I bent the tube on the bench. I bent it a little and kept testing it on the car and bending it a little at each time until it went in easy while keeping the pick up level with the bottom of the pan. I read in your one thread that the fel pro bushings were too big. That's what my problem was, put the old bushing I had in it before and it's a best gasket bushing. I also saw Ted say he puts grease around them, I did the same. Fit a lot more snug and the pressure is right back to where it was. We're all good now! Thanks again for all the tips, really helped a lot!

I put the old best gasket bushing back in, oil pressure went back to 50-60psi at idle. The fel pro bushing was too big and I'm guessing was sucking in air. Seems to be good now!

There is a sort of pilot within the pump that the tube fits into.  You may have been hitting the taper just before that pilot, making it seem like things were not aligned.  Loosening the nut which holds the pickup in the pan also helps.

If you have assembled something once with no problem and took it apart with no apparent problem, yet you find that you are having to force it back into position during reassembly, then there is probably some other issue preventing it from going together correctly.  Never, ever force anything unless you are absolutely certain that it is what must be done.

Bending that tube is not a good idea unless it is done in a controlled manner.  If you make a bend on the outside of the pan, you have to be absolutely certain that no movement occurs within the pan while making the bend.  Otherwise, you change the relation of the pickup within the pan and that can have a detrimental effect on oil pressure by placing the pickup too close to the floor or pulling it out of the oil.

Depending on how it is now bent, it may not be concentric with the pump which may pull the seal slightly one way or another, preventing a good seal.

One thing you can try to see where your pickup is now located is to put modeling clay in the bottom of the pan, put everything together like normal then pull it back off and observe the imprint.  You can then measure the imprint to determine the clearance to the pan floor.  The problem with doing that with a Y block is that it is hard to fit the pan and pickup without moving the pickup, which would make a false imprint into the clay.

If you are good with math measuring and have the appropriate tools, you can measure the location of the oil pump inlet in relation to the pan rail and use that to setup the pickup in the pan just as it would be when installed on the engine, being sure to take into consideration the gasket thickness.  Then you can see exactly where pickup is positioned.  This will not work if you are not confident in your math skills or cannot get accurate measurements.  The oil pan's rail must also be perfectly flat for this to work.

It may be easier to get another pickup, install it with a rubber seal and go from there.



Lawrenceville, GA

Maybe a piece of the bushing or some other foreign particle got into the pump relief valve?

Charlie, you mentioned the inlet tube bushing could be not sealing and sucking in air.

Let me get you up to date. I took the pan off nothing seemed visibly wrong, put it back on, when I was installing the pan I couldn't get the inlet tube to line up in the pump, so I pulled down on the tube a bit and it moved and went right into the pump. I didn't think much of it. Started the car had no oil pressure at idle. Which I just knew that was not accurate. Took all back apart turns out the pick had moved up. Got the pick up as close to the bottom of the panas I could get it and bent the inlet tube to where it'll go into the oil pump easily. Put it all back together, oil pressure went up to about 20-25psi at idle. Still not what I had before (50psi). So I'm thinking, the only other thing I changed was the inlet tube bushing. And it's a fel pro one with the metal rings. Does this seem like it's sucking in too much air and causing my pressure to be low?

Thanks again!

I've done a lot more since the hinge.  Info about pickups and more is in this thread, http://forums.y-blocksforever.com/Topic122644.aspx

Some pictures aren't showing up because of the Photobucket issue.


Lawrenceville, GA

Yes always have good pressure! It only goes down when I brake hard. It has a baffle and it looks like it's as low as it can go without cutting the oil off. Yeah I saw the post with the hinge! Very cool idea.

Well I shouldn't say the pressure dropped, it's at 50psi. Just seems like it was always between 50-60 psi at idle (warm) before and now it's right at 50psi at idle warm. It wasn't much of a leak. If you wiped your finger under it you got oil on your hand but it never dripped

If you've got good pressure the rest of the time, I'd say it's sloshing oil forward. I've had other motors do that. Just looking at the differences in the "step" of my tbird pan vs the truck pan in my 32, I'd say the truck pan would be more susceptible to that. A baffle will probably fix it. Charlie's also done a bunch of work on the pans so go find his posts. I seem to remember something about some pickups not being low enough or something. My 32 has electric SW gauges and they are heavily dampened so I don't see that. Doesn't mean it isn't happening.

miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

Anything  that results in an abnormal pressure drop is not good.  I don't think a bad inlet tube seal would cause what you are experiencing but it should not leak, so there may be an unrelated issue there.


Lawrenceville, GA