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LOW oil pressure at idle question.

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Old Sep 4, 2012 | 02:03 PM
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From: ATX
Exclamation LOW oil pressure at idle question.

Ok so my buddy had a motor built for supercharger a few months ago. It was assembled longblock with oil pan.
The car has between 8-10lbs of oil pressure at idle but it does go up with rpm.
1500 has about 27lbs
and at about 5-6k it runs about 60lbs or more.
What could be the problem also oil temp is about 220-230 when measured.
Start up cold pressure is about 45-50

Last edited by LSX-coupe; Sep 4, 2012 at 02:45 PM.
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Old Sep 4, 2012 | 07:46 PM
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Lots of looks no thoughts.
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Old Sep 4, 2012 | 07:50 PM
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cut the oil filter open and see whats in there. basically the best you'll get is a good guess. sounds like pinched oring on the pick up tube. oil temp seems high too. but if the bearing clearences were too tight to cause the high temp i would think the oil pressure would be high.
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Old Sep 4, 2012 | 10:29 PM
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It's a supercharged motor with no oil cooler. We cut filter on break in it had a little metallic and just a slight hint of gold flake.

The oil temp is not to unusual for most ls engines I've had.
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Old Sep 4, 2012 | 10:47 PM
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Doesn't sound good in my opinion. Does it have the DOD towers in the lifter valley? Perhaps no one plugged those off with the rubber seals in the valley pan. If not you may have bigger problems, like someone piecing the bottom end together incorrectly, or leaving the barbell plug out of the back of the engine. No matter how loose your bottom end is on an LS, you should have at least 18-20 pounds of oil pressure at idle when warm, or else it'll start showing signs of catastrophic failure soon.... 8-10 is too low, however its WOT pressure is good. Also oil temp seems fine. My engines bobble around 210 normal -240* oil temp whenever I've beaten the crap out of them.

I bet somewhere a restrictor got left out.
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Old Sep 5, 2012 | 07:18 PM
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Most of the time, normal cold pressure with lousy hot pressure turns out to be loose cam bearing clearance(s).
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Old Sep 5, 2012 | 08:24 PM
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Check the galley plug next to the oil pump inside the front cover, If it's left out It will have poor pressure but it's so close to the front cover it will "push back" and build some pressure with rpm as well. It looks like a .500 freeze plug.
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Old Sep 5, 2012 | 10:01 PM
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Originally Posted by Charlie@Vengeance
Check the galley plug next to the oil pump inside the front cover, If it's left out It will have poor pressure but it's so close to the front cover it will "push back" and build some pressure with rpm as well. It looks like a .500 freeze plug.
Mmmm, good guess but no. It'll never get enough oil up top to pump the lifters up. Ask me how I know
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Old Sep 5, 2012 | 10:11 PM
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When we pull front cover off I'll check the plug and might have the cam pulled out and see if there is wear or any abnormal stuff.
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Old Sep 5, 2012 | 10:14 PM
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what weight oil is he running? also, the reasoning behind the oil pressure readings is because, obviously as pump speed increases pressure will. that really tells you the oil pump is probably ok.... let us know the results

Last edited by THENASCAR; Sep 5, 2012 at 10:23 PM.
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Old Sep 6, 2012 | 07:33 AM
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its running 20-50 castrol. But if a barbell was left out or a plug pressure would flat line at a certain point right? But it goes up with rpm all the way to red line.
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Old Sep 6, 2012 | 01:00 PM
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Originally Posted by LSX-coupe
its running 20-50 castrol. But if a barbell was left out or a plug pressure would flat line at a certain point right? But it goes up with rpm all the way to red line.
20/50 and still only 10 psi at idle?!?! Something is definitely wrong. Almost like one cam bearing is completely missing trololololol.

For real though. Betting someone missed the valley pan seals. I've done it myself, and it's very easy to overlook.
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Old Sep 6, 2012 | 04:03 PM
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I still don't understand why it would go all the way up to 60-70 if something was off.
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Old Sep 6, 2012 | 07:02 PM
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You have something wrong. You need to take it out and look at everything. With that weight oil something is deff wrong.

If you keep running I you will tear something up.
Been there done it.

Tim
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Old Feb 1, 2013 | 04:25 PM
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our HKE 440 with 20-50 shows 10 psi @ idle, 30+ at rpm and 210 temp. FWIW.
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