Boy this seems to hit everyone. Back in November,I had to replace the heads
which was giving me a 11 to 1 compression.I replaced the heads and built it
again to a 383 . When I first cranked it , it had 80 psi .I drove it six
miles the oil pressure fell to 20 then to 0 . I replaced the VDO gauge with
a mechanical still no psi. I added 2 quarts of fluid to see if pickup tube
had fallen off,nope then replaced the oil pump again with melling High
volume.No such luck.I removed front timing cover to see if oil galley plugs
had blown out. Still no such luck I decided to change the FRAM PH 30 which I
had always run on it,with a wix and now it has 80 psi hot and Idles at
around 40.
I did contact Fram which has the filter and ALL RECEIPTS and waiting on
reply. I have put 287 miles on this filter and it is doing fine.
-- Original Message -----
From: <Passnb4U@aol.com>
To: <STELLMAN@noex.com>; <oletrucks@autox.team.net>
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2000 12:36 PM
Subject: Re: [oletrucks] Oil Pressure Problems?
> In a message dated 1/18/00 6:55:53 AM Pacific Standard Time,
> STELLMAN@noex.com writes:
>
> > I need some expert advice. I have a 350 4 bolt main that I personally
> > rebuilt and installed in my truck. When I start it ,it has 60# + of
oil
> > pressure but when I drive it a few miles (4-5) and stop at a red light
or
> > something the oil pressure will drop to 0-10# when idling. As soon as
I
> > accelerate it will shoot up to 40# and settle back to 25-30# when
cruising
> > down the highway at 2000 rpm. It had a brand new Melling standard oil
pump
> > that I have already replaced with another Melling standard oil pump. I
> have
> > never used one of these before. In the past I have always used Chevy
oil
> > pumps and don't remember ever seeing this much pressure fluctuation and
> > those low of readings. Does anybody have any ideas what could be
wrong?
> Is
> > this normal for Melling oil pumps? Should I replace it with a Chevy
pump?
> > Could there be some other problem? I Plasticgaged the bearings when I
> > assembled it and everything was on the minimum side of the tolerances.
> Also
> > I am running 10W40 oil. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
I
> > really am not looking forward to taking the engine out and completely
> > rebuilding it again just to try and find this problem. TIA>
> >
> >
> > Terry Stellman
> > 1949 3600
> > Missouri City, Texa
>
>
> Terry,
>
> As mentioned before, any excess clearnces will cause a low PSI when
idling,
> but assuming you put everthing together correctly, I'd first verify the
> pressure with a known, good, mechanical gauge.
>
> In my '57 with a BBC in it, I still have the original mechanical gauge
in
> it, and a SW electric gauge.
>
> Even when the SW was new, the gauge(SW) would fluctuate erractically at
> idle, while the mechanical original would stay steady. Also, the SW reads
> about 8-10 PSI higher (by "eye-balling") than the original.
>
> Mike
> oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
>
>
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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