I sort of exagerated on the 'lot of oil' remark. There were two fairly large pools on the garage floor but they werent puddles. I'm assuming some of it came from when the cover was opened.

We still have the stock oil pump. We never even touched it. The repair video i watched didnt recommend removing it unless you were replacing it, and mentioned that its a very simple pump with a rotating metal gear in it I'm a little concerned because if it really were starved of oil, I'd think it would make noise even at startup and not just once it gets warm like before. It also troubles me the cel light didn't come on until after it warmed up and started running rough, just like it did before we replaced everything.

By back feeding the oil pickup, do you mean removing the pan, disconnecting the pickup from the pump, and blowing air through it to clean it out?

When dropping it, I had read the pickup is bolted to the bottom of the pan. How do you drop the pan enough so you can unbolt the pickup from the pump as well?

 

Well the key thing with the phasers is that they come into play when the engine has reached operating temp. That's when the ECM requests action from them. Kinda like how my phasers will only start knocking at engine operating temp (which I still don't really get why that's when I hear it but whatever). Also explains the CEL which is most likely pointing to a misfire if you pull the code. Also, it might not be starved DRY of oil, just not enough for the phasers to function properly. The oil pump doesn't need to be changed per say, just curious if ya did.

Pick up tube: Yessir, removing it and back washing it with solvent or water and air. There could be small pieces in it and on the screen still. The pick up isn't bolted to the pan, just to the pump itself. The pick up tube has a pancake shaped end to it which floats in the oil, so you'll be able to pull the pan and see it.

 

Okay, any advice if we pull the pan and tube and the pathways are clear?

 

Let's cross that bridge when we get there! Forgive my lazy *** for not reading back thru again, but did you also replace the VCT solenoids with new ones?

 

Yes'sir. The entire timing system has been replaced with new parts.

Chains, guides, tensioners, arms, phasers, crank gear and cam sensors and solenoids.

 

So I sat down and talked to my dad tonight after he got out of work. We had a couple of questions we came up with..

#1.) What are the chances it jumped time, or one of the new components broke already?

#2.) If it didn't jump time or none of the components broke, how likely is it the pump failed (What is the failure rate on these)?

#3.) Is it possible something got into the oil pump, or past it, and caused a blockage?

#4.) If something is causing a blockage somewhere in the engine, how do we get it out? (In one of the passages or something)

#5.) What are the chances something else (major or minor), unrelated to the timing at all is wrong?

We are considering pulling it all apart again, but want to rule out the possibility of something else being catastrophically wrong with it before we invest all the time in tearing it apart.

 

Hard to put forth any concrete answers but honestly I'd probably answer positive answers to your questions. Again I'm spitballing here but for one, read that CEL code It'll start us off in the right direction. Because the pan wasn't dropped and checked thoroughly, I still think the pick up tube may be blocked. It's a bit of work but I'd definitely would rather have the peace of mind knowing whether or not it's actually clear by dropping the pan. Wouldn't make sense for anything on the new parts to break already. The oil pump itself is pretty robust actually, failure rate is fairly low. Weak, yes. But certainly not prone to failure.

 

Thanks for the info. I am definitely going to drop the oil pan, clean it and replace with new oil and a filter, just wanted to make sure there's not a chance something major happened that would make doing that a waste of time (If its a major engine problem I am not fixing it).

The very first thing I am going to do, and the easiest, is to hook an external pressure gauge up in place of the pressure sensor. I'm going to check it at cold startup and once it starts acting up to see if the pump is even circulating oil pressure correctly. If even at cold startup it's well below the tolerance or close to, it could be a good indicator that the oil pump is bad (which will require me to open it again to replace it). If everything is good until it gets to operating temp, I am going to drop the pan and clean it, plus replace the oil and check the pressure again. That may show me if it was just debris or low/bad oil in the system.

If neither of those two work, I will have to open it back up and look internally again to see if something else happened. Unfortunately, I can't keep it running long enough to get it to the auto parts store to run a scan on it, and do not have a scanner of my own. If I disconnect the VCT solenoids, will it stop the timing from adjusting, and allow the truck to run? I watched a video that said if you disconnect those, you disable the vct system and the timing stops trying to adjust during operation.

 

If you got the big pieces out with some kind of vacuum device well guess where the little pieces are . Removing pan is not real easy on 4x4 . But it's not all that .The screen is tough to get all cleaned up while out of there ,it is easy to remove from pump.It has an oring seal make sure its good to go on installation .
The oil pump if ran long enough while blocked could be damaged as it would be metal on metal .Definitely use an external gauge to check oil pressure . If gauge on dash dropped out it means you may have had less than 7 psi as it is an idiot gauge.
Broken guides always means remove oil pan . If you go back in ,the oil pump is not hard but be careful to line it up before bolting down as it can be broken . Just fiddle with it until it seats properly . A melling 340 or 360 is better than oem . 360melling did run around $100 on amazon.Use MC filter from wally world it has a good anti drain back valve .

 

redfish thanks for chiming in. it wasn't a vacuum device, it worked more like a shop broom. it had a wide head and I just scraped the bits towards me. I thought I got all the way to the back, but in looking at the pan there's an internal shroud that I was most likely hitting, missing some of the pieces. IF the pump is bad, or even showing that it's not holding good pressure (but still holding pressure), we will be replacing it with the melling high performance pump. At the local store, it's only about $20 more than the OEM.

I saw that the seat for the pump has two flat spots on either side of it that the pump lines in to, but it's still difficult to align it correctly. I am on my way to the tool shop to get a pressure gauge on my lunch break today, and hopefully we can get this resolved today!

I was wondering.. when putting together the truck again, I noticed that only three valve cover bolts hold the front cover on at the top. Is it possible to just remove these bolts, loosen a couple other ones along the sides, and slide the cover off straight out towards the radiator, without removing the valve covers? If I can do that, then I don't need to pull the top-end off, as I will already have the pan lowered so the lower bolts won't be in the cover anymore, and all I'll have is the front ones and the top valve cover bolts that go into the timing cover. From there I can look from underneath to make sure the timing marks are still lined up, and don't need to take the chain all the way off to replace the pump (If we need to, I can just unbolt the tensioners/guides and leave the chain attached to the phasers). That passenger side was a pain in the *** to get out and would like to avoid it if possible.