George, It depends, Are we racing this one :laugh: , or granny footin it? :boring: With any big block Buick, 11-12 psi/1000 RPM is what you want, especially if you are gonna let Ronny drive it :3gears: Like the shark said, normal oil pressure, as defined in the 70 Chassis manual, is 40 psi @ 2400 RPM. That's adequate for granny footin it :laugh:
Funny this topic should come up...I just put on a new T/A timing cover assembly (with oil pump) on my 70 455. Upon startup, my oil pressure was 70+ lbs at about 1400 RPM. I revved it to 2000 and it went to 80. Thats with 10W-30 Quaker State. Now in my book thats waaaay too much. When it got up to operating temp and the oil thinned out, it only dropped to 50lbs at an idle. I called Jan at T/A and he said this is the preferred oil pressure for a 455 uzzled: I just think that was too much. I wound up taking the white 60 lb relief spring and cutting almost two coils off it to tone down the pressure a bit. Now, with the coils removed, at a hot idle in neutral my Autometer guage reads about 30 lbs. At around 3000 RPM Im getting about 50 lbs. At 4000 and above it hits 60 lbs. Jan said it was the first time someone complained about oil pressure being too high :grin: . Now the 71 only gets about 15 lbs at a hot idle which I think is normal for a Buick engine. It climbs up normally till it reaches 60 lbs at around 4000 and stays there. I dont think a street/ strip 455 needs any more than 60 psi max at high RPM. As a side note, the "H" on my factory guage corrolated with the 60 psi reading on my mechanical guage
