Generation IV Internal Engine - LS3 Oil pressure problem-whats the next step? Help?

Well after reading thread after thread about low oil pressure and how to resolve it I am now at a crossroads.
I have a texas speed ls3 stroker shortblock with lsa heads and tvs 2300 supercharger in my cts-v. Car ran well and made good power but the oil psi was low. Car maybe has 1000 miles on it since the build that started 2 years ago. I run 20/50 mobil 1 and had put a texas speed ported ls6 oil pump in it. Typical symptoms of great oil psi at cold and at rpm but hot idle it was down as low as 12 psi (at 240 degrees f). I just am scared to drive it with that low of oil pressure. Most information said its the o ring on the oil pump. I bet I read that 50 times so today I pulled the front of the motor apart and after 4 hours of fun on a Sunday I finally got down to the o ring. ITS PERFECT !! not a mark , nick etc.

This leaves me at a crossroads of what to do. Is it worth replacing the oil pump - maybe with a melling high volume pump , button the car back together and hope it holds together? Or do i take it out and tear it down and see if there is a clearance or internal issue. I would not think Texas speed and perf would have assembled it to loose as they have probably done hundreds of builds (maybe thousands). I am just so frusturated as this car has been a money pit and i was ok with that considering what i was trying to build but redoing things really starts to piss me off.

Anyways what i am asking is what would you guys do? Pull it and tear it down or reassemble it with a new oil pump and hope for a small miracle? I am just out of ideas. Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks

Sheldon

Why is it that hot.

I can tell you that oil temp really makes a diff on these motors. Mine will drop 50 psi from 70 to 185 oil temps at idle. Still maintains 30 at idle

During a pass the pressure never gets below 100 with the oil temps close to 190. driving around town it is in the 60's

Tim

cts-vs seem notorious for high oil temps. even if i had 25lbs i would be happy but 12 psi (15 psi if the oil is around 205 degrees) is still to low for me to be comfortable.

Did you try contacting TSP to see what they say?

Those oil temps are definitely on the high side, which isn't helping. I can pretty well assure you that it's one of two issues:

1) Oil pump o-ring as you've discussed on the phone with several of our sales guys. I know it seems impossible and nobody believes that they have done that part of the install wrong, but 99.5% of the time this is it. We've had master certified techs swear they had it correct as many as 4 attempts in a row, they shipped the engine to us, we installed a new o-ring, and voila....great pressure. I'd encourage you to either get a fresh set of hands to do this for you, or at the very least another set of experienced eyes during the install that might see where the issues originates.

2) Valley Cover seals/o-rings. It's commonly overlooked, but if any of those seals under there are nicked, cut, etc then it will hemorrhage the same as an oil pump o-ring causing these symptoms as well.

FYI, oil temps above 212* are necessary and beneficial to the long term health of your engine. If your oil never gets above the boiling point of water, none of the water based contaminants will boil off, these contaminants include acids and other nasty by-products of combustion. A healthy engine should see temps 220-250 on a consistant basis. When using a good synthetic, I wouldn't worry until temps creep above 280*.

If I were you, I'd try the high volume Melling 10296. The additional rotor area of this pump will push extra oil through the engine thereby increasing pressure. I'd also switch to another 20/50 oil since Mobil 1 is notoriously thin for a given weight. I'd try Valvoline VR1 racing oil just to see what your pressures look like, then find a good synthetic once you determine there are no other issues such as valley cover o-rings, excessive clearances, etc...

Hope this helps,
Shane

Good to know about the valley orings, good thing Fraser at AES got me some Allen head screw in plugs to use, I put a Lil locktite on them and put the valley cover on. If you want them call AES they are a sponsor.

They also told me to use vr1 20/50 so I hope that plus a melling and or an extra set of eyes and hands cures your troubles bud!!

Keep us posted.

Putting a higher volume pump on to try and fix low oil pressure symptoms such as these is like putting a band-aid on a bullet hole.

Good to know about the valley orings, good thing Fraser at AES got me some Allen head screw in plugs to use, I put a Lil locktite on them and put the valley cover on. If you want them call AES they are a sponsor.

They also told me to use vr1 20/50 so I hope that plus a melling and or an extra set of eyes and hands cures your troubles bud!!

Keep us posted.

We put screwed plugs on our block also. We blocked the DOD oil ports on the block with them.

FYI, oil temps above 212* are necessary and beneficial to the long term health of your engine. If your oil never gets above the boiling point of water, none of the water based contaminants will boil off, these contaminants include acids and other nasty by-products of combustion. A healthy engine should see temps 220-250 on a consistant basis. When using a good synthetic, I wouldn't worry until temps creep above 280*.

If I were you, I'd try the high volume Melling 10296. The additional rotor area of this pump will push extra oil through the engine thereby increasing pressure. I'd also switch to another 20/50 oil since Mobil 1 is notoriously thin for a given weight. I'd try Valvoline VR1 racing oil just to see what your pressures look like, then find a good synthetic once you determine there are no other issues such as valley cover o-rings, excessive clearances, etc...

Hope this helps,
Shane


Good info. I was wondering if the OP has checked the oil pressure gauge against another known gauge.