Thank you first, for the oil pan gasket advice. Over the winter, I'm going to clean out the oil pan and pickup, but I also have quite a leak originating at the front cover somewhere. I've been driving this car without so much as pulling a valve cover for 11 years and over 30,000 miles, so I'm no SBB expert. Therefore, what should I do to the oil pump when I take the timing cover off to check/replace the timing chain? Right now, the lowest the hot idle oil pressure EVER goes (on a hot day after a long freeway drive) is 15 psi. It's usually 20 or so. Cruising down the road, I'm looking at 30-35 psi (with 2.79 gears, so a pretty low cruising RPM). It looks like I can get most of the oil pump parts from the local parts store (with Melling numbers). This engine has always been rock solid, so I want to do as little as possible. Theoretically, the oil filter might be draining back (It's a Purolator, but it's due for a change...I change the filter every two years and the oil once a year), causing my no oil pressure for 5 seconds on cold start problems, but I want to make sure I don't have an old nylon timing chain and I want to make sure the oil pan's clean anyway. Thanks again for the help.
First thing, as long as your pulling the pan, upgrade the oil pick up tube to the 5/8ths tube, it makes the stock tube look like a straw compared to a fire hose:TU: Second thing, you have decent hot idle pressure, which is awesome! So, knowing that, inspect the pump cavity for scoring, and the gears, if they look good, re-use the gears. Get a booster plate and a shim kit from TA Performance, AND the 5/8ths pick-up tube. Set the gear end clearance to no more than .002 using the shims. Make sure to pack the pump cavity with Vaseline and prime the pump with a drill before you start the engine after re-installing the cover. You may also want to consider an adjustable oil pressure regulator from TA also. The regulator wont alter your idle pressure, but it will allow you to adjust your maximum oil pressure. As far as oil filters, use anything except FRAM!! The anti-drainback valve Im not convinced its really important on our engines. The filter is mounted essentially to the oil pump, so if the filter drains, it drains into the pump, which is good, it keeps the pump primed:TU: As far as it taking a few seconds to build pressure, that has more to do with how efficient the pump is, and the weight oil your using, and your bearing clearances, but knowing you have good hot idle pressure, it sounds like your bearing clearances are fine. So..... re-build the pump with the above stuff and set the clearances to .002 and Im sure you'll notice a difference:TU:
