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oil pressure issues with new build (update round 2)
this is the link related to my engine being warmer than necessary, will be addressing this soon to get temps down to a consistent 180-190 range. only posting cause this could be related to my issues.
i also have the specs sheet for my clearances posted
so it has an improved racing baffle, scraper, windage tray, oil tube tie down, and an fbody pan. running a ported 10296, unsure which spring is in there, i had a break in dyno and 40 street miles on my first round of BR30 and mobile 1 filter, i changed that and now have 350 miles and a lot of sitting in traffic time on this round of Br30 and my second mobile 1 filter. so basically ready for my go to oil at this point. when cold the oil pressure is right around 50. when operating under 200, the oil temp at idle is a hair under 40 and fluctuates nicely. one tap to 3000 and she shoots to about 50 very rapidly.
the issue is posted in the video. when it is operating around 205-212, which was for most the day today on my 4 hour trip home since it was 82-88 degrees outside, my idle oil psi is around 25-30, it varies, but when i go WOT, my pressure increases just a bit but then goes down. this pull is going uphill from 3rd to 4th.
im wondering what my next steps should be here. do i go with the oil you guys recommend to me as well as swapping the radiator? do i just address the cooling issue? do i change oil with the cooling system as is? the funny thing is that when i take it up to 6500 rpms while in neutral and coasting the psi doesnt really move much, it goes up a hair but certainly not down 10 pounds like when actually WOT under load. i was running 5.5 quarts of oil and was a little below half on the hash marks on the dipstick. i added an extra half quart of oil and it made no difference to my WOT numbers.
Last edited by Floorman279; 06-09-2019 at 08:41 AM.
the one thing i did notice unsure if this is the norm, but my pcv hoses are just about scolding hot. i have the mighty mouse can pulling from the oil fill hole, so in order to add oil i have to remove that. i couldn't hold the metal fitting that hooked into the oil fill for more than 2 seconds it was that hot.....the hoses weren't too bad tho. unsure if this is normal
is it possible my oil is too hot thinning it out?
Last edited by Floorman279; 05-19-2019 at 09:06 PM.
Reason: ........
Oil pressure doesn't seem to be critically low and I could see this on a motor built on the loose side of things but from your build sheet that's not what I'd call the loose side of things. Could it be your gauge or oil pressure sensor is not right there? Have you put a mechanical gauge on it to see what its saying?
it reads very good when warm. if i give it a half rev when cool the pressure shoots up above 60, the gauges do no funny business when cool, wouldnt that rule out anything wrong with gauges or sender?
from what i have read in the past, erl likes running on 5w 30 synthetic......does my clearances confirm that a thicker oil will not help my situation?
Oil pressure doesn't seem to be critically low and I could see this on a motor built on the loose side of things but from your build sheet that's not what I'd call the loose side of things. Could it be your gauge or oil pressure sensor is not right there? Have you put a mechanical gauge on it to see what its saying?
no mechanical gauge, the oil pressure sending unit work flawlessly on my ls1 build, and it currently is an ac delco with under 5000 miles........
it does occasionally flutter a tiny hair back and forth tho.
and yea i agree, the oil pressure is always good and does no funny business when its operating under 200 degrees, idles a hair under 40 and a little tap nets me a hair under 50........
If it were mine, I’d dump the oil and cut the filter open and inspect. Do you have a filter cutting tool?
Ideally your oil pressure should climb to a certain degree under acceleration, and level off. Yours doesn’t appear to climb at all, if the gauge/sender is working properly.
Mine is similar with a recently built 418. I also have the improved racing baffle, scraper, windage tray, oil tube tie down, and an fbody pan. I used a new Katech 2390 pump with their provided o-ring, restricted pushrods, Johnson short-travel lifters (which have the axle oiling and Johnson says it might lower oil pressure 3-5psi) and the Sac City barbell (I don't know what effect this would have if any any). I'm on my second oil change, I have about 150 miles to put on it before the 500mi oil change, and we only used off-the-shelf break-in oil. Mostly city driving, and some spirited highway driving. I'm trying to stick with conventional oil for a few thousand miles before switching back to synthetic.I 'm currently using a 180* thermostat, a DeWitts two-row radiator, and have fan1 at 210/204 and fan2 at 217/207. In normal driving the ECTs hover around 200*.
