Ford oil pump design flaw???

[livenfine]

In May, my '90's oil pump seized up during an autocross, no oil pressure/ticking lifters. Dropped the pan and found that a small disk, (1/8" across and 1/16" thick), had seized up the pump. I replaced and played with the car the rest of the season.

Last weekend during our final autocross races, bamm, same thing. When the pan was removed, the same-sized disk was found in the pump. Looking at all the evidence, we've deduced that part of the pressure relief pump in the oil pump sheared and jammed up the pump, twisting the shaft like a licorice stick.

Surely, others have found the same thing happening to them, what's the deal? Design flaw? Too many rpms? Last year I had a rev-limiter set to 6k, this year-no limiter and I don't watch the tach too closely when the cones are flying by...opinions please

 

[livenfine]

...

 

[Trojan Horse]

What has your oil pressure been running at when you are racing?
Have you checked your oil filters internally after this happens?
If not cut one open and take a look. Maybe something is restricting the pump output.

 

[giddyup306]

Ford never had a TSB on their oil pump for 79-93 mustangs. It is probably dumb luck or you are just exceeding the capacites of a stock pump. Are you using a genuine Ford pump or an OE replacement? What kind of main clearances are you looking at?

 

[livenfine]

What has your oil pressure been running at when you are racing?
Have you checked your oil filters internally after this happens?
If not cut one open and take a look. Maybe something is restricting the pump output.

When I autocross, I don't normally have time to look at my oil pressure. At speed my stock guage reads one segment from the top. I run 5/30W synthetic. Maybe the sump runs dry in the hard corners???

I did cut into the brand new oil filter and it was clean.

Ford never had a TSB on their oil pump for 79-93 mustangs. It is probably dumb luck or you are just exceeding the capacites of a stock pump. Are you using a genuine Ford pump or an OE replacement? What kind of main clearances are you looking at?

First one to go was a Ford part, second one was a NAPA OE replacement...About 140k on the engine, didn't check clearances, just buttoned it back up

Thanks for the input. I won't race again without a rev limiter or not at all

 

[livenfine]

Got this reply from another forum. He is 100% correct and this is my problem exactly. Fortunately, I upgraded my pick-up screen whew!

"Let me guess, you have recently replaced you valve cover gaskets. The disc's you are talking about are little anti-crush pellets from old style Ford v/c gaskets. Been there, done that, replaced oil pump at Heartland Park during an event.

When you pull the pan again, replace the pick up tube with a Sealed Power version. The OE design sucks ass. The screen is like a basket that has three crimps that hold in place. You can put a large zip tie between the wire mesh and the outer part of the pick up tube. Starting in about '92 Ford chaged it. The mesh goes all the way across the opening. Nothing large can get through."

 

[jd351]

I'll bet I know what that "disk" is... same thing happend to my friends Mustang. The disk was a "punch out blank" from the oil filter. We were puzzeled where it came from for a long time, we knew it couldn't have gotten through the pickup and then we noticed it is the same size (diameter and material thickness) as the holes in the bottom of his filter. In fact, upon further inspection we found the filter had one other hole that had one of these just hanging on inside the edge of a hole in the filter. Cheap @SS Fram filter! Anyway, the store that sold it (rymes with shmuchs) said, "not our problem, call Fram". He did that, they said they would replace the filter, but were not willing to pay for any "incidental damages". Yeh, like he wanted another one of those POS filters. Could have sued, and won I would bet, but hardly worth it. I suspect new bearings are in order? Sucks doesn't it.