by BC847 » Mon Jun 05, 2017 4:29 pm
The Devil is fu.cking with me.
The side of the engine has been stripped from the truck for perhaps two months while I got stuff fabricated around the new spinners. At one point or another, I sealed the openings to the head and oil plumbing with aluminum tape to keep crap out. I may have cleaned the side of the engine before I sealed it so there's a chance i got water in the oil supply port coming from the oil pump. Couple that with the fact I drained the oil from the pan perhaps three months ago and kept the drain plug out for the entire time. With that, all the oil in the pan and most likely the oil pick-up tube drained.
The two above facts combined, I figure, allowed the oil pump to be completely drained of oil. I figure some water got in the pump when I washed stuff and seized the rotating sleeve of the pump assembly.
So, fast forward to my installing all the stuff this past week. Upon completion, using the manual fuel shut-off lever, I kept the fuel OFF while I spun the engine with the starter so as to fully prime the entire lube-oil system. Initially, I kept the oil supply lines OFF the turbos so as to allow new oil to flush any debris from the lines before I connected them.
Oil would not flow.
After many spins of the engine, nothing in the way of flow. Eventually, I got a spurt of oil from the turbo feed lines.
Now the weird sthi: With the fuel OFF, I can spin the engine with the starter, and get full/strong oil flow from the turbo feed lines, and the gauge shows the pressure rise to the normal range. The second I allow fuel to flow and have the engine idle, the oil flow at the turbos stops and the pressure falls to ZERO. Eventually, even that oil flow stopped.
WHAT THE FUCK!
I've found images of our oil pumps and see that some have the rotor of the pump keyed to its shaft. Some, are not keyed. I figure the pump was seized and my spinning it, had the rotor shear from its shaft (most likely not keyed). It's just tight enough that spinning the engine at low RPM with the starter, has the pump spin like it ought to and build pressure. The moment the engine spins the pump to idle RPM, the volume the pump tries to move is too much and has the rotor go to slipping thus, the complete loss of oil flow/pressure.
I've still got to pull the pump and confirm this. I was so pissed with these events this past Thursday, that I walked away from the heap and just went to the coast Friday for the weekend to cool off. I ordered a replacement pump from Pure diesel Power Thursday evening for right at $100 (anywhere local to me wants $300).
So, I come home this evening from work only to find PDP thought it would be cool to stick a the new pump in a USPS bubble-envelope, and have USPS apparently slam the sthi out of the thing along the way. Such was forceful enough to literally break the two screws that holds the ring on the side of the pump.
BTW, I WILL put a "Hit" on the next person who suggests I install a mechanical pressure gauge and check again. I ask that they READ the words where I say I've got the turbo feed-lines off and am looking at oil flow, and not flow.
F! M! D!
David
1993 12mm VE Fueled W250 CC, Green
12.67 @ 103.35
Your basic farm truck ;)