Good news is the back half is all done and looks incredible.....However went to fire it for the first time and I have no oil pressure at idle hot or should I say 5lbs hot at idle....cold it's 20 and at 2500 it's 40 but drops very fast as soon as you let off the gas.....we changed the oil and it didnt help...cut the filter apart and there is alot of tiny silver bearing dust in it.....

All I can say is I'm sick about it and have no idea what happened....could running it hot do this...210-220 for a long period of time....say 30 min or so at 3500 rpm....

We are pulling the engine tomorrow night and see what 's going on and go from there......any ideas :( :( :(

(UPDATE} We pulled the motor tonight and everything looks great...other than the pick up was full of S%@@#.....tons of silicone etc.... graemlins/clonk.gif There are a couple of mains that took the blunt of it ...but everything else looks real good....Should be all set by the weekend.... graemlins/beers.gif

Hell, my big block is about the same way. Not an inch over 10psi at idle. Anything over 350RPM is a nice 40psi. I don't recall my idle psi when I first started the motor, but it had me worried back then. Now that I think about it, I may have just over 10psi after a fresh change of 10W30.

Loose clearance just make it spin faster. :D

By the way. How do you say your last name?? Everytime I see a post by you I think "Blue bear". :rolleyes:

Are you sure the guage is is accurate? Have you tried another guage to verify?

Check to make sure that you oil pickup tube is firmly installed in the oil pump - I have seen a number of cases like yours where the oil pickup tube was loosly attatched to the oil pump. And once that was corrected the oil pressure came right back up to where it should be.

Past that I always go after things like bearing clearances.

Thomas

Last Name is (Blaauboer) But sounds like (Bleyber). smile.gif

10lbs at idle would be fine....HOT at idle it goes to almost ZERO"""""""""and yes we tried another gauge.....

:( :( :( I have been following your posts on the backhalf ( I love the look of a tubbed car) Hopefully the motor isn't hurt to bad. Originally posted by blaauboer:
could running it hot do this...210-220 for a long period of time....say 30 min or so at 3500 rpm....
If the oil pressure got low enough, yes. As engine temps go up' oil pressure will drop regardless of RPM. And once the bearings are hurt oil pressure drops really fast after that. What was your hot oil pressure before at different RPM ranges and what weight of oil were you using?

Scott :(

Was there anything that had a copper color to it?

Scott,
I'm sorry to hear about this. :(
I seriously doubt running at 210-220* would have anything to do with it. On my C5, the electric fans doesn't even come on until coolant temps hit 225*.

update......on the first post......

Originally posted by blaauboer:


(UPDATE} We pulled the motor tonight and everything looks great...other than the pick up was full of S%@@#.....tons of silcone etc.... graemlins/clonk.gif There are a couple of mains that took that blunt of it ...but everything else looks real good....Should be all set by the weekend.... graemlins/beers.gif Glad to hear you found the problem. Paying attention to the oil gauge saved this engine.

Glad to here it was something simple Scott.
graemlins/thumbsup.gif


Heck, while you have it out and the pan off,sounds like a good time to put in a 4.25" crank! ;) :D

Glad it wasn't nothing major,but i'm sure it is more work than you wanted to do. graemlins/waving.gif