Oil Pump


Xcentric

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 9, 2012
5,213
Myakka City, Florida
Almost 3 years ago, my local GT tech (rated 10 out of 10 by me) pointed out some oil seepage at the pump flange. He said we need to keep an eye on it.

The seepage became a drip. I never had to add oil, but the belly pan and underside of the engine and transaxle were well oiled. When I put the GT in the trailer, the steep approach angle left a trail of oil.

I hoped it was just the flange gaskets, but Rich Brooks said it was most likely the oil pump. He was correct.

The seal at the pump shaft failed and that filled the drive belt cavity with oil. The belt was running in an oil bath. Not good.

Rich told me he has seen a number of pump failures, but mostly in low mileage cars. My car has 24k miles.

It took several days to procure a new pump through the Ford GT parts ordering system, which is separate from the all other Ford parts system (with its own 800 number), and which was down for a day (or so Sarasota Ford claims). Yes, copy of registration required, which the service manager did not know and therefore ignored my advice and therefore cost another day. "Thanks for the registration info, but we're good with the VIN." :/

So, FYI...a new oil pump is $2,024.30. Then you need some bolts, seals, and nuts for another $87.98. I provided the belt and flange gaskets for about $200. Labor, including cleaning leaked oil off of everything, was a reasonable $375.

So, all in, this is a $2,700 repair.

The oil pump is an impressive piece. It looks to be way over-engineered mechanically. I cannot imagine a mechanical failure. A broken belt could be catastrophic. The leaky shaft seal gone very bad would result in good oil pressure to the engine and to the outside world as well in this layman's view.

The rotor finishing is a sight to behold (3rd pic). Although, I see some evidence of scoring. I need to look at that closer.

There was no core charge, so obviously Ford decided this would be a non-repairable part. Too bad, because I'll bet shaft seal replacement would be far less cost than a new pump and would save an otherwise perfectly good part. GT101?

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Hey Gary why?
 
Yeah Gary, whatcha doing?
 
Sorry guys. I was called away before writing the narrative to go with the photos. Please see the edited post #1.
 
I had a very minor weep of oil at the seals shown in pic 2. I changed them this past winter. Only driven it twice since, so hopefully all is good for me for a while.
 
I had a very minor weep of oil at the seals shown in pic 2. I changed them this past winter. Only driven it twice since, so hopefully all is good for me for a while.

Andy
So you were able to find the corect seals and replace them ? Not the whole pump
 
Yes, but I think my point of leakage was different than Gary's. I replaced the 2 seals with the square ports. Vs Gary's issue that was at the shaft of the pump. For good measure, also changed the other seals that were taken apart to get to these, which was an o ring, and the oil pan gasket. While I was there also changed the drive belt in keeping with the recommended 10 year service interval. Was a pretty simple process, once you get over the mental hurdle of "what the hell are you doing tearing your car apart??!!"
 
Thnx for the heads up on the issue and process.
 
The main shaft seal also leaked on my car. I believe that seal is available to purchase from Accufab. It can be replaced without removing the pump from the car by punching a hole through the original seal to remove and then pressing in the replacement.
 
The main shaft seal also leaked on my car. I believe that seal is available to purchase from Accufab. It can be replaced without removing the pump from the car by punching a hole through the original seal to remove and then pressing in the replacement.

That's good news
 
The oil pump is a cool Peices of tech... not sure why this design prevails. I would think reliability over efficiency but it's impressive to look at no matter cause.

Here are some pix from the time I modified my fuel system. I was equally impressed with the guts on this part.

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Oil Pump insides - cool stuff
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For anyone who has changed the oil pump belt, you'll recognize this little jewel
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And finally the entire lego ship, disassembled. (I love this stuff)
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If you do take it apart be sure to label each pump and the direction it should face for reassembly or you'll have leaks.
 
The replacement oil pump is leaking.

First thought...The "new" oil pump is more like "NOS." Sitting on the shelf for a decade with seals deteriorating from no use.

Have not taken the car in yet, so I don't know for a fact that the pump is bad.
 
The replacement oil pump is leaking.

First thought...The "new" oil pump is more like "NOS." Sitting on the shelf for a decade with seals deteriorating from no use.

Have not taken the car in yet, so I don't know for a fact that the pump is bad.

man that sucks! perhaps it just the O rings...
 
It seems that there are two different pumps I have a spare but the relief valve area id smaller on the spare pump, anyone know why there was an upgrade.
 
I had a similar experience when I was in Detroit in '13. The GT Guys were working on my car when Dennis noted the same sepage at the front of the pump. As they had one in stock he swapped it out and we compared the two. The shaft for the pulley on the original one didn't have threads that went down far enough to for the nut to tighten the pulley properly. This one missing thread allowed the pulley to wobble very slightly putting uneven wear on the seal. The threads on the new one was noticeably different and the pulley snugged up tight when the nut was torqued down. I have my old one at the shop and will get a pic of the shaft to compare.
Since the new oil was already in before the belt swap they had to drain it all to change the pump. I believe I hold the record for shortest distance between oil changes. 0 feet horizontal, 6 feet vertical.
 
0 feet horizontal, 6 feet vertical - best quote of the year!
 
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Here is a pic of the original pump from my car. You can clearly see the threads don't go to the bottom of the shaft. Sorry I don't have a pic of the new one but the threads went right to the bottom.

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0 feet horizontal, 6 feet vertical - best quote of the year!

I am sure it will be used once more in my future.:biggrin
 
Nothing a washer or two couldn't fix. But something to look for.