Hi Again. Does anyone know how to resolve a low oil pressure problem with a
1995 Bonneville 3.8L? The car has high mileage but runs fine.The parts people tell me the oil pump is integrated and can;t be replaced.
Any ideas?
Thanks
John
Shep,
Not quite correct - the oil pump is mounted into a cavity in the front cover, but all the pieces of the pump can be replaced. Very seldom is it required to replace the front cover to solve an oil pump problem. There are times though where I wish the 3.8L used the oil pump system from the old pre-FI/DIS blocks.
I agree 100% on checking the pressure with a mechanical gauge - the oil pressure senders on the 3.8L engines leave a lot to be desired.
Regards, Bill Bowen Sacramento, CA
"Shep" wrote:
Great advice! Thanks!
Shep,
On that point you are correct - that is why I mentioned that the older setup was superior from the service standpoint.
Regards, Bill
"Shep" wrote:
Agreed, but the older setup was a terrible system from a reliability point of view. The newer system have almost no failures when compared to the older ones.
Ian
Shep & Ian,
I'll defer to you two gentlemen on the reliability of the old system, since you have more experience in 3.8s of that era than I do (I was working on mostly AMC during the 70s and early 80s).
You do have one "single point of failure" item that will cause the oil pump to quit without the engine shutting off: the roll pin that engages the the oil pump drive shaft. Anything else that would cause the oil pump gears to quit turning would also kill the distributor.
However, let me add that AMC used the same oil pump setup on their V-8s (290 through 401) from 1964 through 1991and I never came across one of them that had an oil pump failure that caused engine damage. One other advantage of the old type pump setup is that it was bloody easy to prelube an engine using an electric drill with an adaptor to drive the oil pump shaft.
Shep, I'm curious - what was the most common engine failure on those old RWD 3.8s?
Regards, Bill Bowen Sacramento, CA
"Shep" wrote:
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