How much is too much oil pressure?

I did the sbc pump spring stretch once.........once. Blew the oil filter seal out MANY times when cold cranking. peace

 

Oh yea, trust me, he knows something.

 

I'll throw some chips on the table !! As you can this has turned into a mine has or a I run type of post !!! Just remember this If your going to heave the heavy weight oil in the cold weather you better be using a damn good quality oil filter !! You pump molasses through a silk screen you are going to do more damage than you can believe and you never would want to depend upon the weight of the oil to control your oil pressure >>>>.

 

x2 in everything I own

 

If the engine is a fresh rebuild the oil pressure will be a little higher for a while and with a HV oil pump that is about right from what you are saying .
Like other have said , unless you have gaskets and oil blowing out all over the place , Don't Worry !

Retro Jim

 

As somebody mentioned above, the weak link is the oil filter. I have a Mack truck that runs around 100 PSI on a cold winter morning and it will seep past the filter gaskets. I always wondered if it might actually blow a filter up one of these days.

 

The tighter the bearings, the thinner the oil. I run 10-30 in all my cars and have about 20-25 at idle and 45ish on the freeway except at higher rpms, it will gto to 60 psi. As was said 10 lbs for every 1000 RPM is about right. If you run too thick, on cold mornings you can bust the oil pump drive shaft depending on what engine.

 

SBC's have a good oiling system and can support 500 hp on 55 psi at 6500 rpm.15-20 psi at idle is fine.Some other popular engines may or may not need higher oil pressure.Higher oil pressure than necessary just heats the oil ,uses HP and can cause cam or distributor gear wear.

 

One problem with high pressure is increased oil consumption. More oil squirting out the bearings causes more oil fog in the crankcase, overloading rings and valve seals.

 

This is a crankcase pressure problem, not an oil pressure problem. Your crankcase isn't vented properly if you're pushing gaskets out.

 

That's me.

 

I had one of these polished 'art-deco' PCV valves on a new SBC build, took it for a 10 mile ride and blew oil out of the front and rear valley gaskets (RTV) and the distributor gasket...........there was oil everywhere.

I think the PCV valve guts were too small for a SBC, more like for a Toyota. Replaced it with AC/Delco, redid the valleys and it was fine after that.

 

oil pressure I prefer is 1/100 max RPM of for an engine peaking at 6500RPm 65 lbs. However someday and probably soon we will have constant speed oil pumps (ie Electric) and many of our current battles with oiling will disappear. Save this so you can remember I told so you way back when.
Don

 

When's the last time you rechecked that?
Oil changes constantly. Rotella isn't the cat's miauw anymore like it once might've been.

You like to have your oil nice and foamy?

 

THis is a link to a good article on Engine lubrication. Anyone that is remotely interested should read this.

http://www.zddplus.com/TechBrief11%20-%20Internal%20Combustion%20Engine%20Lubrication.pdf

 

I have pulled the tappet covers (to set the valves) a few times when its warmed up and never noticed any foam.Not sure whats going on in the pan though as i havent pulled it off hot to look at the oil .I have noticed that the heads and rockers look like they were just installed and spotless clean.I also cut the Wix filter open every time i change the oil to inspect and have seen no metal particals ever.The motor has 120 hard passes on it and its going faster all the time ,plus the oil pressure and starting compression in the cylinders is the same across the board as it was when it had 70 passes on it.Tells me that the oil is doing its job pretty well ...

 

SBC crate 350 50# at cruise with 15/30 Mobile 1.

 

You're right I should have said volume..duh, pressure goes up and volume goes down and vise versa.

 

i run a small block chevy ,have 60psi at start up,runs no less than 30 when hot(200)driving around 40 I use 20/50 oil in the summer and 10/40 winter.Works for me.

 

On the BobIsTheOilGuy website there always was an article which showed that Lucas Oil treatment caused oil to areate more easily then without the Lucas supplement. It was shown in a transparent box with rotating gears.

I just noticed bob has redesigned his website and now I can't locate the article anymore. Maybe it's still there somewhere.

 

A guy I know builds motors costing 35-40k, he said 10 pounds of oil pressure per 1000 rpm. any less is not good and any more is a waste.