I have to change out the cam in my 79 Super Six this weekend thanks to the new oil pump I tried putting on it this previous weekend not wanting to spin I guess and breaking the oil pump drive gear into little pieces and muffing up the teeth on my cams drive gear. Thinking back I remember the box the pump came in had a hole in the side of it. I'm thinking maybe it was dropped on the drive gear and maybe bent the shaft or jammed it up I don't know. Just a guess. It didn't last 15-20 seconds in the car after start up before bang! I immediately killed it. Had my had still on the key watching the oil pressure gauge. I never even tried to spin it by hand before I stuck it in so... It sure wont spin by hand now. Vise grips and its still hard to turn. I was idling at 5 psi hot thats why I was changing it in the first place never thought it turn into this mess though. Old factory pump did have some scratches on the tips of the rotor and spinning gear and there was a small pencil lead sized "nick" all the way around the inside of my old pump. Hopefully that was the reason for my low pressure. It was 40 psi cold on fast idle by the way and around 20 psi hot driving at part throttle at 55 mph. Oh pressure would come up to 8-9 psi if I put it in neutral hot. Should have never put that oil pressure gauge on it and would have never knew it was low to begin with. Oh well.
Anyhow i'm going to pull it and change the pan gasket and dump the broken drive gear out of it. Is their anything special to look out for or plan ahead for on the cam swap? Will the lifters come out through the head? That comes to mind right now if I'll be able to pull them out with the motor basically together. Can I change the leaky rear main with the crank in it? Probably not huh? Any tricks to making sure I get the oil pan sealed up? Right now its like the Exxon Valdez when I park it from the pan and rear main. No other oil leaks except there. Rant off..

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What a bummer!

Is that a peanut plug head? If so, the head needs to come off to get the lifters out.

If there was a nick on the pump gears, sounds like some debris got in there to cause that nick.
I wonder if something else might be broken?
How many miles on the engine?

If you have allot of miles, might as well change the timing chain and gears. Check the oil pump screen for damage.
Then do Doc's mods on the alignment so the damper is not off center and have it leak there too. Might as well sleeve the damper too, it just takes about 5 minutes.

Doctor Dodge is your man on the rear seal..........

When you get the new pump, make sure it spins freely!

Hope the repair goes smoothly.

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Aggressive Ted

http://cid-32f1e50ddb40a03c.photos.live ... %20Swinger


74 Swinger, 9.5 comp 254/.435 lift cam, 904, ram air, electric fans, 2.5" HP2 & FM70 ex, 1920 Holley#56jet, 2.76 8 3/4 Sure-Grip, 26" tires, 25+MPG

Huh? Stock 79 head if that helps. Its got 40,000 original miles on it. Runs strong and gets 22 mpg. Well it did run strong. Dampener out of alignment? The timing chain cover to the crank snout? Before the broken oil pump fiasco I just love this engine to death. Daily driver all this year, over 7,000 miles since May. But it sure gets on my nerves bad all the freaking oil it leaks on the ground. Constantly have to check the level because of it. Sure like to fix it when I have it out. It's embarassing the oil slick it leaves on the ground when you park it.

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That head should be a peanut plug head if it is all stock, takes the slender Chev style spark plug. History: the old head design had drool tubes, or Hemi style tubes and used a conventional style plug.
The old head allowed enough room to run a magnet down and pull out the lifters. The newer style head does not, so you have to pull it.

On the damper, I just went through that, check the posts that Doc wrote. He suggest drilling out the cover over so there is some wiggle room to center the cover properly to not distort the oil seal. Since I did this, you can eat of the front of my motor. Use the damper for alignment, then tighten it down.

The Doctor will have to advise on how to deal with that rear seal. If this is not the stock engine, but a rebuilt, it may be just a poor pan gasket seal. Observe the leak area carefully before you pull the pan.

Hope that is clearer. If not, look at the articles on the different head designs that are posted on the fron page.

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Aggressive Ted

http://cid-32f1e50ddb40a03c.photos.live ... %20Swinger


74 Swinger, 9.5 comp 254/.435 lift cam, 904, ram air, electric fans, 2.5" HP2 & FM70 ex, 1920 Holley#56jet, 2.76 8 3/4 Sure-Grip, 26" tires, 25+MPG

As already said, assuming your head is the one that came on the engine from the factory, yes, you're going to have to pull the head off to get to the lifters. That means a new head gasket.

As far as the rear main seal, yes, it can be changed without removing the crank if you're willing to fidget with it for a while and be patient. After you drop the pan, just remove the retainer and you should be able to slide the seal out using a few small tools to push it through. On the off-chance that it's a rope-type seal instead of the rubber lip-style, a small screw can be installed into the end of it, and then the whole thing can be pulled out with a pair of pliers.

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Used to own:
'82 Dodge D150
Erson 270 Cam, O/S valves, mild port work, ~9.5:1 compression

Currently fighting with an '85 VW Cabriolet

My other passion

Unless it's leaking a lot, changing the upper half of the rope seal is likely to make it worse because it is impossible to pack it like it needs to be. Champ used to make a tool to drive a wire up through the groove and behind the upper seal to shim it out a little. I don't know it that's still around. If it's a rubber seal, which it probably is then there should be no problem.

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David Kight
'62 Valiant Signet, White
'98 Dodge Dakota
'06 Jeep Liberty

Growing older is unavoidable but growing up is strictly optional.

Well I'll order a pan gasket and a head gasket tomorrow. Might as well give the rear main seal a shot too while its out. Sure would be nice not to have an oil slick underneath it. What do you think for cold valve lash? Go .002 over the hot settings? Looks like my weekend is all planned out.

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Even if it has a rope-type seal in it now, there's no reason to not replace it with the rubber style. Cold valve lash isn't critical; just make sure you readjust it once it warms up.

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Used to own:
'82 Dodge D150
Erson 270 Cam, O/S valves, mild port work, ~9.5:1 compression

Currently fighting with an '85 VW Cabriolet

My other passion

Hello,

Changing the rear main seal is about as easy a job as I ever did on a slant. I just used a short length of wood dowell to pess out the old seal. The new top just slides right in and the bottom half just needs a gentle babying....but be sure to get the lip pointing correctly.

Check a post of mine from last year about this leak and repair. I changed the pan gasket three times before I figured out the tiny leak at the rear was coming from a tiny hole left were the rear rubber gasket part has to meet the pan in sharp corner bends. I had to put a small smear of RTV over that joint on the inside to stop the leak. Pay attention also to DD's article about how to seal the rubber tabs on the timing chain to pan gasket.


I got out of the peanut head business and went back to drool tube just because I like to do things like cam swaps and it is easier to remove lifters from drool tube. I KNOW you can get lifters out the peanut head, but I always seemed to have one stick, out of 12 and end up pulling the head. I think the best $$ I spent on head stuff was the $100 or so for ARP head studs. What an improvement on swap time...head just plops on where it should be.

rock
'64d100
rock
'64d100

How do I find your post specifically about what you did on your pan gasket? What about DD's article? Is it in the tech archives?

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Hello again,,

To search use the search function (erd from riight, above) , enter in pan gasket in top blank and rock in lower blank. Select engine as the placesto search. Select 700 words and you will see the first 4 entires that appear are what I was referring to. For articles, go to the forum home page and look for articles.

good luck!
rock
'64d100