Thread: Oil pressure too high?

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Hi everyone! I'm pretty new to the site but I've been lurking for a while. Have a question about oil pressure in a mildly modified 396(+.030) BBC. I'm reading about 80 PSI when starting cold and this goes up to ~90 when I hit the gas. After it warms up reads about 60 idling but goes back up to 80 under any load. My old Chilton says these engines should run around 30-60. Is my oil pressure too high and if so what should I do about it?

Thanks,

Chris

Originally posted by skids72
Hi everyone! I'm pretty new to the site but I've been lurking for a while. Have a question about oil pressure in a mildly modified 396(+.030) BBC. I'm reading about 80 PSI when starting cold and this goes up to ~90 when I hit the gas. After it warms up reads about 60 idling but goes back up to 80 under any load. My old Chilton says these engines should run around 30-60. Is my oil pressure too high and if so what should I do about it?

Thanks,

Chris

thats higher than I like it. the problem with that much pressure is the oil don't stay around long enough to lub. anything. you need a hi volumn pump, not a hi pressure one. that used to be the way we thought it should be.

Originally posted by skids72
Hi everyone! I'm pretty new to the site but I've been lurking for a while. Have a question about oil pressure in a mildly modified 396(+.030) BBC. I'm reading about 80 PSI when starting cold and this goes up to ~90 when I hit the gas. After it warms up reads about 60 idling but goes back up to 80 under any load. My old Chilton says these engines should run around 30-60. Is my oil pressure too high and if so what should I do about it?

Thanks,

Chris

What happens when you have to high an oil pressure is the small dirt particles that are not caught by the oil filter are pressed in to the soft bearing material.

Thanks, everyone. I had a feeling it was really high. Supposedly, the engine was newly rebuilt with ~500 miles on it before I purchased the car. I've put about another 750 on it myself. I'm running 10W30 synthetic (Mobil 1) as suggested by the salty old car emissions guy. Should I go with petroleum of say 5W30? Sounds like the pressure will come down after more miles?

The proper course of action would be to pull the engine and install a high volume pump? I'm not very well equipped here to do that myself but would you say it is worth the $$$ to have this done as opposed to hoping it will come down over time (I think I know the answer to this one). Are there other things that could be causing the high pressure than the pump itself?

Many thanks for all your insights,

Chris

Originally posted by skids72
Thanks, everyone. I had a feeling it was really high. Supposedly, the engine was newly rebuilt with ~500 miles on it before I purchased the car. I've put about another 750 on it myself. I'm running 10W30 synthetic (Mobil 1) as suggested by the salty old car emissions guy. Should I go with petroleum of say 5W30? Sounds like the pressure will come down after more miles?

The proper course of action would be to pull the engine and install a high volume pump? I'm not very well equipped here to do that myself but would you say it is worth the $$$ to have this done as opposed to hoping it will come down over time (I think I know the answer to this one). Are there other things that could be causing the high pressure than the pump itself?

Many thanks for all your insights,

Chris

I would never run synthetic oil with this new an engine.The rings will never (seat).One area that was overlooked was the gauge and the sending unit.I would try another gauge and sending unit before I would go dropping the oil pan.

Thanks, Erik...

I'll give that a try (real oil then another gauge) and let you all know what happens. This will probably be a few weeks out at least (recovering from a shoulder injury)

Originally posted by erik erikson
I would never run synthetic oil with this new an engine.The rings will never (seat).One area that was overlooked was the gauge and the sending unit.I would try another gauge and sending unit before I would go dropping the oil pan.

"I would never run synthetic oil with this new an engine.The rings will never (seat)."

wrong!!!you can do whatever you want skids72, but that statrment is not true. new cars come with it in them every day. the hi doller ones anyway. .

Synthetic Motor Oil can be used during break-in trouble free. In fact, vehicles such as Dodge Viper and Chevrolet Corvette come factory filled with synthetic oil.
Since most new vehicles come filled with petroleum oil, it only makes good sense to change to synthetic at the first scheduled oil change interval. New engine components generate high levels of wear metals and can contain contaminants from assembly. By allowing the engine to operate with the petroleum oil until the first oil/filter change interval, the wear metals and contaminants are removed prior to installing synthetic oil. If its not useing oil then the rings has seated. whether the rings are seated or not has nothing to do with the oil pressure.

Originally posted by lt1s10
"I would never run synthetic oil with this new an engine.The rings will never (seat)."

wrong!!!you can do whatever you want skids72, but that statrment is not true. new cars come with it in them every day. the hi doller ones anyway. .

It really depends on the ring material.If they are cast rings this might be o.k. but on a moly ring or a plasma moly,or any type plasma ceramic ring you will never get the rings to seat because the surface of the ring is very hard it will take some time to wear in.Also the synthetic motor oil is so slick it is more able to pass by the rings.If you want to run the synthetic oil use only a few qts.

Originally posted by lt1s10
Synthetic Motor Oil can be used during break-in trouble free. In fact, vehicles such as Dodge Viper and Chevrolet Corvette come factory filled with synthetic oil.
Since most new vehicles come filled with petroleum oil, it only makes good sense to change to synthetic at the first scheduled oil change interval. New engine components generate high levels of wear metals and can contain contaminants from assembly. By allowing the engine to operate with the petroleum oil until the first oil/filter change interval, the wear metals and contaminants are removed prior to installing synthetic oil. If its not useing oil then the rings has seated. whether the rings are seated or not has nothing to do with the oil pressure.

Yes,I know that the rings being seated has nothing to do with the oil pressure.Who said they did?

On this synthetic vs. petroleum controversy all I can add is that I haven't been burning any oil so I think the rings are seated. Regardless, I'll try a lower weight oil and see if it has any effect on the pressure.

Many thanks for all contributions

Originally posted by erik erikson
Yes,I know that the rings being seated has nothing to do with the oil pressure.Who said they did?

Originally posted by erik erikson
"I would never run synthetic oil with this new an engine.The rings will never (seat)."

you brought the ring thing into it. I was talking about oil pressure. his rings is seated and you have him changing oil because you say his rings wan't never seat with Synthetic oil in it. thats not true and I guess his car proves it.

Another thought.... what if I'm slightly overfilled? I used 5 qts last time I changed oil and filter (again, this should be right according to chilton) but I'm a little over the full mark on the stick. Would this push up the pressure?

thanks again,

Chris

Thanks, Denny

But supposing it is actually overfull, would that make for high pressure?

did you say if you were using a mechanial guage?