The engine starts and sounds damn good. The problem is that right after startup the oil pressure gauge locks completely over to the high side, then drops to 0 two seconds later when it blows the gasket right off the top of the filter. This is at 1500-2000 RPM. It did it to 3 different filters, the first I thought might be a fluke so I tried another, and then a third after I changed the oil adapter.

I did change the oil adapter that came with the engine after it blew the first 2 filters, and put on the one off the old 305 I yanked, so I know it works fine. The block is a 70's 350 I got in running condition but with bad rings. I gave it a rering/rebearing, and a new oil pump among other goodies. The oil pump is a melling 55, but I did put in a Mr. Gasket high pressure spring.

I pre lubed the motor with a drill, and didn't notice any problems. Oil is circulating through the engine, at least to the tap in front of the timing cover where I have the oil tap for my two turbos. It has enough pressure at that front tap to squirt oil several feet in fact with just the drill..as I found out


Whats the problem?

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"American made baby. 100% American iron. The muscle among the masses. My hero. Yep, you can take your ergonomically designed, space age, computer controlled, 4 door, cup holding map lighted split double wishbone split fold down retractable cargo covered moon roof piece of transportation and keep it. For I have felt the thunder. And I know the difference!"
JSP Motorsports
ICON Motorsports

 

Sounds like the relief/bypass on the oil pump is not working properly. Probably has something to do with the spring you installed.

 

yep that'd be my guess too

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ICON Motorsports

1st & 3rd
MM Black Diamond 538 F&AM

 

Do you have a PCV valve? One time I had a car that had a clogged PCV valve and it kept blowing the dipstick out of the dipstick tube. It just builds up alot of pressure in the crankcase.

 

Well..assuming the spring isn't defective, is there anyway I could have botched the install? Doesn't seem like it..just one pin..

I don't think the spring could not be defective and cause this. It's a high pressure spring...but high enough to blow the oil filter gasket out is ridiculous! Anyone else have this problem with it?

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"American made baby. 100% American iron. The muscle among the masses. My hero. Yep, you can take your ergonomically designed, space age, computer controlled, 4 door, cup holding map lighted split double wishbone split fold down retractable cargo covered moon roof piece of transportation and keep it. For I have felt the thunder. And I know the difference!"
JSP Motorsports
ICON Motorsports

 

I have 2 breathers, one on each valve cover...

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"American made baby. 100% American iron. The muscle among the masses. My hero. Yep, you can take your ergonomically designed, space age, computer controlled, 4 door, cup holding map lighted split double wishbone split fold down retractable cargo covered moon roof piece of transportation and keep it. For I have felt the thunder. And I know the difference!"
JSP Motorsports
ICON Motorsports

 

Altho, this just occured to me, I did tack weld the pickup to the pump cover. could I gotten a checkvalve stuck or something? maybe arced it to the housing?

 

i've heard of this a few times and on the last one which was about 3 weeks ago it turned out to be the pressure relief in the oil pump was stuck. it's a 406 and it took the crank out before they found the oil pump problem. if you keep putting oil filters on it and they blow off, oil isn't going somewhere....

 

you could of cooked the spring with the heat from welding

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ICON Motorsports

1st & 3rd
MM Black Diamond 538 F&AM

 

nope...I didn't put the spring in till after I welded it.



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"American made baby. 100% American iron. The muscle among the masses. My hero. Yep, you can take your ergonomically designed, space age, computer controlled, 4 door, cup holding map lighted split double wishbone split fold down retractable cargo covered moon roof piece of transportation and keep it. For I have felt the thunder. And I know the difference!"
JSP Motorsports
ICON Motorsports

 

in case you didn't read that right, the spring doesn't stick, the valve does. it does on occasion happen when you weld on the pickup since it heats the casting and can warp the body the valve is in.

 

Jester,

Does the relief have the ball or rod type valve poppet? The ***** usually are self cleaning and don't stick, but a chunk of gasket, debris, Plastiage, or whatever may have loged alon side the rod porrpet and froze it in place. Unfortunately, I'm thinking pulling the oil pump, too.

Your idea of a high-flow pump at higher pressure is very good, especially with a couple of turbos depending on it for their very lives, but something probably went awry with the relief valve.

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Later,
Vader
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"What a Day..."
Adobe Acrobat Reader

 

Thanks all. It would seem that dropping the pan again is inevitable . Whether it was the welding, a bad valve begin with, or dirt, something stuck it. Guess I gotta take the %$&$#&&#$&$ back out.

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"American made baby. 100% American iron. The muscle among the masses. My hero. Yep, you can take your ergonomically designed, space age, computer controlled, 4 door, cup holding map lighted split double wishbone split fold down retractable cargo covered moon roof piece of transportation and keep it. For I have felt the thunder. And I know the difference!"
JSP Motorsports
ICON Motorsports

 

Good. Now I don't feel so bad after my engine install. It went in fine. 9 hours later I had the headers on because I had to pull the deep sump pan to get them in. A few weeks later the rear main started leaking so I pulled the engine to replace it since it was easier than trying to lift the engine again.

3 months from when the engine went in and race season starts and I've seen my oil pump twice and the engine only has a couple of hours on it.

As for your high pressure problem, I don't know. Pull one of those lines off a tap and put a pressure gauge there. Spin the pump with a drill and check the pressure

 

I found this link at sdpc200.com, mabey it has somthing to do with it?
http://www.sdpc2000.com/htm/techtip....iling%20Crisis
Check out the last section on this page, it's about a 'SBC oilling crisis', whatever that means.
Good luck!

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CAR: 1987 Iroc-Z28, 5.7L TPI, 700R-4, what option doesn't this thing have?, 99,XXX miles.
MODS: 3" Rhino H.F. cat and cat-back exhaust, all freebies, and a maxed out alpine stereo system. Ramjet 350 in the works for this spring! (looking for low 13's)
HISTORY: Never, ever, lost a race to a mudstain!

[This message has been edited by Remondi2 (edited May 03, 2001).]

 

You're always better off to weld a flat piece of metal (like 1" wide) to the pickup tube, and have it reach over to the closest pump cover bolt. When you weld the tube directly to the cover, 9 times out of 10 it will crack the weld because you are trying to weld a steel tube to the cast iron pump cover-it just doesn't work that well. In addition, you avoid the possibility of warping the cover and having the type of problem you are having-regardless of whether or not you had the spring in. In fact, I'd say there's a good chance your weld is already cracked-take a look when you drop the pan.

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'93 2wd truck
408 sb, vortecs, 454 TBI, Comp Cam, dual exhaust

 

Thanks for that info, SCRA.. when I rebuilt my 2.8, I was going to weld the pickup to the pump... I think my expertise level is more suited to welding a brace!

Does anyone stake the pickup to the pump with a punch anymore? Or is that just "in place of" a weld?


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-Tom P (Hot rodded 1986 Firebird 2.8l) from http://www.f-body.net/mailbag/3rd/3rd_mailbag.html message boards
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