Oil pressure sensor and oil pan help

Hi All,

My '71 429 in my '81 F250 made backfire type sound and lost all oil pressure. It is towed home and I need help:
Where is my oil pressure sensor on this thing?! I'm thinking I have to see if I can follow the wire backwards from the dash gauge...
How do I get the oil pan to break free of the gasket and sealer with out bending or breaking? On Scotty Kilmers youtube channel, he said use a narrow and wide pry bar.
I do have all the bolts out....
I am planning to replace what appears to be a leaky cork and goo gasket mess with the kind not requiring goo. Sorry spaced the brand...I"m just a girl....
Should I expect to see a shaft from the distributor shaft to the oil pump to make it operate? I understand there are three ways to engage them.
I am all new to this part of my truck, so any and all questions and advice appreciated.
It ran fine for the quarter mile or less from when it went boom and and the oil pressure gauge laid all the way down to the left. I was doing about 50, and that was the nearest pull over.
Could see no oil leaks or hear any unusual sounds.
Thanks in advance!
Have a day!

It should be behind the intake in engine block close to the firewall of the truck!!

Thanks for the quick reply, Mark!
Does it look like a little gold tophat and have a wire going to the distributor cap/can mess on the top front of my manifold?

Talon wrote:Thanks for the quick reply, Mark!
Does it look like a little gold tophat and have a wire going to the distributor cap/can mess on the top front of my manifold?  

IIRC I think they're gold and maybe 2-3 inches in diameter and should be in the back of the intake and have a wire going to it!!

Sounds like we found it then! So I suppose I should check my connections there..but what the heck could that boom have been?!
Could it have imploded? It was not smoking...

I am probably going to extreme, but I had my oil pressure drop to nothing, car ran ok but weak (drove to a gas station in sight) and found I broke a rocket arm stud. Found the lifter in the valley, the pushrod fell to the oil pan, looked like an s. Pressure reads after the lifter valley and when the lifter escaped, oil just drained light back to pan before sensor
Seth

OH my, Seth. I do appreciate the comment. So many things can go wrong...
I got all the bolts out of my pan, I still have to break the seal. Did not want to force it, and frankly, I'd had enough for the night. It took my brother and I and two sockets to get that third ( including corner bolt ) from the drivers side front side drain pan bolt off. You know, the directly behind where the oil filter hoses attach. The bolt they built the truck around...
So I am praying for an easy fix....just had that engine put in.

Did the engine continue to run after the backfiring and such?

Sounds a lot like what happens when the distributor gear pin shears. Except when that happens the engine will not run very well if at all.

Hey Boss Hoss,
It ran fine. I could tell no other change, though it could have been not as strong as I slowed down, then when I reversed in the drive way where I pulled into, I used minimal, gentle accelerator. But the response felt normal. And I know weak, as it took forever to get my carb adjusted so I had power...
So I have lots of new parts to look for being broke here, is what I am gathering. I hope I can see what's up when I drop that pan...
There was just one loud bang, and the only apparent change was the oil pressure gauge read zero.

May be an electrical issue, if you shut off the ignition for a second then turn back on you will likely get an explosion of unburnt gas in the exhaust system. Possibly an intermittent short that somehow compromised the oil pressure sender as well??

Just spit ballin but have seen weirder stuff than that in my life.

dkp

Pull the valve covers first.

Pull off a valve cover, and pull off the coil wire, and crank it over. If you don't see oil coming out of the pushrods/rocker arms, then something has happened to either the oil pump, the oil pump driveshaft, or the roll pin in the distributor.

Well if I don't see anything after I get the oil pan off. I already drained it, finally rounded up a rubber mallet, hopefully that will unstick that gasket mess. I still need to pull the sensor just because I can. See if anything looks funny there.