PROBLEM: When I first start the car the oil pressure is fine then it gets warm and I have none unless I'm over 1500 rpm and even then its low. cold psi is 60, normally warm psi 10/15 at idle and 20 up to 40 when normal driving.

STARTED: I had adjusted the carb after geting gas at the station, she was misfiring bad. then left and she seamed to be running good so I stepped on it and she took off, broke tires free and skidded back and forth a little. Then I looked back and saw a hug cloud of smoke be hide me. instinct took over and I looked at oil psi gauge there was none so I pulled over opened the hod and pulled the oil dip stick to find all my oil gushing out of the dipstick tub. I crammed the dipstick back in and ripped the pcv valve out. Then I pulled the dipstick and all was ok however there was still no oil psi. It was low on oil, topped it off and continued on home. Drove short trips the next week or so no problems till she is warm.

MOTOR: I have a late 80's 350 block with a original GM crank just polished not machined. the rod and crank bearings are mellings same as the high volume oil pump. the pick up is bolted on to the pump and has good pan clearance. The motor was built by myself and wife in the summer 1.5 years ago I have about 6000 miles on it now. 20w-50 Mobil high zinc oil.

INFO: I live in New york, thus it is cold out now. didn't have many problems with till it got warm them it ran hot took the thermostat out and put empty ring of thermostat back in was fine then I started driving it every day and I put a smaller carb on it for gas mileage (600cfm Holley). need that carb for my truck and put the 750cfm back on it just a month or so ago having problems with the 750 now running rich.

 

What kind of pan is on the car? I have seen with hard acceleration and a HV pump when the oil sloshes away from the pickup on a pan with no baffles the pump goes dry for a second and then no longer works well.

 

SUM-G3603 - Summit Racing® Oil Pans

Baffled and its under normal conditions it

 

Check oil PSI with a different gauge, guessing the sending unit is bad.

 

Worst case scenario is that a cam bearing has spun. Bad cam bearings will not make noise but will cause low oil pressure when the oil gets hot.

Simple test. Put on a new oil filter so that you can still use the car. Take the old filter and cut it open. You can use a hammer and putty knife or even a hacksaw to cut the base off. Pull out the filter material and remove a chunk of it. Put that chunk in a vise to squeeze out the oil then open it up. If it's metal free than your cam bearings should be fine and move onto a possible bad sending unit.

 

What oil filter is on it?

 

I had an fram HP8 on it. I just changed the oil and used a WIX 51061R. I hope to open the old filter up tomorrow night and check it. I have two maniacal gauges on it, there within 1 psi of each other.

 

Still low oil psi with new filter?

 

Its better now but I also put the garbage lucas oil stabilizer in. however since I did that my oil gauge in the car now is reading lower than the one under the hood. I'm going to order and electric and swap the one inside the car and see what happens.