I was fine tuning the idle mixture yesterday and when I stuck my head in the car to check the temp I saw an oil pressure guage bouncing from 20 to 30 psi, it should have been 60 psi. I changed guages and got the same reading. Pulled the oil filter to check the bypass and it was fine but the oil in the filter had nice golden swirls in it. " Its a long way to the end of the quarter mile".

60# at idle? That's a lot of pressure.

60 psi on a cold engine I would consider ideal,but on a warm engine way to high more like 20 to 40psi.To much oil pressure cost horsepower and we don't wont that! smile.gif

I have a 377, and when i forst start it up i get about 67-70 PSI cold at like 700RPM....when it warms up fully at the same RPM its at about 18-20...I was told this is correct. I run 20w-50

according to my gauge i have like 60 all the time ;/

WHen i broke the motor in, i ran a straight 30wt. And it seemed to be at like 40-70 all the time...I was told to use a multi-weight oil and that would go away, plus it would be better for the motor. This was before i knew anything so i dont know if its true or not. Sometimes when its hot, and i'm sitting at a light, the PSI will be at like 10-15....as soon as i give it any gas, even like 1/16 of the pedel, it moves to like 30PSI...

I'm running the Meling Z28 high pressure pump. It was at 140 degrees which should have been 50 to 60 at idle, it will get down to about 40 at 200 degrees with 30w. The pressure reading is the same at idle to 4k now. I had been thinking of changing to a standard pump, thinner head gaskets and sending my converter off to be reworked anyway.

I lost 40 lbs. just by tuning my Holley Forget the subway diet, buy a Holley! :D graemlins/clonk.gif
Zac graemlins/waving.gif

Are you sure the idle didn't get lower? Maybe the motor finally got the oil hot because you had it idling for a long time while you played with the carb?

Even on the hottest day coming down the return road and the stop and go traffic into the pits, it will not go that low. The needle was slowly moving between 20 and 30 at idle, I revd the engine and the gauge never changed.

A good friend of mine just had the relief stick in his melling pump, lost almost all his pressure in his 540. He works for a CAT equipment dealer and sent some of his oil in for testing-no bearing material found and everything looked ok on the test results but he decided to completely tear it down anyway. If you found gold looking stuff in the filter I'm sure it must be bearing material or bronze distributor gear?

Its bearing, I'm going to pull the engine the first of Feb., I'm just glad I was not in a burn out.