I just finished doing a heads and cam swap on my 97 SS and after driving for approx 60miles to break the motor in I put my foot into it - I went through 4 gears from a standing stop and shifted at around 5500rpms - nothing crazy, I just wanted to see how the new heads and cam would respond. I normally shift it at 6100rpms at the track.

After coming to a stop the engine shut off -I restarted it and it had low oil pressure but if I revved the engine it would boost the oil pressure up. I drove it home and then drove it into the shop in the morning to have the rockers re-adjusted and I drained the oil and put on a new filter - I started the car and the oil pressure was good again, I let the engine run for a few minutes to get hot and it was still good - I took the car around the block and it started to loose power and I had to keep my foot on the gas to keep it running when I came to a stop and it was starting to make a growling noise.

I brought it back to the shop and drained the oil and found copper in the oil. We removed the engine and sent it down to the machine shop and all the mains are wiped out and #8 rod bearing is wiped out - it is clear from the damage that the engine was starved for oil. I know the engine had lots of oil in it and there was no debris found on the pick-up screen, the pump was checked and it is pumping fine.

The only logical explanation I can come up with is that the pump drained the pan of oil - is this possible and if so when I rebuild my motor should I use a standard GM oil pump or is there something else better. The pump that was in the car was a Melling High Volume. Input is appreciated. By the way the oil pan is the factory original and the car has the optional oil cooler on it from SLP when the car was built.

Sorry for the long post - all your feedback is appreciated.

 

Some people where wipping thier pans dry with the melling HV and stock oil pan.. .this was on Cz28.com a while ago. If your going to move to a high volume pump, it's best to go with a deeper pan, and windage try.

 

I have 800 miles on my new setup with that pump and stock pan. Driven it hard. But if this is true it scares me!!

 

ive heard of this as well. might wanna try a bigger pan or back to the original pump.

 

Heard that too. I have the 7 qt pan and the Melling HV and no problems here.

 

i'm having problems with my hot cammed 381 with 8qt pan and melling HVHP. going back to stock type pump this weekend.

i can hold the rpm steady around 3500rpm and after about 10 seconds the oil pressure will drop, let off gas and it will regain pressure...

any accelration above 2500rpm oil pressure drops...

only explination is pumping all oil out, has bolted on pickup,

those who have had problems with High Vol, High Pressure pumps, were you running hydrollic or solid lifters?

i'm running stock hydrollic

 

I've got a High volume in my 383. I can't remember what brand. It starts to suck the stock pan dry at the end of the 1/4 mile. I normally run the 1/8, but the few times I have run the 1/4 I start to loose pressure right before I let off.

 

I've heard that it's better to run a stock volume with a high pressure spring, rather than a high volume pump, because the high volume pumps can send it all to the top end of the motor.

 

So for LE2 heads/cam with full valvetrain, what oil pan and pump would you guys suggest? That sounds like a horrible story though.

 

Im using a Melling oil pump with the bolt on pickup tube. The pn is 10552 and is in between a stock and high volume pump. Im running it with a stock pan with no problems. A lot of other people will run the "GM white" spring(the higher pressure spring LWillmann spoke of) in a stock pump with success as well.