paulkairis

i just popped the pan off my 502 (650hp) cuz my oil pres. drops to about 0 on idle when up to temp. cold it runs about 25# idle 40# high end. the last guy ran a 1050 dominator that was always fat not to mention the gaskets being gone and always diluting the oil, so i figured just drop in a new set of rods and mains and it'll be good right??? well all the bearings are showing very little wear, nothing more than the usual marks in the middle and a couple of hair lines like you always see. (note most engines i bust open are over 100k on the clock) but the only thing i see is some blueing on the R main. just around the middle over to the radius and not thru to the back side. ( note all mains are stamped with .001 from the factory ?? ) so do i start mic'n stuff i can't believe this builder would mess that up. he's got what looks like weeks of grinding and balancing going on in there. top of the line every thing. callies crank, arp, roller cam, solid lifters,billet rockers, gill pan ,pickup, 4 into 4 headers. Hmmmm oil pump??

kevinr

check the clearance on the mains , shoot for .0025 - .003

BillK

Paul,
Take the cover off the pump and see if the relief valve is stuck open. That would be the first thing I would do. If you dont see anything obvious, once you get it back together, but before you put the pan on, put a distributor in to seal the oil passages, then try blowing some air into the oil pressure sending hole in the block and see if you can tell if there is any real big leaks. I have gone as far as suspending the pan down a few inches on all thread and filling it up to the top with oil and running the pump with a preoiler. I found a rear cam bearing that had not been installed all the way using this method.

By the way, ther really should not be any "blue" ! The color blue means that something has been too hot for some reason.

Bill Koustenis
Advanced Automotive Machine
Waldorf Md

Ted G

iTrader: (1)

I suspect cam brgs wiped out, you can lose a lot of oil pressure to the gauge if they are loose.

paulkairis

maybe thats why all the noise in the valve train i did look at the wear pattern on the lobes and it looked good but didn't look any closer. good idea keep the good stuff coming, if i go thru all this and put it back in with no improvement I'LL blow my own head gasket !!!

kevinr

If any brg including cam brgs have wiped it shoud show up in the oil filter, try cutting it open , that will settle that question. Rarely have seen a BB oilpump fail and have worked on hundreds ,but it has happened . pin came out of bypass. Being a WD for Callies,have seen alot of thier jurnals on the small side of the specs.combine that with large align bore = large clearance............... Also with inspection, the crank jurnal should never touch the bearing that equals metal to metal. the foreign material or (scratches)is usual from the oil filter bypass wich is lower than the pressure the oil pump is making and trash bypasses the filter and heads staight to the main brgs....

paulkairis

i've run this thing like this for two years and with many oil changes to flush out the gas any stuff in the filter would be long gone?? the builder scribed this on the oil pick up. ( b/b TRW50058 gil 910610 ) and with a gil 10 qrt pan. the pump had 42-53 cast into it, no other #'s i'm praying that i find something stuck open in the pump, although i have to admitt i don't know what i'm looking at in there when i do open it?? seeing the polished journals i hope your right on the clearances but i'm assumeing that the .001 on the mains means that he already allowed for the extra room!!??

paulkairis

o.k. guys here's what i found so far. it looks like maybe bill called it. i took the lid off the oil pump tp check the relief and before disassembly took my air hose at 45psi and blew into the pressure side and what i noticed was what i thought was a lot of air passing thru now after taking out the plunger and spring and cleaning it ,the air flow seems to be less ,and yet i can activate the bypass by uping the psi towards75-80 and yet some air still does sneak thru at 45psi i'm 95% sure it is somewhat less. you know how it is now i wish i could go back in time and see again how much was slipping thru before i cleaned it!!!! but i remember clearly thinking that there was alot of air getting thru and it made me think is this a relief or just a bypass that always flows this much??? one other thing maybe i didn't mention earlier is that my oil temp also ran high and that was another main concern for pulling the engine, would oil bypassing like this raise my temp at all???

Mr Gadgets

Paul,
I had a problem like this after an expert assembled my rotating assy. I finally found the mains were .010" under on the crank and they never mic'd it. I got a new crank out of the deal, but not thru my engine builder.. straight from Callies!! They worked with me on it and I was totally happy with the end result.
I found it by pulling the pan and using a coffee can of oil on the pump pick up and then priming the motor with a home made dist oil prime stick. Very similar to what Billk said. I had a drip pan below the engine to catch the oil.
I could see the oil pouring out of the mains.. so thats were I looked first. Found .013" bearing clearance. Of course I believed the engine builder when he said they mic'd everything and it wasnt their fault. When we did find it, it was Callies fault, not his for NOT checking the new crank.. Gotta love an engine builder with an imagination when it comes to responsiblity..

Good luck with it!

paulkairis

Thanks for the tip, i'm going to get the mic's today. i see .001 stamped on the mains though so i'm assumeing that the builder miced every thing and ordered these special. but you know what happens when you ass-u -me any thing right!!?? also thought i'd try the plastic gauge strips as a second opinion how does every body feel about those, are they still a joke, i thought they would show if something was way out and maybe back up what i'm seeing with the mic?? also these journals look polished so there goes some more material and size right?? am i an idiot for reuseing this oil pump now, it realy has no hours on it and looks like new inside??