After 3 years racing and 12,000 competitive miles (not all by me), I thought I
would treat my BJ8 to an engine rebuild. Prior to the rebuild, the engine used
a little oil and smoked a bit on overrun, but the oil pressure was 4 bar (60
psi) cold tickover and 2 bar (30 psi) when hot and on tickover. I have always
used Castrol RS 10-60 (fully synthetic). During the rebuild the main and big
end bearings were replaced although there was very little wear to the old set,
the piston rings were changed, the oil pump was replaced for a new D. Welch
h/c pump (due to excessive wear in the gears of the std BJ8 pump) and the cam,
valve springs, seals and bucket followers were replaced (valve guides were
fine). Overall the engine was in very good condition.
I have since run in the engine using Castrol No 2 running-in oil for the first
300 miles and replaced it with a 10-40 mineral oil for the next 500 or as many
miles as I can get on it before the next race season starts, when it will be
replaced with Castrol RS 10-60.
The problem is that the oil pressure since the rebuild and is now 3 bar (45
psi) on cold tick over and 1.8 bar (26 psi) when hot. I can't see that this is
going to improve greatly when I replace the 10-40 with the 10-60. My engine
rebuilder is somewhat baffled by this outcome. We plan to check the oil
pressure relief valve but this was not touched during the rebuild but what else
could be causing this problem?
As always, any suggestions greatly appreciated.
Paul
66 BJ8 works rep
67 BJ8
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