That's right ol' buddy, it's only money.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Sorry for your loss ,but its got me thinking, sounds like you needed to fry your motor to get out of harms way. The way I got my truck set up now if I lose oil pressure the MSD ignition shuts down and the electric fuel pump shuts off also. I can see now in some expressway conditions the only thing to live another day might be the engine. Bruce Johnson

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78b4ramSnortbed/6

Wow! What a shock! Sorry, to hear about your loss. I am intrigued as to why it happened. There could be valuable lessons here for all.
Let me get this straight. The drive gear on the pump and the oil pump drive gear on the cam are OK? But the pump scroll & rotor locked up? So something must have given. Did the rotor spin on the shaft? or did the pump drive gear spin on the shaft(no key?)?

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'66 Cuda 225/4spd
'66 Dart GT convertible 225/auto
'64 Dart GT 340/4spd

Sorry, re-read second post'g. I've had big block pump rotors jam with sludge, which usually breaks the intermediate shaft. Could it have sucked up some debris? It really doesn't take much, with the clearances in a typical oil pump.

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'66 Cuda 225/4spd
'66 Dart GT convertible 225/auto
'64 Dart GT 340/4spd

Nope. Official cause of death was a failed oil pump drive gear. Cam gear looks fine, but I'm sending it out for an inspection.

I was cleaning up parts tonight and found 2 more rods with the big ends burned. The bearings didn't spin, but it was hot enough to discolor the rods, so they're junk.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

HOLY!!!

that motor must have been glowing RED


So are ya selling the car???

Justin

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Bruce J's idea is sounding better all the time. Otherwise you'll need to mount the oil press gauge on the top of the dash, with a shift light wired into an oil press warning gauge. You'll have to drive with one eye on the road and the other on the gauge/light! Doesn't sound like too much fun.

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'66 Cuda 225/4spd
'66 Dart GT convertible 225/auto
'64 Dart GT 340/4spd

Bruce J,
Would you mind describing how you hook up all those fail-safes for oil pressure loss?

Jerry

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There's a difference between ignorance and stupidity.
Ignorance is not knowing any better.
Stupidity is knowing, yet doing it anyway.

In most of my cars I run the oil pressure "idiot light" and a pressure guage. There is something about having a big red light on the dash come-on that gets my attention.
DD

Glad to see I'm not the only idiot here, I do the same thing Doug! OK, let the snappy comebacks begin....

Over on slantsix.com dschumers (I think) mentioned usining an f-body oil pressue idiot light sending unit as a ignition cut-out for low oil pressure. I guess you would plumb it into a t-fitting off the back of the pump and wire the sending unit in-line with the negative terminal on the coil. That way either the power to the coil grounds out or it is cut off when the oilpressure drops too low (can't remember which function that sending unit does- stopping or allowing surrent to flow). Sounds like a good idea to me.

Reed

Holley sells a safety switch for their electric fuel pumps It's a SPDT switch that you attach with a pipe tee where your oil pressure senders are at the oil pump. It'll stop the flow of fuel(and disable sparky) when the engine quits or looses oil pressure: like when you find yourself upside down and pinned in something that resembles a crushed beer can and something cold is running down your back,(don't you just hate it when that happens?) It comes with a wireing diagram. a note; your car wont start untill you have enough oil pressure to make your warning light go out , this means cranking an extra second or two, but having oil pressure before your engine runs is a good thing. Bruce J.

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78b4ramSnortbed/6

I've put some thought into installing a low oil pressure cutoff switch but then I realised, if something happened in the middle of the freeway, I'd rather blow a motor and get myself to the side of the road safely then save a mo0tor and get smacked in the rear at 70mph, but I can see where you others are coming from too.

Yep, when mine let go I really didn't have anywhere to go.

If you get an oil pressure switch from a later Slant it will have the ground terminal for the light, plus a pair of terminals that are used to control the voltage to the choke. With an MSD you can simply run the white wire to the ground terminal on the switch and it will shut the ignition off whenever you don't have oil pressure. This is much more positve than using the other terminals for the electric fuel pump relay. Even if you kill the pump, the motor will run long enough on what's in the carb to eat itself. It is really good protection in case of a crash though.

If you don't have an MSD you can run the power wire to any standard ignition through the power terminals of the switch for a shut-off.

On either system it is a good idea to have some kind of manual over-ride in case the car dies on a railroad track or some such place.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.