So I'm driving around and all is well but I hear a ticking noise from under the engine so I know its either exhaust leak or the rockers, so I thought why not check the rockers, so I did that. Tightened a few that seemed loose. Made sure it was at low point on the cam and tightened the rocker nuts until I just barely couldn't spin the pushrod. Now suddenly my oil pressure which used to be 25 @ idle 50 @ cruise/high rpm is now 10 @ idle and 25 @ cruise and 40 @ high rpm. I got worried and quickly changed my oil and filter. Didn't do anything. I'm using 10W30 as recomended by GM since it's a crate engine short block with edelbrock heads, intake and carb. When I first start it up cold it seems normal but once it warms up to temperature it does the low pressure. I'm taking this car to a road track for some non-comepeditive racing and I know that pushes an engine to its limits among other things. Thats not for another month but I don't want any issues. Have I done something to the rockers? should I change to a different oil since I'm going to be racing? Thanks for the help once again.

I have the exact problem which I too have posted. I have discussed in detail with a mech and Team Members as well. Mine 70-396 was doing this crank at 80 then when engine hits its normal 180 degrees it dropped to 20lb no matter what RPM. I was running 10w-40 told to go with 20w 50 I did, now its opperating at 40lb no matter what RPM at 180 degrees. I was told it could be a loose or bad oil pump or worn bearings. I would like to know too so I will keep and eye on this post.
Joel

I have the exact problem which I too have posted. I have discussed in detail with a mech and Team Members as well. Mine 70-396 was doing this crank at 80 then when engine hits its normal 180 degrees it dropped to 20lb no matter what RPM. I was running 10w-40 told to go with 20w 50 I did, now its opperating at 40lb no matter what RPM at 180 degrees. I was told it could be a loose or bad oil pump or worn bearings. I would like to know too so I will keep and eye on this post.
Joel

I just find it strange because its practically a brand new engine, 3 years old since it came from Gm dealership, and only has 7000 miles. Only thing i've done to it recently was heads and rockers. Still has stock cam and lifters.

check your timing, you could be detonating. i had problems and thought my cam was flat, rockers were out of adjustment, and here i had too much timing.

i washed my mains out when i did the head swap on my last motor.
i got impatient and didnt change the oil, and drove it with antifreeze in the crank case. it took about 2 months before anything happened, and when it did, my cam went flat, and all the babbet on the bearings were gone.
try backing up on the rockers and see what happends.

good rule of thumb is 7psi per 1k rpms.


aaron

Checked my timing, was perfect but vacum was disconneted, pluged that in, running smoother, fixed exhaust too, but oil pressure is still low, and now that my exhaust is quieter, i can hear the ticking still from what I'm guessing is the rockers... concerning me.

i had the same thing on a new rebuild and from all the talking and all the suggestiong the engine is coming out for an inspection

ive hears bad bypass spring in oil pump
clugged pick up screen
bad cam bearing clearances
spun rod and or main bearing

all of wich is not what i wanted to hear but it is what it is

tiem to pull the engine , lucky for me its a oldsmobile and i decided to put in in the corner int he garage build a 496 stroker with a blowe rand re build the oldsmobile in my spare time....liek i have any as it is...


nest of luck to all my low oil pressure friends...its sux doesnt it and FRUSTRATING AS ALL HELL, but as my late father always said "Its a learngin experience"

I ran a 454 for several years that held 20-25 psi at idle and only about 35 psi at cruising speed. It only takes that amount of oil pressure to properly lube the engine. If you don't see a trend over time of the oil pressure continuing to drop, I would continue to drive it...this is unless you put in a high pressure pump and oil; restrictors and STILL have low pressure...then it's time to worryl keep in mind that many Super Stock and Stock class drag cars only run 15 psi at idle and very thin oil.

keep in mind that many Super Stock and Stock class drag cars only run 15 psi at idle and very thin oil.

Yes, but they are willing to rebuild their engines on a regular basis and do regular teardowns to make sure things aren't about to detonate, hardly a situation you can easily duplicate on even an occassionally drive street car.

Oil pressure is fine when its cold, once it warms up it doesn't really low pressure about 1psi per 100rpm. I drove it hard last night on a backround to see what it was like at high rpm, bad news its horrible, was getting like 25psi at 6000rpm. Is there anything simple that it could be, I never touched my oiling system except for pushrods and rockers. I did oil changes every 2000miles or less. Engine has only 7000miles, how can this be, either its something silly like the guage being busted or I've managed to ruin something by playing with the pushrods and rockers.

i bet you got antifreeze in the oil and ran it before you changed it.

thats wat happened to me. but i only had between 4500-5000 miles on it.
there was that small of an amount in it where it didnt show up on the dipstick, but it did wash the babbet off the bearings and made the cam go flat.

you could change the guage and see what happends.

dow does it run other than the low pressure and tick?

aaron

It carb backfires when the secondaries kick in under 1500rpm, but I figured thats just the edelbrock carb, had that problem before, not sure how to fix it, but I kinda put that on the backburner since its not important for daily driving. I just looked under my car now, unbelievable what was no leaks 2 days ago now there is tonnes of oil under engine and tranny. This is a nightmare that will never end. :sad: At this rate I'm gonna have to sell it and buy a toyota corolla. :mad: All this because a magazine said installing heads was an easy weekend project and I believed them.

i find that with problems like this its always simple things that get overlooked i had the same problem on my 70 chevelle and it was driving me nuts untill i relized that the wire goin to me oil pressure sending unit was loose and the sendin unit was loose itself too. tightned it up gauge reads fine now.

i find that with problems like this its always simple things that get overlooked i had the same problem on my 70 chevelle and it was driving me nuts untill i relized that the wire goin to me oil pressure sending unit was loose and the sendin unit was loose itself too. tightned it up gauge reads fine now.


