Acceptable oil pressure....?

[brenten88]

Hey fellas,
I have noticed lately that once my car has had a good worm up (say 30mins+), and its seems worse on the really hot days that on idle and very light loads at low RPM my engine Oil pressure gadge(hsv binnacle) read as low as 13-14PSI is this normal????? the engine doesnt sound metalic at all apart from normal sewing maching after cam

rundown on car
LS1, small CAM, Heads, UD pulley, OTR, Tune, auto,
http://www.ls1.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=130194

oil currently being used is castrol edge 15w40
genuine GM oil filter

[white lie]

Mines around 1.5 on the HSV guage (so 21PSI warm idle). I don't know what the factory specs are meant to be. I run the Castrol Edge 10W60, seems to perform a bit better than the thinner stuff.

[Mohit]

On my LS1 the oil pressure on cold start up idle (1100 rpm) is about 40psi. After the engine has fully warmed up and idling at normal speed (650rpm) the oil pressure is about 30psi. This is going off my Aeroforce Interceptor OBDII gauge. I'm running Royal Purple 10W-40 oil with a GM oil filter.

[brenten88]

well that rules out the oil and the filter then, another thing is that i beleive it has only started doing this after having the heads and cam installed may be just a coincidence but they did fit a double row timing chain

[gmh308]

The factory spec for a stock motor is min of 45kpa - 3psi hot at 1000rpm.

Have run almost this low on loose builds with stock pumps in the past - like 5-7psi hot idle at 800-900rpm with no ill effects but still prefer something around 15psi hot @ 100-105C in the sump.

As you will see in many posts via searching the "rule of thumb" which is 30 years + old, is 10 psi per 1000rpm (under load).

:)

[johnv]

well that rules out the oil and the filter then, another thing is that i beleive it has only started doing this after having the heads and cam installed may be just a coincidence but they did fit a double row timing chain

That is too low ! get a workshop to put a mechanical gauge on to verify oil pressure, may just be a shagged sender unit.

If low on a mechanical gauge, i will put money on the oil pump pickup tube oring being damaged during double row timing chain install.

was the pan dropped during install ?
if not can pretty much gaurantee thats your problem.

[swingtan]

may be just a coincidence but they did fit a double row timing chain

Me thinks not.....

To do the double row, you need to remove the pump and in some instances the pump is spaced out to clear the chain. If this has been done and the pickup tube not relocated for the moved pump, you may be sucking air past the "O" ring seal. Another option would be that the "O" ring seal is just old and no longer sealing well. This will drop oil pressure at hot idle and worse, aerate the oil all the time. As has been suggested, check with a quality mechanical gauge and if possible, do a running oil check to see if the oil is aerated. The running check involves bleeding some oil off under pressure and should not be done unless you are confident you know how to do it.

Simon.

[Souljah]

Mine idles at 40psi hot or cold. 80psi+ at full noise.

[BLACKVE]

Get who ever did the cam install to check the pressure just to be safe, your gauge could be out a bit but if it's changed since cam install i'd be concerned!!!!

[mmciau]

Mine idles at 40psi hot or cold. 80psi+ at full noise.

How did you get it to run at 80psi - stretch the relief spring?


Mike

[JaMeS_2007]

mine is between 30 and 33 when engine is warm

[brenten88]

Looks like i will be taking it back to Electronic Automotive to see what they think hopefully they dont give me the run around.......... I dont think he dropped the sump to install the double row timing chain I gave him a brand new O-ring so aslong as they installed it right it should be fine but i have a funny feeling that they didnt, they had a massive amount of work going on when they did my work and i rember the guy telling me he was finishing the install on my car like 6pm on a saturday so attention to detail wasnt at its highest

[GMMAD]

Mine idles at 40psi hot or cold. 80psi+ at full noise.
Mines similar
45 cold 40+ hot and gets up to 80 when up it

[LS1-5.7]

Way too low, should be around 30psi when at operating temp. Mine runs about 42 cold to a consistent 30 psi when @ operating temp regardless of hot or cold days. Running Repsol 10w-40. changed every 5K with filter. Readings courtesy of Aeroforce :)

Hopefully a sender unit or gauge. Much easier than engine out if it's a bearing problem. But then again, it was "played" with recently so I'd be starting there ! Looks like someone forgot to stem ALL the bleeding :confused:

[Souljah]

How did you get it to run at 80psi - stretch the relief spring?


Mike

That's what my mechanical Autometer gauge reads at.

And you would have to screw the relief spring in to gain higher pressure. Not stretch it.

[brenten88]

Hey Fellas,
Having the car looked at as we speak, to look at weather it is the O-ring or possibly the oil pump but the manager of the shop recons it is highly unlikely that it is the O-ring(i smell bullshit) and he thinks its possibly the oil pump, how likely is it to be the pump?????? also if it isnt that what else could it possibly be????? also I dropped the car off at 8.30 and they didnt have it stripped down by 3pm even after me telling him i only had 2days to get it done how long should it take to strip the front end?????


thanks heaps Brenten

thanks for your help

[SirNemesis]

If the pickup has been removed recently, it is most likely to be the o-ring. If the pickup hasn't been touched and pressure has just dropped off out-of-the-blue, it'd be more likely a pump failure. O-rings generally don't fail if they aren't touched/moved.

[brenten88]

Oil pump was removed to install a double row timing chain during the heads and cam change only a month or so ago......... All new gaskets and O-rings were provided to the Performance shop.....

Oil pressure wasnt quite right after i took delivery(maybe 4-5psi less then before job) but it didnt seem to much worse then before then it gradually got worse over the following weeks now it sits smack on 10PSI at idle(700rpm) and wont really build up much past say 30PSI even if i rev it right out.....