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30 is plenty at idle. You sure you're getting oil at all the rockers? Make sure you don't have a dry one. If so, maybe a clogged pushrod. I can't see you having one bad lifter out of a new set and one bad lifter out of your old set unless you have an oiling issue. Have you checked your Flexplate for cracks?
Its not the flexplate. The exhaust tone changes quite a bit when the tick starts to happen. You can hear it audibly running on less cylinders. Put the hammer down and it still makes tons of power. I have a buddy that owns a shop that is going to flush my entire oiling system for me.
My oil pressure gauge doesn't seem to be working. When I give it 12v ignition by turning the key, the needle tries to spin backwards. I'm going to make a call and complain about a gauge that has never worked to see if we can get anywhere with that.
I checked the oil level again. If anything, I have too much in the car. My buddy is going to flush the oiling system for me today. I drove it yesterday and I just drove it into work this morning with no ticks. The fact that it moved from the driver's side to the passenger side when I did a lifter swap made me think that its possible its either a clogged injector or pushrod. Both of which I will check later today.
The fact that it moved from the driver's side to the passenger side when I did a lifter swap made me think that its possible its either a clogged injector or pushrod. Both of which I will check later today.
This is a huge piece of helpful information. Good luck with your search.
I drove 150 miles yesterday with no lifter tick. No wide open pulls. Just highway and cruising. On the way home, I hit the highway, and do one wide open 60-100 blast. Spun pretty good in 2nd. Lifters started ticking.....
So I hooked a mechanical oil pressure gauge up to the port above the oil filter. I have the plate there drilled/tapped.
When I took out the sending unit for the electrical gauge, there was a good bit of pressure there and oil spewed out pretty hard (car is not running).
With the car running hot (and the lifters slightly ticking), I have ~26-28 PSI of oil pressure at idle. This is about what I had on my electrical gauge before it took a crap.
The weird part is, pressure doesn't go up much when I rev. I hit maybe 45 PSI at 6500 RPM. I'll check oil pressure tomorrow when its cold and give it another free rev to see where it climbs to.
In the video, you can see where I rev to 4000 and hold it for a second, pressure levels out to 35 PSI.
Seems you've got a problem getting volume to the lifters under hard demand. My guess is the plate behind the cam gear has a flattened, or too compressed, oring gasket. An issue with the plate would bleed off oil volume from the lifters. You've probably got enough volume under normal driving conditions, but when you stand on it and really pound the lifters there's not enough there. Again, just a guess.
I guess I'm going to pull the front end of the engine off, and drop the pan. Check the O-ring on the pickup tube, and the retainer plate on the camshaft.
Here's the oil passages for the engine in case you're interested. It could also be in the rear cover gasket just as much as it could be in the camshaft retainer plate, but I'm assuming you changed that out when you put the engine in.
I had an oil pressure issue with some buildup right at that right angle turn after the oil pump. You might pull that big hex plug out right under cylinder one spark plug and check to make sure that passage is clear of debris also.
Do yourself a favor while you've got the pan off. Pull a main cap and check a bearing. They get fed off the lifter feed gallies. Hate to see you overlook a questionable bearing if it is infact an oil supply issue.
I'll check a main bearing. There are not any shavings on the drain plug at all. I had shavings after I first fired it up, but I replaced some worn rod bearings and the engine had been sitting for a while. Before the next oil change (after I replace retainer plate and pickup O-ring), I'm going to flush the oil system too.
If pressure isn't rising progressively with rpm, its either an internal leak, oil pump bypass issue,or sucking air.
Also, in these tight oil clearance engines, 15-40 is waaay to heavy. The 5-30 on the oil cap isn't just for fuel efficiency...
Heavy weight oils can cause starvation in tight clearance engines at high RPM that weren't designed for it. To me, heavy weight oils in these engines is "old school" thinking. The older engines had looser tolerances and some builders made em even looser than spec for more "sling" lube.
Not bashing or criticizing, just my.02 and tryin to help.
When I first fired the engine on 10w-30, I had about 18-20 PSI warm idle.
After switching to 15w-40, I also no longer have any oil coming out of the valve covers, to the point where I do not run a catch can, or even breathers on the valve covers, and I get zero oil or mist. No complaints.
If pressure isn't rising progressively with rpm, its either an internal leak, oil pump bypass issue,or sucking air.
Also, in these tight oil clearance engines, 15-40 is waaay to heavy. The 5-30 on the oil cap isn't just for fuel efficiency...
Heavy weight oils can cause starvation in tight clearance engines at high RPM that weren't designed for it. To me, heavy weight oils in these engines is "old school" thinking. The older engines had looser tolerances and some builders made em even looser than spec for more "sling" lube.
Not bashing or criticizing, just my.02 and tryin to help.
This is true. I was a tech for Ford when the modular engines (4.6, 5.4 & V10) first came out. The cams don't even have bearings, they just ride in a machined journal in the head. Very tight tolerances. Ford stated that any oil thicker than 5w20 or 5w30 would lock the cams up. I know it's a Ford thing but it's the same principle. However, there are plenty of guys using 15w40 or 20w50 in these engines SBE, with no problems.
I'm 90% sure its either the O-ring or cam retainer plate. The first time I installed the pickup tube (before pulling out the rods and regapping rings) I had pinched the O-ring during install. I removed it, covered it in oil and reinstalled. Since I can get to it fairly easily without removing anything from the engine bay, I'm just going to replace the O-ring tomorrow. If that doesn't help, I'm going to replace the cam retainer plate.
If pressure isn't rising progressively with rpm, its either an internal leak, oil pump bypass issue,or sucking air.
Also, in these tight oil clearance engines, 15-40 is waaay to heavy. The 5-30 on the oil cap isn't just for fuel efficiency...
Heavy weight oils can cause starvation in tight clearance engines at high RPM that weren't designed for it. To me, heavy weight oils in these engines is "old school" thinking. The older engines had looser tolerances and some builders made em even looser than spec for more "sling" lube.
Not bashing or criticizing, just my.02 and tryin to help.
I've had success running the xxx96 melling pump with the big spring and 20w-50 oil. Makes over 100 psi of oil pressure at high rpm and idles around 40-50 psi depending on engine temp. My rod/main clearance is around .0027". Just an fyi.
Some don't like that much oil pressure, but I embrace it.
Joe did you change the oil filter? Not sure how many miles you have on the engine since you installed it, but they seem to clog or get partially blocked for me within several hundred miles and I'll lose like 10-15lbs until I swap it out. Then I'm good for a long while. Guess all sorts of crud gets knocked loose when working on these old engines.
Personally, watching that video it doesnt sound good. Sounds internal. Combine that with a loss of oil pressure and I think something may of opened up inside. May want to cut the filter open.
Def want to make sure the flexplate isnt cracked, loose converter etc first though.
Personally, watching that video it doesnt sound good. Sounds internal. Combine that with a loss of oil pressure and I think something may of opened up inside. May want to cut the filter open.
Def want to make sure the flexplate isnt cracked, loose converter etc first though.
The filter is brand new. I cut open the last one, there are no shavings in it.
Its not the flexplate as that would have no effect on my AFR/cruising power.
I've had problems with both the pickup O-ring and cam retainer plate already on this car before. Those are my most likely culprits.
04-28-2016, 01:57 PM
