how good are 3400s with no

[Alxsmt]

oil pickup tube!!!

long story short...
i decited to change my oil today after maybe 1000 miles, noticed a chip out of the end of my drain plug... i was plannin on pulling my pan anyways to see how the paint is holding up b4 i switch to mobil1(was getting a few flakes in my oil in the past)

i pulled my pan and found this!


at first i thought i knocked it off somehow(it was brazed on!), but then i noticed how the tube was in the same exact spot as the chip in my drain plug!!! i never completly lost oil psi, it has been acting funny but i figured a chip got cought in the sending unit and was going to check it today too. generally 20psi was the lowest it went, pegged at 80 was the highest. no idea if it was right, still havnt checked the sending unit.. no weird noises or anything... yet

only 6k on the engine! almost all the way tuned with all the bugs worked out..

what do you guys think? i hope i dont have to start on my turbo build soon...

[95Grand-Am]

Did you check the oil & filter for metal particals? If it is clean fix your pick up tube and run it. You might want to check a couple of bearings for damage anyway. I would think the pump would be out of the oil espicaily at higher RPMs, but maybe not. Did you have the oil above full? Could you have had the pick up too low, so when you bolted the pan on it cracked the braze?

[Alxsmt]

no i didnt check for shavings, i drained the oil in a dirty oil pan and droped the filter in with it... on the driain plug magnet there was a little more shavings than normal but no chunks and nothing i would be worried about. i had a magnet on my filter too maybe i will try and cut into it. if anything my oil was a little low (maybe 1/4 court low if that due to a small valve cover leak i just fixed). i have not been going easy on the RPMs..

i didnt put the oil pan on, the guy that was helping me build the engine did b4 i made it to his place. im sure it was checked for clearance tho. if it fell off diring installation i would think that chip on the drain plug wouldnt be new

[Superdave]

ouch!

knock the crud out of it, stick it back on with a wad of bubble gum on the bottom to check for clearance.. iirc you want it about 1/4" or so off the pan floor. Then use a MIG welder and tack it a few times so that it won't come out again.



you got lucky

[Alxsmt]

so ya think it will be fine??? i thought u couldnt weld on cast with a mig welder

something always happens right b4 track season lol. i will race it till it dies, the engine isnt gonna come out till then

[Alxsmt]

well my friend that brazed it on is going to buy me a new pump and put the screen on a different way i guess. he insisted on it so i guess i got a new pump

in a few days it should be back up and screeming! in a good way

[Superdave]

Yep, people weld them all the time.