will do. hopefully we get no rain tonight and i can get out there tomorrow morning thats why i live in california!!! its currently 50* out at 8:30pm and its mostly cloudy :bla:
Id probably do what dacat said but if you got plenty of blue sky, warm air n beer good luck tearing into that cover
i agree about the 20-50. the only reason you should use 20-50 in any engine is if its knocking real bad. thats all i have to say about that:TU:
I hate to sound like a hypocrite, but for my next oil change I will be running Mobil 1 15w-50 Synthetic. I've been fighting low MAX oil pressure, and I've already blue-printed and upgraded my oil pump. I do think this is less harsh than 20w-50 mineral oil.:idea2: Good luck on your oil pump work. Some advice: pull that distributor. I know, I know it sucks, but you need to use an oil pump priming tool to make your your gears are not binding up and rotate smoothly before trying to run the engine. Whenever you adjust the gear end clearance, this is mandatory. A priming tool making priming super easy too.:beers2:
distributors dont scare me!!!! i have to reset timing anyhow so its not as though im messing anything up. i also have a priming tool i made by cutting the hanlde off and old screwdriver and it works nicely. i prefer to prime motors that have sat for a while. i only wish a had a garage right now not like it matters much. ive got my rambler in the way anyhow...come on morning!!!
Good deal! I hate pulling distributors, haha. It's because of setting the timing and getting the oil pump engaged. Takes time.:rant:
Never let your drill fall off your car with the the priming tool in. :laugh: It won't work well after that. Been there, done that.:spank:
pack the gears with vasaline on final assembly so when you prime the oil pump, you wont run the gears dry:beer
An oil pump rebuild kit and a booster plate will help {you can get them at most parts stores (gears, springs, bolts, gaskets, & plate), same for 3.8 Buicks up into the later 80's, fairly cheap, can be done on the car, use vaseline to hold it all togther while you put the bolts back in}. Some oil pressure can be lost at the cam bearings, causing the lifters & rockers to make a little noise, your '69 oils through the block, not the lifters & pushrods. The old general rule for oil pressure was 10 psi per 1000 RPM. Try 10W40 or heavier oil. Try using different brands of oil filters, AC Delco, Fram, Wix, house...pretty cheap, your oil system might work better with a different brand. Try running an extra quart of oil, just try it, might have the wrong dipstick in you car.
problem was fixed today!!! woke up this morning and went outside, beautiful sunny day and warm out too! so im getting all my tools together and my buddy rolls up in his 38 chevy. we are talking and i explain my problem to him. he asks all the same questions i already asked myself....he asks what the mileage is on the motor...dunno i say. he asks what weight the oil is....10-30 i say. then he gives me a puzzled look. he asks if id thought of running heavier oil...i say i did think of it but it shouldnt make that much of a difference. he laughed and bet me $20 that if i went with a heavier oil it would solve my problem. with a marty mcfly moment i said hes on and we went to the store and got some cheap 20-50 and a new stp filter. well i tossed it in and got ready to take my $20 and get back to the REAL issue at hand and just as i fired it up the noises stopped and i have 15-20psi at idle!!! ive been driving it all over today and it hasnt once dropped below 10psi!!!! now i wouldnt really call this a miracle fix all and i still want to rebuild the oil pump but im so frikkin stoked that its working right now i can hardly contain myself....only problem is i owe this old fugger lunch haha :dollar:
ive stretched the spring a tad and it helped but isnt enough. i suppose i could stretch it some more. better is to put some washers under the spring to shim it up. you can get as much pressure as you want. That's just a bandaid to the problem. true. OTOH, if he's not interested in doing a full on rebuild right now and the engine seems to be functioning fine this will work. if i were him i'd be keeping an eye out for metal at the next oil change or two. o No: Do NOT put 20w-50 in that motor. you are really dead set against 'thick' oil, aren't you? i dunno, my old man and i have been running 15w-40 Rotella and 20w-50 in race engines for over 30 years. and these aren't light duty drag strip motors, these are full season + before tear down circle track cars. we use it in our street cars as well, even these new fangled things that only want 5w-30 or what have you.
All oil is just a Band-Aid, if it werent engines would never wear out. It just helps prevent the enviable metal-to-metal wear. Hmmm and me thinks thicker oil does it better
A full rebuild is definitely overkill. After he puts all the good stuff in his oil pump, and get the right spring tension it should make great pressure. :laugh: I am dead set against thick oil in this circumstance. The oil pump needs to be gone through first. Also I am a little scared of the 20w being nasty to the distributor gears on cold startups. In my case, like I said before, I will be using Mobil 1 Synthetic 15w-50 for my next oil change. I have completely gone through my oil pump. New timing cover, thrust plate, adjustable regulator, hand filed the gasket surface (along with the TA shim kit) to get it PERFECT. With 10w-40 it yields 12 psi at idle and 45-50 MAX. This is a 156k mile motor. I've looked at the bearings and they look good but I believe the clearances have gotten a bit bigger over the 38 year life on the short block. Am I going to tear it down any time soon? Hell No! It's still got a job to do. :laugh:
Time to read up on friction. If you can do the job with thinner oil, you'll get more power to the ground. But then that might make you nervous! Heaven forbid. You probably don't want to hear about folks draining a quart from a stock pan before a day of drag racing, either...that might make your blood curdle. Why don't you run gear lube in your 350 if thicker is better? Devon
Step back from that ledge...... I fear no start up wear and will give up a bit of power for peace of mind.
I think Devon knows what he's talking about, you have no argument besides your feel or peace of mind. Means nothing.
To you maybe, 20-50 has done me well all these years and you two Yahoos aren't gonna change my mind no matter how much you try and run me down for my choice. Use your peer pressure on something else, like going to a 455 like Smarty just built. If I was going to change id do what Dave tells me and run straight 30weight oil but I dont use that in anything but my Firebirds T5. Over GM recommended ATF or 80/90 which is to thick.
