OK, as of right now, I'm running 4-6psi of oil pressure at idle and that bothers me. I want it to go up and I've had people tell me to use 20w-50 oil, Lucas oil addative, and putting a nut into the oil pressure relief valve spring. I'm thinking the different oil and/or addative is basically a band-aid. The nut in the spring to make more pressure will bother me until I take it out because I'm afraid it'll fall out into the pan. I want more pressure at idle, the pump I'm using has who knows how many miles on it. Should I get a stock, high volume, or get an m55 and the mr. gasket spring? Will any of these help IDLE pressure? THX

 

well low oil pressure can be caused by a buncha stuff unfortunately (including a worn motor).

How many miles are on yours?

Is this read off you dash gauge or a good working order oil pressure gauge.

If the engine isn't warn and that's the true pressure then i'd suggest a stock replacement styled pump, hv pumps are uneeded and usuall a parasitic loss or can even cause over oiling.

 

Engine after I rebuilt it-2300 miles
Oil pump-no clue, could be 3,000, it could be 170,000
SunPro guage
Yea, imma try a stock pump.

 

Are you running a wet gauge or electric? If your using and electric put a wet gauge on it and see what it says.

When you rebuilt the motor you didnt put a new oil pump in it?? How about cam bearings in the motor, were they replaced?

Hows the oil psi when you rev it up.

 

Mechanical (not electric).
Nope, used the old one, stupid me.
Oil pressure goes up aout 10psi per 1000 RPM.
Cam bearings look fine, checked them about 3 weeks ago when I did the cam swap.

 

what rpm does the motor idle at?

 

About 800 park, 650? in drive.

 

Thats sounds about right....

 

the rule of thumb is typically 10psi / 1000 rpms. Unfortunately if it were like that for any of my vehicles I'd be trying to flush a brick down my toilet. Try a Mellings M55 oil pump with the #26 mr gasket pressure spring, and the M55a High Volume oil pump pickup unit. That seems to be the "ultimate" oil pump, and very cheap really.

While you're under there, check your bearing clearances.

 

The #26 spring makes the M55 a high pressure unit. Cheaper than buying the Melling high pressure pump. You don't want/need to run a high volume pump, so stay away from the whole high volume pump hype.

I've heard the 10psi/1000 RPM rule of thumb many times, but I've heard it on several occassions with something else added: min 15 psi at idle.

 

Is it running hot? Because if youre overheating then your oil pressure will be much lower. I had a 350 that had the about 5 psi at idle, so I installed a temp gauge and found out it was running at 230F+, changed the thermostat and it runs at 190 with 20psi at idle.

How does it run? Smooth? Because I had a lifter pop out and it lost oil pressure from that.

Is there any knocking?

Anything under 10psi is not acceptable in this application, however some new cars have as little as 5psi.

 

Problem fixed, Melling M55 w/ nut in the spring, 60 psi idle cold, 40 hot. 12 psi increase per 1000 RPMs.
Thanks guys