oil pressure

[delcreek]

i have recently rebuilt motor and i think the oil pressure is low. when i start it goes to 45 or so then goes down as the engine warms up to about 15. what would be normal oil pressure? any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TNTSNBS]

what viscosity oil are you using, your start up is kinda low, it is normal to see 15 to 20 psi once operating at normal temps and around 60 to 80 at start up.

 

[BuickMike]

Are you talking about idle oil pressure? What oil are you running? I just rebuilt my motor and hot idle oil pressure is between 15 and 20. This is a little lower than stock, but I also ported and drilled the passages so more volume can lead to lower pressure when the pump is spinning at low RPM's. As soon as I touch the gas the pressure goes way up. I have 50-60 at cruise and 75+ under acceleration. I have 10W30 in it now, but will go thicker once I do my 500 mile oil change. Oh, and cold idle is 65+.

 

[Paul Lohr]

If you have a bunch of scoring inside the oil pump, you might want to think about getting a new front cover, oil pump gears, and filter adapter. Maybe you have done this already.

Did you set the vertical clearance for the oil pump gears as it should be?

 

[85Dan85TType]

Are you talking about idle oil pressure? What oil are you running? I just rebuilt my motor and hot idle oil pressure is between 15 and 20. This is a little lower than stock, but I also ported and drilled the passages so more volume can lead to lower pressure when the pump is spinning at low RPM's. As soon as I touch the gas the pressure goes way up. I have 50-60 at cruise and 75+ under acceleration. I have 10W30 in it now, but will go thicker once I do my 500 mile oil change. Oh, and cold idle is 65+.

I now feel good about my oil pressure. I have similar numbers and was worried they were too high cold and too low hot.

 

[BuickMike]

I was nervous until I searched and saw so many others with similar numbers. Then again I've experienced this in all my Buick motors (damn that front cover mounted oil pump). Even my old big block motors with high volume pumps and drilled passages were 15-20psi idle with high pressure under acceleration and sometimes 100+psi cold under acceleration / cruise.

 

[delcreek]

yes i am talking about idle once i give it gas pressure rises to about 60. thanks