Well my oil pressure has been reading low and get a tapping noise so i quit driving the truck. Went to back it out of garage so I could clean the garage and oil pressure dropped to zero and low oil pressure light came on. Oil level is fine, just changed oil 2000 miles ago. I have been trying to find write ups on changing out oil pump and most of what I see talks about changing out an o-ring on the pick up tube by dropping the front two bolt on the oil pan and says to use a red ring, but I want to change out the whole pump. Can I do everything by dropping the oil pan from the bottom or do I gotta work from the front of the motor too? Any advice out there before I tear this thing apart and ruin it

 

got to do both. must access the front to get pump off. need to lower pan to get to the pickup bolt. its a pain in the ***. tip i learned while putting the pickup tube back on, factory only has one bolt on the tube and it didn't want to go in straight. i put a second bolt w/ a large washer in the other hole and slowly tightend both bolts. get an extra o ring in case you pinch the first one. you can tell if it goes in right. you don't want to put it all back together and have to start over. i got a used pump w 50,000 miles on it if you want it. sell it cheap, holds good pressure. if you go new slp has a nice piece. good luck.

 

I completely dropped the oil pan. Unbolted the pick up tube. It made it 10x easier to put it back into the oil pump that way.

 

Doubtful that the oil pump is the problem. Good luck though!

 

Thank you, that's kinda what I figured, will keep this in mind.

 

Yep, I read a lot of threads where the initial cause was a spun bearing or a cam lobe getting chewed up by a faulty lifter...keeping my fingers crossed

 

It's easy to change the oil pump and drop the pan, you have a 2WD right? 4WD trucks are a BEAR to drop the pan on.

I recommend going back with 2 o-rings on the pickup tube to ensure a good seal. The OE ring is a "block" ring and is slightly taller than most circular o-rings. I've had very good (reliable) results using dual rings.

 

Thank you

 

Replacing the oil pump is spec'd out to be a 5.2 hour job, but since you don't have to finagle the oil pump back on over the pickup tube it's pretty quick.

Since you're in there already I recommend replacing the timing chain with a new OE set. Cheap insurance against future problems.

 

I put a new LS2 chain in it 55,000 miles ago when i had the 6.0 swap done and the motor, heads, and springs and stuff have about 85,000 on them...I have been contemplating on pulling the whole motor myself and puting on a set of new ported LQ9 heads complete with new springs, lifters, rockers, cam etc. just for fun and a learning experience, part of me has always wanted to do something like that. Im half decent with a wrench but no mechanic by far, I have done brakes, rotors, starters, alternators, fuel pump, and stuff like that but nothing that extensive.