No Oil Pressure

[hemi_fan]

I had the fox out at the roadcourse last night and did a number of laps and brought it in to cool down. When I fired it back up I noticed a faint lifter ticking noise and that the oil pressure gauge was reading zero! The car is pretty much 100% stock with a stock distributor, stock oil pump, stock gauge, etc. So here's what I'm thinking:

1. Check to see if the gauge is faulty and not the pump/drive gear (highly unlikely since I did notice a lifter tick).

2. Pull the distributor and check the drive gear to see if its to blame.

3. Pull the oil filter to see if its clogged (probably not, its a Motorcraft filter thats less than 3 months old and has under 1000km on it, but could be I suppose)

4. Drop the pan and pull/replace the pump, check bearings etc.

Now, heres where I need your help. I have never re-and-re'd a distributor before so how do I make sure its properly lined up when I reinstall it? Also, what should I look for to check if the oil pressure gauge is working properly? Here's hoping I caught it in time before I hurt anything seriously.

 

[jrichker]

Putting the distributor back in is fairly simple. Pull #1 sparkplug, put your finger in the sparkplug hole,
crank the engine until you feel compression. Then line up the TDC mark on the balancer with the pointer
on the engine block.

The distributor starts out with the #1 plug wire lined up at about 12:00 with you facing it. Align the rotor
to about 11:00, since it will turn clockwise as it slides into place.

Align the distributor rotor up with the #1 position marked on the cap, slide the distributor down into the block,
(you may have to wiggle the rotor slightly to get the gear to engage) and then note where the rotor is pointing.
If it still lines up with #1 position on the cap, install the clamp and bolt. If not, pull it out and turn 1 tooth forwards
or backwards and try again. Put the #1 spark plug back in and tighten it down, put the clamp on the distributor,
but don't tighten it too much, as you will have to move the distributor to set the timing. Note that if it doesn't
align perfectly with #1 position, you can turn the distributor until it does. The only problem is that if you are too
far one way or the other, you can't turn the distributor enough to get the 10-14 degree optimum timing range.

At this point hook up all the wires, get out the timing light and start the engine. Set the timing where your car
runs best. Don't forget to disconnect the SPOUT jumper connector when you set the timing, and plug it back
in when you finish.

The HO firing order is 1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8.
Non HO firing order is 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8

 

[WHT306]

You have the factory oil pan correct. I would suggest a pan with baffles and winged out sump because there is nothing keeping the oil from slinging from one side to the other away from your pickup tube and starving your motor of oil.

Hopefully this is not the case.

 

[hemi_fan]

You have the factory oil pan correct. I would suggest a pan with baffles and winged out sump because there is nothing keeping the oil from slinging from one side to the other away from your pickup tube and starving your motor of oil.

Hopefully this is not the case.

I was thinking of this also, but after a slew of road-course issues this summer I'm thinking of retiring the idea of a road-course fox and building a drag car like all the sane people on here lol. Maybe I'm just mad at it for losing pressure though, we'll see how I feel in a week. Thanks for the walkthrough jrichker.