Lowell,
Our
oil pump analysis found a found a small wrist pin (?) caught in the screen. The
oil pump impeller was scratched and we believed the pin got caught in the
oil pump causing it to seize, consequently, the distributor gear failed. We did find large pieces of the distributor gear in the oil pan, thoroughly checked the oil galleries etc. for additional pieces but found nothing else. We cleaned the oil pan, replaced the oil filter/oil pan, and refilled the car with fresh fluid. We let the car idle until the oil temperature reached 90 degrees Celsius, about twenty minutes, drained the oil, checked for additional metal pieces but it was clean. Realistically, I think I was very fortunate that the distributor failed and didn’t chew up a cam lobe. That would have been mucho expensive.
I took the wrist pin back to the engine builder and asked how this could have happened. They didn’t know, but said to check the rocker arms for any missing parts, loose pins, etc. We pulled the valve covers and everything was normal, I. E., no missing parts nor anything loose. We believe the broken pin was inadvertently dropped into the engine during final assembly but can’t prove it.
As the risk of being redundant, my personal thanks for everyone that helped get my car home from the Cobra Fest. I very disheartened when my car failed during the rally, especially since this was my daughter’s first Cobra ride, but with it sure was great to see fifteen WCCC members’ cobras drop out of the rally to help. You guys are really the best!!