69 tbird engine rebuild??? or not??? HELP!

hi guys im new here hello ;-)


i live in england and own a 69 tbird which ive been fixing up for a few years now , i just got her back on the road last month and everythings been great until now .

i lost oil pressure last week and i now have a feeling i may need to rebuild the engine but i dont know where to start , what parts im going to need and/or if there is a specific way to do this sort of job. im not that good with engines but i have a few friends who are great at this so we are going to attempt it.

its a 429 thunderjet big block which is all original - never played with

the oil pressure had dropped as i was doing about 50mph and i turned it off, i had to drive it home - 3 miles so i did slowly! i noticed that the more revs i gave it, the lower the pressure went and when i go up hills it dropps too. it has a new pressure switch on it so i know thats not gone - could it be the oil pump? oil level is ok, ive noticed a small nocking when im stationary in drive with the break on but if i put in neutral the nocking goes away - gearbox? i got her home but now if i try and start it it will start but i have to hold the revs up of it starts to die. is it advised to just take the engine out and rebuild it??? if so , what parts do i need oh and does anyone know the torque settings for the heads and bottom end

is there such a place i can download the diagrams and stuff for this engine. - vacume diagrams etc. are these engines over head cam or not ???

sorry for the length of this topic but im in a real mess with the car. spent 6000 quid allready getting it on the road !!!!! i need help! and there isnt many people in this country that know a lot about these blocks

cheers guys

chris

It could easily be the oil pump. I'd certainly want to check the pump pressure before committing to an engine overhaul.When the car dies at itle that could be a carburetor or ignition problem.The knocking could be anything.You pretty much have to eliminate one possibility at a time.You can obtain the factory shop manuals on CD these days:http://www.detroitironis.com/There are 100s of places to by the original manual. Just google 1969 Thunderbird and you'll find all sorts of stuff.

I would remove the oil pan and examine the pump and the pump shaft. Possible to strip the pump and shaft.
Knocking could be many things. Is it low in the motor? or high like in the intake.

Hi, the first thing I would do is remove the spark plugs, to remove some of the load on the bearings, then remove the oil pressure sending unit, then connect a mechanical oil pessure guage, and crank the engine. Make sure you have at least 11.5 volts in the battery, so you don't crank (turn) the engine too slowly. The noise you are hearing could possibly be from the hydraulic tappets loosing their oil pressure due to a pump failure, or pump drive shaft failure as stated in a previous reply.DON"T start taking things apart until you isolate where the failure is!!!It could be something as simple as a plugged oil pump screen, which would be seen when the pan is removed. You could try blowing compressed air back through the two ports that are exposed after you remove the oilfilter, with the plug REMOVED from the oil pan. The oil pan on one of those beasts is not as easily removed as the money from your pocket will be if you pay someone else to diagnose this problem, mate!!