MizfitCreations

OK, well I'm having oil pressure problems again!!!!!

Driving back form Orlando, the oil pressure dropped to 40psi instead of it's usuall 55psi. Now, it would stay there if you stay a constint speed. Slightly accelerate and she slighty drops, let off and she goes back up. It's very noticable when you hit it, she almost drops to zero.

Now, the same thing happened to the ZZ4 before I pulled her and I replaced the oil pump thinking that may have been the problem even though it had only run for 8k miles. Now it happened again on two differant motors!!!!!!

I put another cheapo gauge on there along with my current gauge to see if thats the problem. Still does it on both gauges. Now, it only does it while driving. In park she doesn't fall and in drive holding the brake and pressing the gas she doesn't fall.

Whats my problem????????

--forgot to mention, I'm running Mobil 1 15-50 oil and these are both mechanical guages, an Autometer and some el cheapo for testing. Also, I'm pretty sure the new motor doesn't have a high volume pump.

ede

10 psi per 1000 rpm is acceptable. oil pressure dropping after it gets heated is also normal. i'm not sure you really have a problem.

MizfitCreations

No, I do have a problem. When you step on the gas and the pressure drops to almost zero, I wouldn't call that normal.

Anybody have any ideas????

also, she doesn't have ot get heated up before she does it either

Beefy89

Is your gauge electrical or mechanical?

Stekman

In his first post he clearly states:

ede

sorry i missed the drops to zero part. guess the speed reading class didn't really pay off. same problem with 2 engines, i'd suspect you have a problem wioth the gauges. screw a mechanical gauge directly into the block and see what you have. only other thiongs i can think of would be a miss oil plug but that doesn't rall make sense since you do have pressure at times. other is HV pump draining the pan.

Beefy89

Thanks for pointing that out, my bad..

The only things I can think of are like Ede said, the pump sucking the pan dry, the pickup is not down far enough in the pan, or maybe a hole in the pickup tube.

red90bird

why are you running 15/50 weight? that could be a part of your problem, I thought most cars (inculuding third gens) ran either a 5/30 or a 10/40. I would change back to one of those and see if it helps. ohh and like someone already said, plumb a oil gauge into the block, but make sure its a GOOD one, not a cheapie. hope this helps a little

MizfitCreations

Yeah, I'm gonna try switchign back to a normal weight and see if that helps. Both gauges are mechanical and go directly to the block behind the manifold. One is an el cheapo that I bought ot only test and make sure the Auto meter (def a good gauge) was working right.

Hopefully it's just the oil weight that is causign this, she stills runs strong and the pump is still fairly new so hopefully thats not the problem. Just trying to see all my options before I go tearing **** apart once again. Kinda tired of that. I just finished doing a motor swap, tranny&converter swap and rewired the entire car in 2 days to have her ready for a car show. Now I want some track time.

By the way this is a 383 all forged, AFR 195's, melling oil pump, RPM Air Gap intake, XR276HR-10 cam, Yank 3300 conveter, built tranny, 9 bolt posi w/3.73's ... should pull out some nice numbers once I get this solved

MizfitCreations

Well, just put in Mobil 1 5W-30 in and she's back runnig normal so looks like the 15W-50 was too thick for the motor, let this be a note to the rest of you who may want to try it