Oil Pressure/Oil Pump Issues

[bplummer]

I am new to SHOForum, but have had 3 SHO's over the years.
My 1999 is stock, (No I have not welded the cams) but will plan to do so if I can get this issue taken care of.
I noticed a few weeks ago at an idle the oil lite would come on....Now once the engine warms up...the light comes on and stays on. Also more engine lifter noice than normal like I have no or little pressure.

I thought about removing the pan and checking to see if I could replace the Pump or at least check out the sump and screen. Any ideas guys???

I have changed the oil regularly, even tried flushing the engine...Basically I drained the oil, poured in Mineral Spirits and let it sit over night. Drained the mineral spirits Hoping that if the screen was somehow clogged the mineral spirits would help disolve the crud...
I filled the engine with Penzoil (Always used the same Brand) 5w30

Same thing, it ran fine for about 3 or 4 days, and then on the way home from work at the light, the oil lite came back on and I barely made it home before it came on and stayed on.

When I start the engine cold, it starts fine runs fine and no indication of low oil pressre. So I am stumped.
by the way, I have owned a 1992 SHO and now have (2) 1999 SHO's one White and one Black.

 

[NotSoSlowSHO]

Are you sure it is the oil PSI light? There should be a oil LEVEL light too.

No matter, Ill assume that the V8 oil pump is a gear pump just like the V6. In that respect, Id assume you either have a bad oil PSI sensor way before a bad pump.

 

[bplummer]

Are you sure it is the oil PSI light? There should be a oil LEVEL light too.

No matter, Ill assume that the V8 oil pump is a gear pump just like the V6. In that respect, Id assume you either have a bad oil PSI sensor way before a bad pump.

I'll need to know where the sensor is then I guess.
Yes according to Ford it is a Gear Pump mounted to the crank, but would that account for low pressure or lifter noise? when it occurs it sounds like there is really low on oil.
Bob

 

[Mr Anonymous]

Well, I don't know how to sugar coat this or make it sound good so I'll say I'm sorry in advance. Sorry.

You're screwed.

If you're really, really, really, lucky, you can have the motor torn down now before any more damage is done and quite possibly save it. Aside from that, you'll have a replacement motor in your future.

We've seen around 15-20 motors with some nasty, burned up, gunked up, flaky puff type oil sludge that you could literally reach into the motor and pull out chunks by hand. This is usually the result of poor maintenance history -- usually a lease car that didn't get a single oil change for the first 25K-30K miles of its life. Eventually, little chunks will start breaking free and clogging oil passages, and the resulting oil starvation will blow the motor. We've seen the steel camshafts welded to the aluminum cam journals in the heads.

There are a few things you might want to try (there's really nothing to lose at this point) such as running a lot of Berryman's mixed in with the oil and flush it several times to try to dissolve it (without letting the engine get hotter than ~120 degrees each time), or dropping the pan and trying to force flush the oiling system, but ultimately I'd recommend planning for the worst. For cars with the nasty sludge that haven't had oil pressure problems yet, products like AutoRx may help, but once that low pressure light starts flickering and that telltale knock of oil starvation can be heard, it's usually too late.

FWIW, the V8 SHO does not have a low oil level sender, just the low oil pressure sender, so it's more important to check the oil level periodically because by the time the oil pressure light comes on, it's almost always too late.

In over 1000 V8 SHO's I've had my paws on, I've never seen an oil pump failure or even a problem. Every low oil pressure issue has been due to oil starvation from blocked oil passages.

Again, sorry for the bad news!

 

[SHOZ123]

AutoRx will clean out the passages. $50. A new set of rod bearings too will help, $50. Wouldn't write off the engine yet.

I would get rid of the Pennzoil though and go to a 5w40 synthetic. What kind of filter do you have? Hope it isn't a Fram or Pennzoil one.

 

[NotSoSlowSHO]

Odd.

Are the passeges just really tight? And gum up easy?

Or is there a real "cause" for this?

 

[ArkanSHO]

Are you sure it is the oil PSI light? There should be a oil LEVEL light too. No matter, Ill assume that the V8 oil pump is a gear pump just like the V6. In that respect, Id assume you either have a bad oil PSI sensor way before a bad pump.

Nope, the V8 does not have a "oil level indicator" and the pump is a huge gear type that is mounted to the front of the block around the crankshaft. Haven't heard of one of them failing but loss of viable pressure has been reported when the spaces between moving parts exceeds specs like Paul is suggesting with rod bearings.

 

[bplummer]

Figured the worse...

I have taken it to my shop, going for the removal of the Oil Pan and Cam Bearings. Figured that the previous owner did not change oil as needed.
Anway, once the pan is off I will know more.
I guess I will just plan on cam bearings and welding the cams while I am at it...

Bob

 

[NotSoSlowSHO]

You mean ROD bearings The cams do not have bearings.

But if they cams havnt been welded yet, they (the cams) do need to be adressed.

 

[hoboprodigy-]

Indeed. It would be a mega burn to put all this work into it then to have a cam pull the slip and slide on ya in a week. Sorry if it sounds like a broken record, and good luck.

