Oil Pressure

[larrym]

I was pulling my hair out with a low oil pressure issue when heat soaked......


Bought a TA shim kit pulled my pump apart and tightened the clearance .002 well it changed a bit still not happy since it has a freshly polished crank and new bearing. Then the little light and I mean little.... goes off, when I was putting it back together I used thread sealer on the distribution block and the sending unit for my gauge (no leaks). Pick up a mechanical gauge 60 PSI cruising at 2000rpm and no less than 30 hot idle.


I run Schaeffers Micron Moly 20-50 should I worry these pressures are to high and try a lighter weight oil ?

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[Paul Lohr]

I think if you search a bit, 30 psi of oil pressure at hot idle is around what other people have. On a 150K mile motor, my hot idle oil pressure was around 10 psi. It would be better if the oil pressure did not fall off at hot idle. It takes a good bit of work to correct this.

I don't think you'll have a problem with these pressures being too high either.

 

[Blazer406]

30 psi at hot idle? Most would kill for those pressures....

As the HP increases... the need for oil pressure becomes more important..... I too don't like to see hot idle oil pressures down 10 psi or below.... but there is a many of these cars out there that have that issue.

I would like 30 psi idling hot and 60-80 psi at the top end of the track.... mine is more like 10-15 psi idling hot and goes up easily with RPM's.

 

[turbo nasty]

Yeah typical/general ballpark "good" oil psi in a stocker(ish) is around 20 in gear fully heat soaked with 15w50 or 20w50 and 10 psi rise per 1k rpm. Of course high end psi is going to be limited by bypass spring.

 

[larrym]

Thanks for the reply's guys, dumpded the 20-50 and tried some 10-30 now heat soaked its at about 23 psi and typically 40 cruising, My concern was the extra load on the cam sensor and front cam bearing thats why I steered away from the high volume pump.

 

[turbo nasty]

Good for you its simply not needed and does wear the front cam bearing

 

[Steve V]

I agree that 30 is not the norm,I usually see 15-20 at idle hot with 10w-30. This is with oil pump mods and new front cover. Shoots up like a tach also.

 

[larrym]

mine shoots up to with the rpm of the motor 60+ anything over 3000 rpm found a leak in the valve cover gasket appears I'm getting lots of oil up top