[Fot] Fw: Help with Oil Pressure Problem

[Kas Kastner]

Just an opinion: If the needle is off zero at idle thats good but if it
does not have 60 pounds at 2000 rpm that is bad. Even a single hair from a
cleaning brush under the relief ball will have a terrible effect on the
pressure.

*Never be beaten by equipment.*


On Thu, Mar 6, 2014 at 7:38 PM, EDWARD BARNARD <edwardbarnard at prodigy.net>wrote:

> Jack:
> Last year we had this problem on a new build for Bob Blake's "4" motor.
> It really had us scratching our heads until Bob pulled the pressure relief
> spring and ball and found that the thick assembly lube I used had traveled
> with the oil and clogged the ball and spring and caused it to seal
> erratically. I replaced the spring and ball at the track with one from
> another
> filter head and that solved the problem. I have not used the white assembly
> lube on another engine.
> Easy place to start.
> -Ed Barnard-
> ________________________________
>  From: Jack Wheeler <jwheeler1947 at yahoo.com>
> To: "fot at autox.team.net" <fot at autox.team.net>
> Sent: Thursday, March 6, 2014
> 7:20 PM
> Subject: [Fot] Fw: Help with Oil Pressure Problem
>
>
> I've never sent
> a message to the FOT group before, so I hope I am doing
> this correctly.
>
> I
> just finished rebuilding the engine in my TR-3, and it is
> showing some unusual
> and disconcerting information on the oil pressure gauge.
> When cold, the
> pressure ranges from 60 psi at idle up to 80 psi at 3,000 plus
> rpm.  However,
> last weekend, I took it out for a drive and after about 25
> miles, when the oil
> was up to full temperature, the pressure dropped to almost
> zero psi at idle,
> but still kept showing almost 80 psi at 3,000+ rpm.
>
> I have
> built these
> engines for over 40 years and have never had this problem before.
> The first
> thing I would think of is bearing clearance, and for years I always
> checked
> the bearing clearances with plasti-gauge when I assembled one.  When I
> was
> racing, I had a crank grinder who was so good, I gradually stopped doing
> the
> plasti-gauge check (I never found one that was out of tolerance).  In this
> case, the crank was standard size and the crank grinder recommended that he
> polish it, which he did.  Although this guy is new to me, he was
> recommended
> by someone who rebuilds race engines for a living, so I trusted him.  I
> guess
> he could have polished too much off the bearing surfaces, although I would
> have thought he would have checked that after he polished it (I certainly
> should have - and will next time).  The other thing that could cause too
> much
> bearing clearance would be bad bearings.  Has anyone seen problems with
> main
> or rod bearings, resulting in excessive clearance?
>
> The only other thing I
> could think of is a failure of the pressure relief springs in the oil
> filter
> head.  The long spring, which is used to adjust the pressure is still
> available, and I
> always replace them when I rebuild an engine as standard
> practice.  The shorter spring, which is there as a fail save to keep the
> engine from starving for oil if the filter gets clogged up, is not
> available,
> and I have never replaced one.  I did not use this spring in my race car,
> as I
> had a custom made filter head which excluded this oil pathway, but I have
> never had a problem, that I know of, with this spring in street car
> engines.
> Has anyone seen symptoms like this before, with a newly rebuilt engine, or
> have any suggestions what might be causing this?  Thanks for any ideas/help
> you can give me.
>
> Jack Wheeler
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