oil pressure issues?

[mad2smile]

i ordered bearings because it takes a day to get them. believe me, im a very meticulous person. i would never half-ass checking everything out, especially given the amount of work required to pull the engine back out and replace all the bearings.

i finished installing my mechanical gauge a little while ago. gonna wait to fire it back up until tomorrow when its light out. also have a tach now, but havent installed that yet. will do that tomorrow as well.

also, pertaining to clacking... honestly, its kindof hard to tell, because i only have the y-pipe on the truck. i bought 8' of galvanized tubing today as well. exhaust will be completed before starting it again as well.

[mad2smile]

You need to stick with one or the other. Conventional oil or synthetic! The seals on FE don't really like synthetic oil to well. They where never made for it. Also before you pull your engine, get a real reading on your oil pressure! Dont trust a dash guage at all. Also you cant order bearings for your engine until you look to see if your crank is undersized or not. JMHO

all the seals except for the camshaft seal and the valve stem seals are new.

[FORD428CJ]

You need to stick with one or the other. Conventional oil or synthetic! The seals on FE don't really like synthetic oil to well. They where never made for it. Also before you pull your engine, get a real reading on your oil pressure! Dont trust a dash guage at all. Also you cant order bearings for your engine until you look to see if your crank is undersized or not. JMHO

all the seals except for the camshaft seal and the valve stem seals are new.

Doesn't matter. They still use old style gaskets on FE's. Newer engines have much better gaskets that are meant for Synthetic oils. They will never update the FE's because it isn't cost effective!

Also How do you know what sizes bearings you need??? Have you rolled the ones out of the crank before to see? I wouldn't order any until I know what I need for sure. You never mentioned that to us! JMHO

I agree with averagef250. Something doesnt add up....

[mad2smile]

im not sure what size they are. maybe its stupid of me to assume that the crank has never been turned. i dont know. but i ordered them through Advance Auto, so if i DO need them, theyll be there tomorrow, and if i DONT need them, i'll return them.

if i do need new bearings, but the ones i ordered are the wrong size, i guess i'll have wasted a day. i'll return them and have to wait for the correct ones to show up. i own a couple of businesses, and have already had too much downtime because of this engine project. i ordered them trying to prevent any more wasted time. its a gamble, i know, but it doesnt cost me any extra money if im wrong.

thanks for the tip about the oil. there was no warning or anything like that on the packaging for the new seals, but i had heard that most of the time, the seals are updated for older stuff. its good to know that FE seals are not. i'll switch to conventional oil.

[BobbyFord]

FWIW, synthetics do not contain ZDDP or zinc, something that our old flat-tappet engines need in order to minimize cam/lifter wear. Valvoline VR1 Racing oil contains a lot of zinc...

[mad2smile]

FWIW, synthetics do not contain ZDDP or zinc, something that our old flat-tappet engines need in order to minimize cam/lifter wear. Valvoline ZR1 Racing oil contains a lot of zinc...

good to know. would that be a really good oil for me to use? my truck is a work truck. its well maintained, but it gets worked really hard. thats why i wanted to run fully or partially synthetic, but i guess since i have to run conventional oil, im looking for a really good one. if there's one thing ive learned in my years of owning and working on cars, its that all oils are NOT created equal.

[BobbyFord]

It's all I run in my trucks.

[mad2smile]

cool. i'll buy some.

[Lar4t9r]

FWIW, synthetics do not contain ZDDP or zinc, something that our old flat-tappet engines need in order to minimize cam/lifter wear. Valvoline ZR1 Racing oil contains a lot of zinc...

I read somewhere that ZDDP oil is getting hard to find, have to find old stock, as I recall, 'cause they are not adding it anymore. is that your understanding?.

[BobbyFord]

No, it's available in the Valvoline VR1 Racing oil. In fact, they're now advertising "with ZDDP for flat-tappet engines" on the front of the bottle...
I just learned somehing new, Valvoline has zinc in their SynPower oil...

http://www.valvoline.com/downloads/2008-003a.pdf


Here is a good article on zinc oil additive. It's been around for a while..

http://www.ttalk.info/Zddp.htm

[mad2smile]

hmm... SynPower sounds tempting. I may run that at least in for the first 1000 miles or so to try to make sure the engine is perfectly clean. what do you think?

[DuckRyder]

I agree that a true pressure reading is in order before much more discussion.

Also, when the pressure is "low" you might try looking in the oil fill on the valve cover and seeing if the covers are filling up.

If it is "low" then it might take more than main and rod bearings (coughcambearingscough).

[Lar4t9r]

No, it's available in the Valvoline VR1 Racing oil. In fact, they're now advertising "with ZDDP for flat-tappet engines" on the front of the bottle...
I just learned somehing new, Valvoline has zinc in their SynPower oil...

http://www.valvoline.com/downloads/2008-003a.pdf


Here is a good article on zinc oil additive. It's been around for a while..

http://www.ttalk.info/Zddp.htm

Bobbyford:
Thanks for the links...interesting reading. I stand corrected!

[mouse]

I had about the same problem on my 360. my gauge would read 1/4 when first started it then drop off, now it don't read but it run smooth quiet so. before I replace the timing chain I took a reading and 50psi was where it was at, I used my compression gauge that has a coupler like for a air hose that I got from advanced

[mad2smile]

drove the truck for the first time today. heres the deal:

60-65psi at startup

40psi at normal operating temperature while driving at 3,000rpm

10psi at normal operating temperature in gear while stopped (cant remember rpm, but probably around 600-700)


is that unreasonable? truck has 20W50 Vr1 oil in it.