I'll have to look at my build sheet later to get my clearances. According to the dash gauge, when cold my oil pressure is 40-50, when driving around town and cruising it's near 30-40, at warm idle it drops to roughly 20-25, but jumps to the aforementioned pressures outside of idle. Haven't really gotten on it too hard for an extended length of time to watch WOT psi. I'd love to be able to run both the oem dash gauge side-by-side with a mechanical for peace of mind (a digital sender I could scan in HPTuners would be sweet too)..The builder did give me a 1yr/10K warranty and did check pressure with a mechanical gauge before handing it over to me, but it's unnerving to me to see this non-OEM oil pressure behavior.
I'd definitely go with a bigger radiator for your 427, and I'd personally not use an oil that would void any warranty given to you by the builder. If you don't have a warranty, maybe look into an oil temp sender & gauge to see where you are at to help you pick the correct oil. Tangent - what crank scraper part number did you use? Did you have any fitment problems with the dip stick tube and the aftermarket parts in the oil pan? I didn't before with just the baffle, but now with the scraper it's very difficult to push in the last couple of inches.
I would first verify with a mechanical gauge. If the mechanical gauge verifies what the electronic sender is saying, then I would begin with the oil filter.
What block was used for your 427? Gen III or Gen IV?
i wont be able to dig into this for a week or so, the next project is rear struts for my wife car.
so just a refresher, this motor also was making less and less power as it got hotter on the dyno. i emailed tony about this a few weeks ago and he said it could be possible the pistons are expanding and rubbing the walls just enough to make slightly less numbers.......i wanted to mention that, but i would like to think that may be unlikely due to the starter having no issues starting this thing when hot, and its the stock 18 year old starter. if anyone has any other ideas, let me know. ill work on getting a gauge to verify what the sender is saying
Last edited by Floorman279; 05-20-2019 at 07:58 PM.
Reason: .....
What kind of oil filter are you running by the way? I would change the filter and see if oil pressure improves. Either buy the tool or get a good pair of snips and cut the oil filter apart to look at the filter element. I'm betting your going to see some of the coating caught in the filter as well as some shavings.
mobile 1 filter. its genuine, i either got it from walmart in store or auto zone in store.
what coating are you referring to that i will see
ordered a cutter, will cut open on saturday so stay tuned
I'm not sure what engine parts you have in your build. I recall on the 427 I built that I was having lower than normal oil pressure and when I'd stomp on it the pressure would almost fall to zero. Turned out the pick up tube clearance was causing an issue with the high volume oil pump I was running so to combat this I went with a larger oil pan. The pistons in the motor are Wiseco and they have a coating on the skirts and when I cut my oil filter open to see what was going on I noticed these little pieces of what I though was metal It would be almost black on one side and shiny silver metallic on the other side but it turned out to be the coating from the pistons.
im pretty dead certain my clearance is set between .25 and .35 which is a range everyone agreed on. i say this because i didn't torque the pan down with washers, i sat the gasket on, torqued them all to like 10 foot pounds to not crush the gasket, and i believe i spaced out the tube until i came up with like .29 or something like that.
im assuming you are not supposed to find coating in the filter?
The coating is not supposed to come off but it did on mine which is why some of the engine builders I've talked to don't order Wiseco's with the coating.
BTW not all of the coating will flake off just some of it. I kept cutting into my filters to see if this was continuing to happen but it only showed up in the first filter.
i wont be able to dig into this for a week or so, the next project is rear struts for my wife car.
so just a refresher, this motor also was making less and less power as it got hotter on the dyno. i emailed tony about this a few weeks ago and he said it could be possible the pistons are expanding and rubbing the walls just enough to make slightly less numbers.......i wanted to mention that, but i would like to think that may be unlikely due to the starter having no issues starting this thing when hot, and its the stock 18 year old starter. if anyone has any other ideas, let me know. ill work on getting a gauge to verify what the sender is saying
So, the Gen IV blocks do have oil galleys for AFM. The LS2/LS3 valley covers have o-rings that seal against these ports. Are you using an LS2/LS3 valley cover, or are you using the stock 5.3 cover?
so just a refresher, this motor also was making less and less power as it got hotter on the dyno. i emailed tony about this a few weeks ago and he said it could be possible the pistons are expanding and rubbing the walls just enough to make slightly less numbers.......i wanted to mention that, but i would like to think that may be unlikely due to the starter having no issues starting this thing when hot, and its the stock 18 year old starter. if anyone has any other ideas, let me know. ill work on getting a gauge to verify what the sender is saying
When you say it made less and less power on the dyno as it got hotter, do you have the actual numbers? How much power loss and how much heat are we talking?
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05-19-2019, 08:47 PM
oil pressure issues with new build (update round 2) 