Thanks, I'll check that tommorow, I'd rather it be something silly and embarass my self than have it be something serous.

It carb backfires when the secondaries kick in under 1500rpm, but I figured thats just the edelbrock carb, had that problem before, not sure how to fix it, but I kinda put that on the backburner since its not important for daily driving. I just looked under my car now, unbelievable what was no leaks 2 days ago now there is tonnes of oil under engine and tranny. This is a nightmare that will never end. :sad: At this rate I'm gonna have to sell it and buy a toyota corolla. :mad: All this because a magazine said installing heads was an easy weekend project and I believed them.

For one thing it's possible you need more initial timing in it to fix the backfire. Also could be a lean condition or a flat exhaust lobe. It doesn't cost a dime to advance it and see if the backfire goes away.

If it is some lobes going flat, the material will destroy the bearings and cause your oil pressure problems.

You need to get hooked up with someone very Experienced in your area to help guide you. Learning by Experience sucks so if you can get some insight from somebody that's been through it all then it will be easier to avoid future problems and help now.

If I was a betting man, I would say you have some bearings fairly wiped out but not gone enough to blow up. You can have a oil sample checked. I think if you go to large diesel shops they have a service available to them to have oil samples checked. It will tell you right away what debri or materials may be floating around and how much.

I don't think I would run it anymore until I had the oil checked and if it comes back questionable, pull the engine, roll it over, pop the pan, and check the bottom end bearings.

You may have to pull it apart if it does have some bad bearings to get all the material out but as long as there are no spun bearings, the worse that you'd need to do is have the crank turned if it is scored.

I will add, have you changed your oil?? I have seen a leaky carb allow gas into the cylinder, when the car is sitting the gas washes the oil off the cylinder walls and runs thru the ring end gap into the crankcase & dilutes the oil which leads to low oil pressure, hydralic lifter not pumping up.
Saw the exact situation you have on a brand new Volvo just a few years ago, an O ring on the oil pickup was torn & the pump was pumping foamy oil, pressure was low, same results as above.
Try some plain old 30 wt oil, the old style engines got along fine with that stuff, newer engines your more apt to get into a lifter that will not bleed down (I ran straight 30 in a 1990 Subaru and it hardly ran, valves not seating, ran a compression test and had almost none, changed to 10/40 and in miniutes it was fine.)

Changed oil so many times my local store is out of the oil filters I use. I noticed something scarey today though, i took off the valve covers and in one of the pools of oil, it seemed like metal shavings :(

So if it is my cam lobes wearing away, what caused this, I find it hard to believed they were 'washed'. Would the stiff springs from edelbrock heads put so much pressure on lifters and lobes of a stock cam that they get destroyed in less than 1000miles? Would a busted lobe/lifter cause low oil pressure?

I will add, have you changed your oil?? I have seen a leaky carb allow gas into the cylinder, when the car is sitting the gas washes the oil off the cylinder walls and runs thru the ring end gap into the crankcase & dilutes the oil which leads to low oil pressure, hydralic lifter not pumping up.
Saw the exact situation you have on a brand new Volvo just a few years ago, an O ring on the oil pickup was torn & the pump was pumping foamy oil, pressure was low, same results as above.
Try some plain old 30 wt oil, the old style engines got along fine with that stuff, newer engines your more apt to get into a lifter that will not bleed down (I ran straight 30 in a 1990 Subaru and it hardly ran, valves not seating, ran a compression test and had almost none, changed to 10/40 and in miniutes it was fine.)

Amen Dave, I had the same thing happen to me a few years ago when I was running a well worn 350 down a 25 mile stretch of interstate. Before the trip I had been running it hard, having some fun, a few wot burn outs, etc... well a piece of trash found its way into the carb and little did I know it was dumping gas into the crankcase. At about the 20 mile mark the crank had finally had enough and SCREEEEEEE! Oil pressure dropped to almost nothing, followed by that horrible knock of a main gone bad. :sad:

If something is seriously wrong wouldn't I hear noise? I hear a ticking but its not constant its got to be exhaust because its like, TICK TICK, pause, TICK, pause, pause, TICK just like exhaust. I watched some videos on youtube of spun bearings, pretty nice sounding knock that I don't have. Still, low oil pressure and metal shavings. Maybe I should get a mechanical oil pressure guage.

yes, first, get a mechanical gauge and hook it up. you don't need to permanently install it in the car. just get it hooked up so you can see it while driving. I've taped them to the hood and windshield wiper before.

