Ben Feral Selinger

I know embarrassingly little about the basic mechanics of the engine. 02 6.0L, was running mint when I first swapped it into my rig, made heaps of power. Has progressively been losing power, getting some lifter tick, and really don't see much oil coming out the pushrods ( but I don't know how much is normal).
Compared to one of our other engines, which pretty much gushes oil out, while several others have a trickle, but still more than mine.
Oil pressure is about 40psi, running 5w40, didn't see any glitter in the filter during last change. Definitely losing power.

Been told to check the o-ring, replace pump, etc, but I like to troubleshoot rather than throw parts. How can I properly determine where the issue is? How much oil should be getting to the heads at idle/3000 rpm (it's always a trickle).

jetech

What is the oil pressure at idle @ normal operating temp? My guess would be the O-ring at the pump. Did you replace the oring when you did the swap?

Ben Feral Selinger

Don't have a manual gauge to verify, but looks like about 40psi @ idle.

I didn't pull the pickup when I had it apart. Wasn't ticking when it was in the donor. It ran absolutely perfect. Ran perfect when I installed it as well. Started developing a tick a few weeks after.
I'm confused about how much oil SHOULD be up there. Most guys say very little, barely perceptible, so I check a couple others in the yard, and they also seem like they're barely moving any oil to the heads. Other guys say it should be a geyser, so I check a few more, and out of the 8 or so I checked, one does in fact, pretty much spray oil .

O-ring was my first thought as well, but seems strange it'd just fall apart on it's own. Just looking for ideas and get a better idea of all possibilities before I strip anything down. I figure if I'm not confident it's going to be the pump or o-ring, I might as well do a cam/lifter swap while I'm in there for good measure right?