'60 Y-block oil pump

fordor41

Well-known member
It appears I have a leak thru the gasket of my oil pump. question is can the gasket under the cover be changed with the pump installed in the car? I'd hate to pull the cover and have something fall out!
 
If the oil pump is original to your car, it is a gerotor oil pump with an aluminum housing and will have a flat cover. Instead of a gasket under the cover, there will be an O ring in a groove. Those O rings do get stiff and brittle with age creating some oil seepage. As mentioned, the O ring replacement is not a major job and can be performed without removing the oil pump from the engine.


If the oil pump has been replaced, it could be the older spur gear pump style with a cast iron housing along with a cast iron cover that has a couple of dowel pins keeping the cover positioned. Most new replacement pumps for the Ford Y are this spur gear style of oil pump. These are simply less expensive to build by the various manufacturers. The spur gear pump cover does use a gasket and like the aforementioned gerotor pump, the cover can be removed without removing the pump from the engine. Anyone that works on the Ford Y engines will likely have some extra spur gear gaskets or gerotor O rings sitting loose. Ted Eaton.
 
Are you sure it ain't the pump-to-block mating gasket that is leaking? If that is leaking and bolts are tight (in accordance with specifications), you may need to remove the pump and install new pump-to-block mating gasket. When removing the pump, the hex shaft will probably come down out of the block with it. If so, you may need to go up and pull the distributor out before re-installing the pump and it's hex shaft from down below, then fenagle your dizzy back in as usual to couple the dizzy shaft with the hex shaft. Make sure you haven't re-installed one gear tooth off.
If you do need to pull the pump down, you will also need to loosen the pick-up tube locknut at the oil pan and remove the pick-up tube bushing from the oil pump, then pull out the rubber seal and check it. It may need replacement also. In fact, that seal may be your primary leaker.
 
Sometimes what appears to be pump leakage is only blow/back from a leakage further forward on the engine and the pump being located as it is on a Y, may catch some of this.

Here is an Ill of a pump install showing gaskets/seals -
 

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follow up on my oil pump. Was definitely leaking from bottom cover. finally found an "O" ring on Ebay. disassembled the bottom of the pump and it had a gasket under the cover. O-ring seemed a bit small in cross section to fit the gasket groove but installed it any way. No leaks so far but only ran in garage. The O ring was only thing I could find anywhere for my pump unless I bought a rebuild kit.
 
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