Small Block & Big Block Chevy Specific - oiling issues on my motor.

hey guys its not a chevy but i figured the same principles would apply.

im having some ussues with my 440 equipped dodge charger.

ill give you a little background about the car first;

i bought the car equipped with a virtually stock 1976 440 and 727 auto in place. with in a few weeks the carb gummed up and i decided to put on an aluminum intake and new edelbrock carb, in the process i saw that the cam was scored so i replaced it with another flat tappet hydrolic cam (just a bit hotter than stock, little did i know i needed to add some E.O.S. or use heavy weight oil) broke the cam in like normal and proceded for a few weeks taking the charger for a few trips around town. later i started the body work and such so i have put less than 30 miles on the car since the cam change...i have always had about 80 lbs. oil pressure on a cold start and about 60lbs on a warm motor. long story short:

around thanksgiving i started the car, and with my eye on the guage the oil pressure fell from 80lbs to 0...then up to 60 back to 0...then 40 to 0 and finally just stopped. so i stopped the car and put a new mechannical gauge on it, same thing. :bang:


i pulled the pan and there was a ton of sludge, cleaned the pan/changed oil and filter/ cleaned the pickup... this time when i started it no oil pressure at all. :bang:

i used 20w50 oil, no pressure. :bang:


i replaced the pump, no presure. :bang:

what could it be guys? i never checked the oil pump drive but i assumed it was fine because i had oil pressure in the begginning.

did i suck up some sludge into the motor?
did i finally wipe the bearings?

any help would be greatly appreciated.

Is the distributor fully seated on the intake? My hold down was loose once and the distributor walked up and the oil pressure hit the floor. I would make sure the bottom of the distributor drive is seated to the pump shaft and that the shaft is in the pump. You should be able to tell easily if its not because the distributor wont seat fully on the intake. Try and clean that sludge out of the pickup/pump if you can, that could be your problem too.

thanks ill check now. i already cleaned the pump/pan/puckup though

yeah the distributor was on tight... thanks though

Sounds like you have a spun main bearing or something of that sort. You might have also pushed a cam bearing out when you installed the cam.

You have spun a bearing, plugged up an oil fed hole with debris or the gear on the distributor shaft is spun.
We have built many 440’s; if you check the April issue of Popular Hot Rodding you'll see a 68 charger with one of our motors in it.
If we can help give me a call.

Harold
512-257-0222
512-257-0222

You have spun a bearing, plugged up an oil fed hole with debris or the gear on the distributor shaft is spun.
We have built many 440’s; if you check the April issue of Popular Hot Rodding you'll see a 68 charger with one of our motors in it.
If we can help give me a call.

Harold
512-257-0222
512-257-0222If the distributor gear spun, the car wouldn't run. BBC's have an intermediate shaft that drives the oil pump, that is driven off the cam gear. I'll be willing to bet that you put a cam in a high mileage engine, or one with severe cam bearing wear, and finished the cam bearings off when you put the cam in. The mains and rods are fed off the cam journals, so If you had excess clearance in the cam bearings, its going to effect oil volume to the mains and rods, intern, wearing out the rest of the bearings in the engine. Its a snowball effect.