Mech, When I called Tom, we had a long discussion about the dimensions of the oil pump and HEI distributor shaft. All of the dimensions were correct except for the recess in the top of the pump, mine is about .050" deeper than the one Tom was measuring. We did not check the dimension between pump surface and bottom of drive tang slot. The spacer gasket between dist and block was present, the pointy bolt was correctly installed, the distributor was clamped down properly.
Engine failure analysis is difficult, its hard to parse out the cause-effect relationships in something like this. Would the metal removed from the oil pump be enough by itself to eat all the bearings? Was the oil pressure failure caused by a sticking relief valve, or a wiped bearing? I find it hard to believe that the engine bearings failed from improper clearances or dirt introduced during assembly. I plan on talking to the shop that did the machine work, and see if they have any insight.
If I flush the engine with diesel, will the diesel keep the internal parts from rusting until I replace the oil pump & parts?
Here is my plan so far: Get the car home & put up on jackstands. Flush the engine with diesel and clean it out. Plastigauge the main bearings and check the cam. Check the plastigauge results with what the clearances were during assembly. Replace pump, pickup and distributor gear. Run engine and change oil a few times. If the oil pressure holds, great! If not, the next part I'll buy for the car will say "for sale".
chip
