Baron Von Doolgas

I have 137,000 miles on my '98 formula A4. About 1,000 miles ago I noticed a ticking coming from the passenger side but it's not too loud, so I wasn't too worried about it. This morning I accelerated quickly, but not hard on it, and my check gages light flashed and then went away. I noticed that as soon as I get my rpm's above 2k... my oil pressure drops, then move backs up to normal. And the faster I accelerate, the lower the oil pressure drops. If I accelerate slowly and feather it the gauge goes to maybe 20 then moves back up. But if I slam it (only did it that once and then another for a test) it goes all the way down and the light come's on.
To me it sounds like the oil-pumps relief valve might be failing, does this sound like it what could be? No new noises from the car since this popped up. Drove maybe 75 miles total like this, and babied it. Could the ticking noise have been a warning to a failing oil-pump...even though my pressure was fine. Also... since I figure at the very least (I hope) I need a new oil pump..I will change the water-pump while I am in there, and add a ls2 timing chain. Should I worry about the ticking? I really want to have the most reliable car I can (even though I have 137,000 miles), so should a ls6 head/cam improve my reliability since it is new... or will I only need to change the stock heads valve-train. - Thanks

jermzz

iTrader: (18)

check your oil level... low oil will make the pressure drop on accell.

as for mileage..... if there's something wrong with the head, then sure get it fixed. but the only real fix for mileage will be a rebuild with new bearings...etc. Heads and cam wont fix any oil problem, and running a thicker oil / changing the pump spring will only hide the problem for so long.