Hot Rods 350 chevy no oil pressure

I sold a buddy a 350 chevy I had sitting around for his old hot rod. I am not a chevy guy and really have no idea so I'm asking for help with whether this was my fault or how it was put together. The motor was a 91 TBI 350 that he took a used Lunati hydraulic cam and lifters from a 305 and put it in the 91 TBI engine. The 91 350 engine was a roller cam engine and he said he had to hone where the lifters go to get the hydraulic lifters to fit freely. He didn't put in new cam bearings but reassembled the engine with vortec heads and this cam lifter set up. I feel bad because I sold him the motor but it ran good when I pulled it from the parts car in factory form. Do you think it was the combo that dropped the oil pressure and caused the knock? To me I have no idea because of the combo of parts.

 

No comment

 

Need more info as in did he do a blow engine apart? Forgot oil pump shaft? Honed it assembled and plugged oil filter?

 

Was not taken completely apart and he honed it with the pistons at the bottom. Let me make it clear too. HE ISN'T BLAMING ME, but I still feel bad because he got it in the car and after 50 miles lost oil pressure.

 

In those 50 miles he drove it, did it have oil pressure?? Maybe the oil pump has sucked up some crud from in the sump (formed while sitting) and it's jammed in the pressure release valve, holding it open..
How hard is it to remove the sump??

 

No oil pressure as in zero or it has dropped very low? Was it measured with a known good gauge? Does the pressure increase with RPM? Was the “zero” reading with a hot or cold engine?

 

So it had pressure for the first 50 miles? If so I’d be looking to see if oil pump pressure relief valve got stuck open due to honing debris.

 

He didn’t use the engine you sold him. He put a bunch of used and mismatched parts in it and let it run without oil pressure. None of that is your fault.

 

He said it had 50 and after he drove it to work it was at about 15 at idle. After work started it back to 50 to 60 and on the way home it sounded funny and looked down and let off the gas and the oil pressure dropped to pretty much zero. Then he drove it the rest of the way home. Starts it now after oil change and it has oil pressure again but now has a knock. When he drained the oil had sparkles and was running 5w20.

 

T he first thing I would do is pull the distributor, go to O'reillys and buy an oil pump priming tool and grab a 1/2" drill and spin it up for a minute or two. You should be able to get 40lbs. If you get nothing, you may have lost the pickup on the pump...hope this helps.

 

if he put a billet steel cam in it, he should have put a bronze gear on the distributor . . .

 

Only word that comes to my mind was a phrase from Archie Bunker,,,,,,,Meat head !

Why would anyone hone cylinders with the pistons lowered to the bottom ?
Why would anyone hone the lifter bores and not clean the block ?
Swapped out a roller cam for an old flat tappet one from a 305 ?
Swapped heads,,,,,why ?

Reminds me of some guys I knew from long ago,,,,,,,,”Hey man,,,,,,,,what can we do to tear this up,,,,,lol “ .

From what I could gather from your post,,,,,,,is it any wonder that it made 50 miles ?

Tommy

 

Drain the oil if it has any and see whats in it . Cut the filter and see whats in it .
Honing cylinders with the pistons in????? What the hell

How did he get all that clean ??

 

"With friends like that, who needs enemies?"

Not your problem. Just consider yourself lucky that you didn't pick up any bad habits hanging around with him.

 

Ok so a lot wrong in the above statement let alone the honing and not disassembling the entire thing “ oil pressure dropped to zero and he drove the rest of the way home” that thing needs a tear down. 5-20 ain’t right for a 350

 

Ah, I kind of think we agree, your buddy was the problem here. Now, If you brought over a bag a weed and convinced him it was a good idea to do that, then it's 40/60. It was your weed after all, he was just stupid to begin with. Sounds like you need smarter friends.

 

Punt

 

The knock was caused by him ***king with it period.
It sounds like he swapped out a factory hydraulic roller cam for a Lunati hydraulic flat tappet cam.
You can almost guarantee that the lifters weren't matched to the cam lobes [or cam lube was used] with a redneck hack job swap you described

Me, I would drop the pan and inspect the bearings/ journals . And also the oil pump and cam lobes.
But with him , I would advise him not to even touch it.

 

Mismatched distributor gear to cam shaft drive chewed the teeth off, thus not driving the oil pump? Honing lifter bores may have also caused some oil pressure bleed off.

 

Punt

 

Yes he swapped the lunati hydraulic cam into a factory roller cam engine. He used the used cam and the used lifters from the a 305 he had. He said the hydraulic lifters didn't want to fit where the roller lifters were so he honed them.

And I agree these tactics I didn't agree with but he works on cars quite a bit and I view him as knowledgeable. He was trying to use what he had and tried to keep it affordable. The honing I don't know if for sure was done every cylinder but he said one cylinder had a little rust from sitting. I just feel bad is all and he is my friend, he doesn't seem to be mad at me or anything but I wasn't sure what part would cause this. I thought the cam and lifters swap was culprit but he wanted to do this to be able to run a mechanical fuel pump.

 

^^^^^

 

Well sometimes you just can't fix stupid.

Actually he made ill advised and suspect mods to a roller cam engine. You sure don't owe him a thing. You change it and all bets are off.

Same as you repairing a car for someone and it leaves your shop in great shape but they take it somewhere else where the other shop screws it up and then they come back to you expecting you to fix the other shops screwups.

 

Don't feel bad. At all....like, not at all.

 

Lunati hydraulic flat tappet cam or hydraulic roller cam? There is a difference.
Both are interchangeable in the blocks but there is certain protocols that must be followed.

You must use a distributor gear that belongs to a cast camshaft [the roller cam dist gear will chew out a normal cam]
You must use the lifters that were matched to each individual cam lobe on the flat tappet cam [If he grabbed a bunch of used lifters out of a box that wasn't numbered correctly, it will flatten a cam lobe]

I have no idea why he honed the bores, they are all 0.842" on a SBC. If they were worn they would be loose.

 

If the distributor shaft was not properly phased in with the cam drive and the pump,, it will last about 50 miles before one of the shaft tongs, that turn the pump drive, breaks off and stops turning the pump.
Ask me how I know

 

Isn't April 1st next month?

 

Don't feel bad, man. You did him no wrong.

Just out of curiosity, is your friend the kind of guy that measures foot pounds in ugga-duggas?

We all have a buddy like that.

 

Why Vortec heads on a TBI block?

Why didn't he just put a roller cam in with the stock lifters?

Why even any of this?

 

You've all heard of using best practices when performing work. This situation, in its most basic form, is the polar opposite. Yikes.