losing oil pressure

[bluettype]

lost oil pressure today normally it runs about 15 at idle in gear today it dropped down to 6, no knocking motor was supposidly rebuilt about 23000 miles ago, could it be a cover and pump issue? didn't rap at all when pressure dropped,has mechanical gage

 

[slimtastic]

well te first thing i would do is change the oil and check for any larger fragments of metal in the oil. any flake of metal thats approching the size of a grain of oatmeal is bad...

you know what, with that kinda mileage on a rebuild, all break-in metal should have been long since discarded from oil changes.... if you see ANY metal in the oil, thats a bad deal.

 

[bluettype]

ran the car today to check pressure,noticed motor taps from timing cover area when cold quiets up when warm,pressure picked back up to where it was? could it be a bad pump and cover? going to buy 1 from full thr. while on sale.

 

[Blown&Injected]

When ya givwe it gas does it jump right up or is it very slow to rise?

this type of change is not good

 

[bluettype]

goes up quickly when giving gas, goes up slowly when first started cold does go to 60 when cold ,has around 40 when doing about 35-40mph

 

[callmeebryan]

My engine makes some noise too, but thats because of my valvetrain setup and is pretty normal for a pushrod engine.

You have to describe the noises a bit more.

My guess is your pump is going.

 

[jhanson1750]

X2 on the oil inspection. I would cut the filter and see what is going on. ALL sudden unexplaned pressure changes (up or down) should be figured out if at all possible. Good luck Jon Hanson

 

[bluettype]

sounds like the lifters only it also comes from chain area, going to buy a pump kit should i get the timing cover too or just pump and cover that oil filter goes to?

 

[bluettype]

installed a booster plate on oil system today, nothing in oil filter. but made the problen worse now oil pressure stays on 7psi at idle but does go back up quickly.

 

[alb84]

You said the next day the pressure was back to normal. Sounds to me like you had a spike in engine temperature. That can sure drop the oil pressure at idle. Maybe you sould put it back the way it was, and check out your cooling system.
Danny

 

[bluettype]

yeah, i'm going to redo both the cooling and oil system this spring, or sooner if it warms up.

 

[Steve V]

You can just install an oil pump. It needs to be blue printed. Gaskets are how the endplay is set and this has an offest on your idle psi,which seems to be you issue. You need about .002,not .002-.006,.002 when everything is cold. Side pockets need to be smooth and so does the top and bottom surfaces the gears ride on. Sand them with 400-600 rit install measure end play with plastiguage. This very hard with cover on the engine. I remove mine. Do a search on the other site. Earl Brown wrote a great article in the tech section with pics about building a pump.

If this doesn't fix the issue its bearing clearence,most likely #1 cam bearing is on it's way out. This will bleed off most of the oil from the left side of the engine making lifters rattle.Good luck.:smile:

Also TA performance sell the gasket is different thickness,$15 or so. For the set.

 

[bluettype]

thanks steve, that's about what i gonna do. i also noticed that it happened soon after i installed a fram filter, going to change it to a delco today.

 

[Steve V]

Sorry my grammer was so bad in the 1st post Must've still been sleepy.

FWIW: I have about 10 psi with the GN in my bottom sig(119k). This weekend I removed the cover. The pump area was trash all scored up,grooved. No sand paper would fix it. So I had a few used covers. Found a good one set it up. Reassembled the car,start it up and notice about 10 psi more at cold start up. But when it warms up it still sucks 10psi or a little less. This is a motor built by Recon so I know my issue is in the bearing clearences(probably .003). I am not ready to rebuild it yet. My last 2 motors make 24 psi and 30 psi hot with 10-30 and about 50-60 going down the road adout 2k rpms.

These are very picky engines period. I usually don't trust other peoples engine rebuilds,unless they are big names on the board etc. And I prefer an unopened stocker when I buy one of these cars. But those are getting hard to comeby.