did ya cut open the filter?

X2

Not yet. I changed it at lunch. But I will when I get home.

If you had bad lobes/lifters... you were putting metal in the pan. I had one lobe/lifter go on my 575 with roughly 30 mins of run time trying to diagnose the issue. Once I tore it down, I ripped it down to the bare crank. Once it was down, I could see where the metal was killing the bearings. IMO, your builder should have tore it down especially once he found the cam was loosing material. Again, just my 2 cents...

After reading your posts a bit more... do you know what oil he used in the motor? It almost sounds like a full synthetic or maybe a light weight oil? I dunno... cut the filter and take a peak. Hope for the best!!!

If a cam goes down I would do a complete teardown. Your mains are most likely worn from all the metal shavings. When you change the cam and lifters on a flat tappet you should change the oil right after breaking in.

Ok hear me out on this one I have seen this before.

engine builder gets the cam bearing in cocked, wears the bearing and the cam has excessive clearance. now it can walk up and down wearing the bushing in the dist and also wearing the gears on the cam, Lobes start to go as well the excessive clearance lowers oil pressure and you are where you are now.

You change the cam and lifters and have the same problem bcause the cause is the cam bearings the effect is the cam going bad.


Also is it a roller or flat tappet cam. If its a flat tappet you need to run ZDDP or an additive like that in your oil or you will keep killing the cam and it wasnt the bearings at all but probably is now.

I am not all that familiar with the Gen 5 502 I mostly run turbocharged pontiacs,

what weight oil are you using? 20 psi at idle cold is a little low but 20 psi hot is plenty fine. I think 20-50 is what you should run. I have been using Valvoline racing oil lately because you can find it anywhere and I am pretty happy with it.

there is only a couple thing that cause low oil pressure. excessive clearence. plugged up oil passages. Motor should have bein ran on joe gibbs or some kind of break in oil for the cam and ran at 2000 rpms for twenty minutes then oil dumped. along with filter. sorry to say that motor needs to come apart and inspected and replaced ans needed.

Ok I'm running vr-1 20-50. I don't think they dumped the oil after break in. What sould the oil pressure be? Does my oil pan have a magnet in it to catch metal?

Your plug should have a magnet on it but small. It wont be enough. Mine was not. You shoudl be running min 35psi with the 20w50. I run 40psi all day at idle. I run good clearance too. Sorry to say but you need to pull that motor. Your builder should have pulled it and done a better job. I think you a looking bearings for sure. If you pumped metal through, change that oil pump as well. I had to on mine. It was knarly.