camshaft bearings all contribute. I'd try a step heavier oil if the 10 psi at hot idle brother you. That engine may run fine for thousands of miles. Changing the oil pump in the car is no picnic and may not help. Easy to get leaks also. Small block Olds are cheap and plentiful. Find a replacement, build/rebuilt, when ready switch engines, put yours in a corner for future reference. Jmo.

 

I just put in a new Cam and all other types of work, so I refuse to let go of this engine. I guess I was just asking for a "worst case" kinda thing. Any tips on cleaning the screen without pulling the pan?

 

Unless you're a proctologist and plan to go in through the muffler, the pan has to come off to get to the screen.

 

You *may* be able to get in there to examine the screen with a boroscope. I had to redo the timing a few years ago on my 5.4-3v F150 when it ate the guides; replaced all lifters, cam followers, guides, chains, phasers, pulled the cams, and couldn't find all the pieces of the broken guides. Pulled the pan off, found the pickup screen caked with plastic. My point is, all that work would have been for naught had I ran the engine without going the extra mile. I couldn't see much of anything with a boroscope, so pulled the pan, and glad I did.

I'm not really of the "run it til it blows" camp; if the oil pressure concerns you, I'd first get a reading with a different gauge (just to rule out the possibility of a faulty gauge), and try the boroscope. You may get lucky and get a clear view of the screen. As stated, it can be done with the engine in the car, but it's much easier out of the car. Back in '13 I started replacing the rod bearings on my 442 with the engine in the car (after jacking the engine and resting the mounts on 4x4 blocks), until I found half the #7 bearing completely gone and the crank journal visibly stepped. The 311 went to the scrap yard at that point.

On the other hand, the 132k mile 2.8 in my '84 GMC has been showing ~5-10 psi at hot idle since at least the '90s, and the engine still runs smooth as a 2.8 can, doesn't make a sound, and runs 40-45 psi cruising. I was concerned at first, but then I stopped caring.

 

If the screen is clogged, oil pressure will dip as RPMs increase.

 

When you did the cam work, was the nylon coated timing gear still intact or did it disintegrate into the pan?

 

I didn't mean to imply the GMC had a clogged screen, just pointing out that engine has ran fine for decades on "low" oil pressure. Lots of reasons for "low" oil pressure, and that's a dangerous rabbit hole to go down.

The Olds, however, went 500 miles with the low oil pressure light coming on every time I cam to a stop, but it was also yelling its misery at the same time.

 

Pull the motor, I dropped the pan in my 455 years ago, never again...
just my .02

 

Going through the muffler won't get you to the screen. You may be able to crawl through the oil fill tube.

 

Destructor, I moved your post to the appropriate thread. Looks like you accidentally replied to a "Related Thread."