2.3L ('83-'97) Estimate check for oil pump replacement on 1995 2.3L

[Woogie]

About two months ago I had a lot of engine work done on my 2WD manual B2300 because the front and rear main seals were leaking bad. The oil had gotten very low, to the point the dipstick was dry on the last oil change. I live in an apartment and park it in a different spot every day so it's very difficult to notice oil on the ground. It got all new seals and gaskets, new clutch, new spark plugs and wires. Yesterday I noticed a big wet spot underneath and put down some cardboard. Sure enough, it's leaking bad. Took it back to the shop and they found the leak is coming from the oil pump. The pump is external and mounted on the left side of the block. They showed me where it is leaking, and even after cleaning once it runs for a minute or two oil is running down the side of the pump. I had it back in for a minor unrelated issue about two weeks ago and the same tech worked on it all three times and he said it was dry then.

They quoted $800 to replace it. Does that sound like a reasonable estimate? Parts are around $200 with 5 hours of labor. Kind of sucks since I just put about $2K into it to have all the other work done. On the other hand, I'm glad I noticed before the oil was gone.

 

[89Twincharge]

oil pumps internal... if its leaking driver side front it's the oil pump drive shaft, runs off the timing belt, has a seal and gasket less the 40 bucks in parts and maybe 3-4 hours labor so around 500 would be reasonable. There's also a block off plate where the distributor went on older 2.3s... if you can take a pic of where its leaking that would help... hopefully they didnt mess up the seal install and are testing to make you pay for their mistake!!

 

[tomw]

There are three possible leak sources on the drivers side of a Lima 2.3. The oil pressure gauge/warning sender on the side of the cylinder head rearward. The oil filter & mount. The distributor or cover depending on vintage. The dipstick tube could also be considered. And, I forgot the oil separator plumbed into the crankcase ventilation system. So, 5 possibles. If your pump is not driven by the distributor shaft, with or without distributor, then it is driven by the aux shaft, up front immediately behind the timing belt.
Needa picture as I did not memorize all the various vintage changes.
tom

 

[Woogie]

Thanks for the responses.

On 1995 and up 2.3L the oil pump is a round assembly that slots directly into the aux shaft hole. It doesn't sit in the oil pan like older Rangers. The leak is definitely coming from behind the timing cover but you can't see much without taking the cover off. They did take me back into the shop to demonstrate the leak. You can see this though the driver's side wheel well:



The tech cleaned up this part with spray until it was dry, then idled the engine and within a minute there was a line of fresh oil running down from the top. Not just a seep, an actual running stream. I'm not sure what I'm looking at here though. Here is a pic from below:



Here's the front of the cover from the top:



I do trust this shop. The check engine light was on and it is one of the early 1995s where it has an OBD2 port but it's still running OBD1 codes so most code readers will not work. They could have told me it was any number of expensive problems but it turned out to be a $25 sensor. I'm not sure if they have diagnosed this problem correctly, but I'm also not sure if there's any way to tell for sure until you start taking things apart. I am confident they will tell me if it's something else.

Also, here are some pics I took of the cardboard and where the drips are. I assume the wide pattern is due to the oil dripping on the frame. The parking lot is angled so that the nose is sightly up. This was after a 30 mile drive at around 70MPH but it was not cleaned beforehand so there could be residual oil from previous trips. First pic is from when I just put it down. The rest were taken after it was parked 13 hours. The last pic was taken from behind the passenger wheel looking forward. As you can see, it's losing a lot of oil.








I'm concerned that the drips in the back might be from another source. Can oil really travel that far on the frame? Maybe it blew back when the truck was moving?

 

[Woogie]

I was able to find these diagrams on another forum so it looks like the part in the first pic is the pump. The line of oil came from the top and was running down near the back.



Here's a pump from the same angle. It looks like the part that sticks out of the aux hole on mine is clean so the leak can't be coming from there.

 

[89Twincharge]

Ive seen cam seal leak behind timing cover and spread out while driving but at this point I would reccomend degrease/clean every thing. There's alot of build up and it would be easier to pin point leak!

 

[Woogie]

Definitely not coming from the crankshaft seal. It's coming from the left side at least midway up. The amount of oil coming out and the rate makes me think it must be coming from somewhere that has pressure. There was literally a line of oil running down the side of the block. I've got some Gunk engine degreaser so I'll try to clean it up and see if I can get some pictures of it happening.

 

[Woogie]

Here are photos of the oil leak in progress. This starts after the engine has been running around 5-8 minutes. After it started running the first time I shut the engine off and dried it with MAF sensor cleaner. The camshaft position sensor is right there and I didn't want to use anything that would harm it. Then I cranked the engine and the leak started about 1-2 minutes later, which is when I took these photos.

The gray part on the left is the face of the pump sticking out of the aux shaft hole. The black section is the engine block. There's a gasket that goes between them. The line of oil is running down to the right of the union point which makes me think something above is dripping down onto it but it's really hard to see. You can't see anything from the top since the power steering pump and reservoir are in the way. I don't see any fresh oil from the top either.

Any ideas?

 

[Woogie]

I bought an inspection camera and had a look so I thought I would update.

It turned out the shop was correct and the o-ring on the oil pump failed. It blew out the top and the leak was getting progressively worse at a rapid rate. I ran the engine for about 10 minutes while I was looking at it with the camera and by the end oil was pouring out.

It's a shame it didn't start leaking before they had the engine out back in March to replace all the seals but at least I caught it before it lost all the oil.