 

[bplummer]

sometimes repeating it is best

I appreciate all of the response so far.
Since I am definately cracking this one open, I would LOVE some insight on some typical mods to make it.....better.
First and foremost is the oil issue, If I drop the engine, then we are going to go thru it.
Does anyone modify the cams other than the welding issue...lift, duration, I used to own a 1970 BOSS 302 Mustang and modified the cams and carb... that made a world of difference, going from about 300 HP to 375 HP. The SHO is stock at 235 HP I would like to get it up to 275 or better.
I figure a chip will do most of the work since Yamaha built their engines better and with more HP and Torque than Ford wanted them to have.
So if any of you guys (& Gals) have any ideas let me in on it.
I live in Indiana...should I have the cams done in the engine, remove them from the car and ship them out or what?
Links are cool, or you can email me...if that is legal. Like I said first day I am new and not sure of all of the do's and Don'ts
Bob

 

[1993MTXSHO]

Id have to agree with everythign everyone has said, also gotta add that my low oil light saved me 2 times with my 93. This was right after i bought it and knew it burned 4 qts of oil every 3k miles. Now I check it liek every week

 

[hoboprodigy-]

there are more than a couple people within towing/shipping distance from you. NESHO also goes on these galavants across the country welding cars along the way. check out nesho.com for info on that and v8sho.com for a pretty good list of people qualified to weld up your cams (usually this includes a basic intake maint. service as well..)

 

[SASHO91]

I appreciate all of the response so far.
Since I am definately cracking this one open, I would LOVE some insight on some typical mods to make it.....better.
First and foremost is the oil issue, If I drop the engine, then we are going to go thru it.
Does anyone modify the cams other than the welding issue...lift, duration, I used to own a 1970 BOSS 302 Mustang and modified the cams and carb... that made a world of difference, going from about 300 HP to 375 HP. The SHO is stock at 235 HP I would like to get it up to 275 or better.
I figure a chip will do most of the work since Yamaha built their engines better and with more HP and Torque than Ford wanted them to have.
So if any of you guys (& Gals) have any ideas let me in on it.
I live in Indiana...should I have the cams done in the engine, remove them from the car and ship them out or what?
Links are cool, or you can email me...if that is legal. Like I said first day I am new and not sure of all of the do's and Don'ts
Bob

This should answer all of your questions... www.V8sho.com

 

[ArkanSHO]

I appreciate all of the response so far.
Since I am definately cracking this one open, I would LOVE some insight on some typical mods to make it.....better.
Does anyone modify the cams other than the welding issue...lift, duration, The SHO is stock at 235 HP I would like to get it up to 275 or better.
I figure a chip will do most of the work since Yamaha built their engines better and with more HP and Torque than Ford wanted them to have.
...should I have the cams done in the engine, remove them from the car and ship them out or what?
Bob

Well first off, no, since the cams are weakly swedge-mounted to the cam tube in the first place it would not be a good idea to try to grind them to a different profile, not to mention finding the shims thick enough to gap them properly would be an interesting exsercize in futility. But for enough money I guess somebody would make a different grind, just takes enough green. By the way, I thought this might have mentioned before this but these engines do not have replaceable bearings for the cams, they simply ride in the highly polished aluminum head cam valley and caps. As for the stock 235 being a "de-tuned" value, in my mind there si no doubt, but I have been unable to prove it and there are several people that can tune the ECU's in these 9 ways from Sunday, but it just isn't there yet. The inside of this motor reminds me a lot of super-high speed Formula-One blocks, but obviously something is missing. I am sure some can be found in the cam, but I have had little luck in getting a "different" one without putting up some rediculaous amount as R & D money to get it started. Been down that road before, ain't going there again.
As for pulling the cams, best not to unless you just have to remove them for some other reason. Best to have them welded in the head to keep them straight unlass they mount them in some sort of jig. NESHO runs around the country welding and is going to be in Nashville this coming or the next week if I recall correctly.
In a word, you want performance, go to the bottle. Works well if you don't get carried away, which is hard to not do since speed and power are addictive, when you taste a little, you always want more. To get more power start with the intake air cleaner like a K & N panel or relocate the intake filter as a cone into the fender like Paul Nimz and several others have done. A X-Cal two from Doug at FPS would be another good move into the right direction.

 

[SHO#7]

My .02 is do not run pennzoil. They seem to be a very waxy oil. I have worked for dealerships that used it. We had customers that were religous about 3k oil changes. They still had slude in the oil pans. I say the same for quaker state.

Mike

 

[Randall]

Having just thrown a rod through the oil pan in my 1992's 3.0, I can tell you that my low pressure light came on and off and on a few times before the "rod knock" set in which lasted about 10 seconds before destruction. If your noise sounds like a marble being thrown into a *** at a pace that increase with rpms, then you may just have a bad rod bearing. Also, I seriously doubt that there is lifter noise since no SHO engine uses hydraulic lifters, and technically there really aren't lifters at all in them. Good luck though, and hopefully your motor is fixable.