oil pressure

[69yenko]

any feed back thoughts would be appreciated. chevrolet 427 idle oil pressure about 70 cold 60 warm. while driving, oil pressure seems to be working backwards because when i accelerate pressure goes down, not to 0 but down then when i let off pressure comes back up. only thing I've done is switch to synthetic and put a wix race filter on it. engine is fresh, initially after the oil change the oil pressure was at 0 but engine wasnt making any noise. checked fluid line to gauge and it was plugged, looked like break in oil. could this oil pressure gauge be bad. or maybe something worse.

[Jim Monson]

How low does the pressure drop when you accelerate?

[Monty Mikho]

Drop the oil pan.. At 0 oil pressure it doesn't take long to screw up a bearing.. Check the bearing first before something worse happens.. Its better to be safe than sorry.. Also look at your oil pickup tube. Make sure its not cracked and is at the right height off the bottom of the pan. If all that looks good add 1 extra quart of oil and see if it helps.. If it does it will be a oil drain back problem..

[69yenko]

thnaks guys, problem first happened after oil change to syn fluid, oil pressure was good, took car for a ride. let it warm up for about 5mi. then let er rip, oil press was still good. started heading home and noticed press at zero. pulled gauge out and line was full of really thick oil. cleaned and put back in. started car and press was doing what it is doing now. I did cut filter open and found no metal. Jim press drops to about 20 when accelerating. its just got me confused why at idle i have 60 and press goes down with more rpm. Monty,the car does have a deep oil pan on it, do you think it could be sucking the pan dry. I put 7 quarts it leaving it a little low for windage. had valve covers off and drains on ends of heads look clear. of note, i now have an oil leak at distributor gasket. could lifter galley be filling up and not draining quickly enough. thanks again - cool site. tell mr. biggs i will post some pics later this afternoon.

[69yenko]

Monte, good call on the pump pickup. Pulled pan and it was touchig pan, repaired so I had 1/2" clearance. pulled caps and checked bearings, good to go. put motor back in. I've got 70psi@7000rpm now. Thanks

[Monty Mikho]

Cool good to hear everything is OK.. I think I'll play the lottery tonight.. :-D

[k-star]

I know it's to late now but, i weld stand-off's onto my pick-up to make sure they don't suck the bottom of the pan up against them...

Keith

[Nick@VictoryRacing]

What oil pan/pump combination is on the car?

I have run into this with some of the Melling HV stuff that have the larger pick-ups.