41 Buick Super Oil Pump Inspection

[rjengelhart]

Hi everybody. Need a little help.

Recenly bought a 41 Super and have an oil pressure problem. Original guage remains at ~10 lbs, cold, warm, idle, running. Have read through some threads, spoke to gurus, bought an off-the-shelf guage. New guage read ~10lbs at idle but does increase to ~15lbs at high idle. The car has less than 25K miles, and other than this issue, seems to run well, no oil burning.

Planning to drop the pan, clean out sludge and look at the oil pump. What should I look for besides built up sludge?

Is the pump easy to replace?

Thanks to all.

vr

Bob E

[danhar1960]

Bob,

It will be obvious if the screen is partially blocked. Check the bottom plate on the pump. They tend to bend and warp. Also check the gap between the gears and the bottom plate. Wouldn't hurt to also check that the bolts holding the pump on aren't lose, I have seen that before. You can also put in a slightly stronger spring in the pump to boost the pressure up a little. Some have even just stretched the spring a little. If you've already taken the pan off, the pump is easy to replace. I'm sure there are more ideas out there in the Pre-War forum. Move the question down to there and you'll get far more attention than here.

This area is for problems etc with the forums in general.

Danny

[MCHinson]

rjengelhart,

Welcome to the AACA Discussion Forums. I have moved your question to the PreWar Buick Forum. Hopefully, as indicated by danhar1960, you will find more answers to your question here.

[414TATA]

Bob

I sent you a private message because we share being owners of '41 Supers. I tried to attached a photo of my car to the P.M. message but don't know how, so here is a picture of mine. It just turned 26K original on the clock. Looking forward to some pictures of your Super.

Wayne

Fresno, Ca.

[FLYER15015]

Bob,

Welcome aboard. See you have one of those "newer" Buicks. Pictures are a must here.

Seriously, get a parts book and a manual as your first purchase. Reprints are reasonable in cost, and worth their weight in gold. Jolly John made me do it and I'll forever be gratefull to him. Don't let him know that.

There are many, many posts on oil pump problems / fixes, so use the "search" block at the top right of the PreWar forum.

I've been where you are going, and so have many before us.

Best Regards,

Mike in Colorado

PS: Hey Danny, your green light is on again..........

[danhar1960]

That's just so you know when I'm available to say G'day (or Howdy)

Danny

[rjengelhart]

Danny,

Hi and thanks for the advice. Believe somebody has moved this thread to the proper discussion forum.

Where's the spring? I didn't take any photos when I had the pan off...shame on me. Bolts were tight, cleaned the pan & disassembled the pump pickup screen. Pressure seems to have improved a bit...to about 15lbs at idle, remains about there when driving. I'm reluctant to drive it much...don't want to blow the engine. My next step will be to rebuild the pump...hopefully it's a simple unbolt, replace gear and gaskets, rebolt and success.

Again, thanks...I appreciate the advice.

vr

Bob E

[FLYER15015]

Hi Bob,

I've posted extensively regarding oil pump rebuilds, as have others.

You need to check the clearance from the gears to the bottom plate. .0025" MAX, and check for any warpage.

You can stretch the pressure relief spring from stock 2 3/4" to 3 1/4" OR add a 1/2" spacer behind it.

There is a thread that shows the exact position of the screen, and as we have discovered, cars with bypass filters don't have them.

Cannot swear to that, but it seems to be the consenses

Mike in Colorado

[Guest Earl]

Just wondering if you got to the bottom of your oil pressure issues? The floating head on mine was collapsed when I dropped the pan to clean it all out a few years ago. And there was a lot of sludge on the bottom. I was able to my pressure up some, but it didn't change it much for whatever reason. I'm going to drop the pan again this summer and see if something else is going on with the pump. I stretched the spring back out some as well, but that hasn't helped as much as I would have liked it to. My Century has over 60,000 miles on it and who knows what all has been done to it over the years, but it uses no oil and nothing sounds bad as it runs down the road. However, the oil pressure does come up some when I let off on the gas, so it makes me think the main bearings may need to be adjusted.

[rjengelhart]

Earl,

Hi and thanks for the note. My Super Coupe has~17,000 miles (first time around as far as I know) and sounds OK...no knocks or other ominous sounds. I'm using Valvoline VR 1 20/50 oil...high zinc content as well as lower viscosity.

I dropped the pan and cleaned the pickup screen as well as sludge on the bottom of the pan. Very disappointed...very little improvement in the pressure. Got some advice from the forum...helped my confidence...and ordered an oil pump rebuild kit. Dropped the pan again, 'rebuilt' the pump and noticed that this probably had been done before...the gasket on the bottom of the pump was missing. Also stretched the bypass spring. These actions resulted in ~ 30 lbs pressure...far better than the 5 I had.

I plan to drop the pan one more time and replace the spring rather than stretch the old tired one.

Good luck and lemme know your progress.

Thanks.

vr

Bob

San Leandro, CA

[Guest Earl]

That's great! You may have some trouble finding a new spring for that. But maybe they are out there. The missing gasket probably had a lot to do with it. I'm going to drop my pan again and see about the oil pump. I'm thinking that the problem with mine has to be in there as well. I did try the 20/50 oil as well and it did help quite a bit with my oil pressure, but it's still now where it should be. But at least now it runs around 20 pounds when it's warmed all the way up. It does drop way down at idle, but I don't think that's unusual. I'm also going to take the cap off my rear main bearing and see what plastic gauge has to say about it. The old boys that knew all the problems that these things dealt with just aren't around anymore. This is sure a great resource though. I try not to get to looking at too many posts though or I spend all afternoon reading through this stuff instead of getting anything done around the house! 17,000 mile on your old Buick. She has a long way to go yet! This Century I have has pretty much been driven regularly since it was new. It must have 60-70 thousand on it. The speedometer at 61,000 when I got it and then it broke so I hunted up another. Something broke internally and I couldn't fix it so I put one from another car in it, and I've driven it about 11,000 miles since then. And the way that thing when haywire when I first got the car makes me wonder how accurate the shown mileage was anyway. They sure are nice cars to drive though.