I pulled the oil pump and pickup last night. You guys are not gonna believe this one! The ONE thing I didn't check during assembly came back to bite me in the a$$.
The HEI distributor drive gear ate into the top of the oil pump. The bottom of the gear ground a perfect circle 1/8" down into the oil pump. Most of the metal in the oil was from the metal removed from the oil pump, and the distributor drive gear is pretty chewed too.
This HEI distributor worked fine in my '54 235. The oil pump in this '60 was mounted & located correctly by the pointy retaining bolt.
Somehow the gear interfered with the top of the oil pump. What dimension do I need to check to see if the distributor, pump, or block
dimension(s) are off?
Oil pan sump was full of clumps of finely shredded oil pump. Say that 3 times fast. :rolleyes:
Pulled the #2 main bearing. It shows some metal contamination, scoring and wiping of the babbit. Not down to the copper though. #2 journal was roughed up a little by all the metal. What other bearings should I check to determine the engine's condition?
Usually I have some good suggestions for others, but this has me at a loss. What happened here? Since the HEI worked in my other 235, I assumed it would be fine in this one.
ARRRRGGGGH. :mad:
chip