I had an idea just click today while at work, could this be the oil pressure relief valve? Im using the 36 year old oil filter adapter, could it have died? Would that cause low oil pressure? My sensor is in the spot near the distributor.

I guess im just gonna drive it and if it blows, well 5grand down the drain. There is no solution.

the only time my 350 made noise was after i changed the oil. fired it up, and it wrapped, and then went away. thats the first sign i knew the motor was going. (this was 500 miles AFTER i swapped heads, and had an intake leak on me).

i eventually ended up with 5psi at idle, and 15 at 5500. (with in another 300 miles) weeks before that i had 30 at idle, and 40-50 at 5500. no noise nothing. i was running a 1060 napa (wix) filter and 15/40 rotella t
when the cam started to go, it would pop out the exhaust like a machine gun, and it would not run right.

if you do a search on flat tappet cams going flat, you will see why.
the oil used today does not have the correct amount or no zinc at all in the oil. this is bad, FT cams needed it for lubrication.
what type of oil filter do you run? only filter i will ever touch from now on is a Napa or Wix. Napa brand is a wix filter.
go buy a 1060 Napa brand filter, and some good oil and see what happends.

but if you saw metal in the oil, it may be too late.

pull the motor, pop the pan off. pull the main caps off, and see how the crank and bearings look. you can put new bearings in it (40 for mains, and about
30 for rods).
clean the motor good, and put another cam in it.
too much spring pressure will make a cam fail prematurly.

sorry to hear about your problems. but a head swap is a very simple task. im willing to be there was coolant in the crank case from your other issue, and not all of it got out with an oil change...

find someone on her from your area to help take a look at it.

there is a solution, just have to find out what it is and first off try changing to another mechanical pressure guage, all else fails, rebearing the motor.

aaron

I'm using valoline premium non-synthetic and fram filter. If I have to pull the engine I'm screwed. I'm poor now, and this is my car. This car isn't suposed to be a weekend driver, its supoesd to be my daily in the summer. I also paid for racing which I probably won't be able to go to now. Todays my birthday and all I'm doing is sitting being depressed about my car. :sad: The oil looks like it has silver swirls in it. I spent 30min trying to find a picture on the internet of coolant in oil and failed. Everyone either says they have no idea or that I've basically ruined my engine. At this rate I'm gonna have to sell the car unless there is some easy fix.

Took off valve covers and stuck my finger into a pool of oil and got metal bits on my finger, put my finger against a magent and they stuck. I was told this means its not my bearings, are my lifters wearing down? I've seen pictures of that before. Would this cause the low oil pressure or is the low oil pressure causing that. Thanks.

Top two pictures in the jar are from the oil filter, I took it off and poured it into the Jar. The bottom picture of the oil in the Pringles lid is from the bottom of the oil pan after it was sitting all night. I know the pictures don't show that much but regardless, do they look alright? Thanks.
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/8057/img3531dx3.jpg
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/2743/img3537qv8.jpg
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/1214/img3534sh4.jpg

magnetic bits is bad news. bearings are not iron or steel, the bearing material is not magnetic. can you pull the other valve cover, have somebody crank the engine while you look at the valves, see if there are any not moving or visually not moving as much as the others. It's really starting to sound like you've lost a lobe off the cam. DO you know what brand cam is in it?

magnetic bits is bad news. bearings are not iron or steel, the bearing material is not magnetic. can you pull the other valve cover, have somebody crank the engine while you look at the valves, see if there are any not moving or visually not moving as much as the others. It's really starting to sound like you've lost a lobe off the cam. DO you know what brand cam is in it?

I posted on the local mustang forums as well and some experienced engine people seem to think that I toasted a lobe or lifter and that maybe the debris has caused the low oil pressure. The cam and lifters are stock GM that came with the crate engine, all I did was install edelbrock heads that had pre-installed larger and stiffer springs, I thought I would just be able to rev to 6000 instead of 5100, never dreamed it would destroy the cheap stock cam and/or lifters.

yeah im saying the cam is flat.

that is what my oil looked like.

coolant in oil is a white color. easily detectable.

the springs in the heads were too much for the cam. when you buy heads, or springs, the seat pressure of the springs has to match the cam.

you can always, swap in another cam (summit cam and lifters are 68 bucks), do a few oil changes on it, and most of the inside of the motor should be cleaned. but i would pull the motor, tear it down, clean it, and throw it back in.

i know what its like trying to drive a daily driver that keeps breaking.
ive had my chevelle since 13 (20 now). and have gone through 2 trannies, 3 rears, and 3rd engine (blew one up). it was supposed to be my DD.
i bought a 94 t/a to drive daily, and to find out it needs head gaskets...

aaron

I'm gonna phone an engine rebuilder ask how much installation of the matching edelbrock cam/lifters and new cam bearings would be. With work and stuff happening I just don't have the time and patience like I did in the winter when I don't drive it. I need the car working asap. Its bad enough I have to pull the motor and tranny out. I want it done and working, embarassed it has to come to this but its more important I have it to drive.