oil pumps (not efi)

[peter paul fenske]

Hi All

Having had some fun building Chev motors about the only thing I've
done to a stock chev(or mellings whatever replacement)is add a 
Z28 relief spring(colored white) which costs about 2$ at a chev dealer.
This brings the cold pressure up to about 65 PSI but does not
really affect hot idle. But you do have more pressure at higher revs.
This works well if you keep clearances to about 2 thou on the rods
and mains.

Like my biker pals who keep clearances around 3 to 4 (rebuild??????) 
a high volume pump is a necessity to even see the oil pressure guage
move at hot idle. Especially if you want to rejuvinate a 100 thou mile
clunker. Thats where high volume pumps are used in a chev.

As for ford they are a different animal. I have yet to see a chev 
fail for lack of oiling. But I've seen quite a few 5.0s fail admititly
they were rather punished.

Buicks for instance need very high pressures. I would think motors with
large oil passage restrictions need high pressure. However leaky engines
with huge clearances need much more volume.

To wit I've not seen anyone high problems with increasing the oil flow by
20% since most engines in use are not that tight to float the bearings.

Also for the ford I believe you can get a replacement transducer to fix
the idiot lite guage. The impala SS crowd has a similiar dilema.

Later and GL: peter