Flushed the cooler and lines with mineral spirits... Others may not agree but I would never reuse oil coolers or oil lines once I metal has been introduced. May have nothing to do with your pressure but probably does have to do with you finding metal this last time. And yes I too learned this the hard way.

Chris

I just got off the phone with Melling.. He feels it's likely the pickup is too close to the bottom of the pan or crappy design of the Summit Racing one..

.. Their pickup is $11... be nuts if that's all it takes.. Guess I'm pulling an engine.. again... gettin' good at it.. can have it a couple hours.. ;)

Have a feeling my metal is coming from the distributor gear.. had noticeable wear on the gear for only 20 hrs...
My distributor is a bit short. Cam is meshing on the lower half of the gear..
I FINALLY found a slip collar distributor that will work with my EFI....

Is your cam walking?

No.. It's a step nose with a retainer plate.

Did you check thrust?

that amount of metal you found does not sound good, if engine had issues before(killed bearing) and whoever did the engine did not get the oil passages cleaned properly it will kill new bearing quickly(found out the hard way on a boat I bought with fresh rebuilt engine), so if you are pulling pan ck bearing #1&2 rods take it hard 1st along with rear main it seems

Yes.. I ground the retainer so the rollmaster sprocket would fit... :).

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...pswgqofqyo.jpg

Are you using a Gen 6 double roller timing chain? If so you must clearance the front of the block as the chain riding on the outside of the cam sprocket will rub on the block directly behind the sprocket on the right hand side. Ask me how I know this haha. That ends up being a really good cause of fine metal in the oil.

It's a Dart Mark iv block... I'll double check it tho '. ;)

Yep same issue I had, after I fixed mine I recently heard there is 2 different retainers for gen6, one will clear other will not

Wonder how many guys don't check thrust or spin cam with just cam sprocket to make sure all is well...??

So, Just a refresher..I've run it a bit and the oil pressure is really consistent regardless of filter or oil used..
65 psi at 4000 RPM. 50 psi at 5500 RPM. then back up to 65 psi once I drop the RPM's back to 4000 RPM


FINALLY got the engine out of the boat and pulled the pan.
Measured the oil pump pickup. looks like 1/2" on one side and 1/4" on the other.. so, while not ideal, not the worst...

HOWEVER, looking at the screen they used on the Summit pickup, looks like I may have found the problem...

Pictured next to a stock pickup...

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...psjo7f8unp.jpg


http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...ps5f8ttu5c.jpg

http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p...psha6elqnu.jpg

I did not read the whole thread. I had what I would say is a very close story to yours. It was the check valve/bypass in the filter pad in block that was stuck halfway open. Had 75 psi cold start. Hot running of 65, then on roll back to idle speed,i t would drop to 20 and slowly come back up to 60 hot. My other motor was fine, so before I found it, I knew the oil was OK. So the end result was that since it was partly open, it bypassed the filter and cooler. $ 15.00 valve replaced and good to go. See if you have on pressed into the block.

Thanks for the idea Smitty, but It's a Mark IV Dart block.. doesn't relief valves in the block. They would normally be in the filter adapter on a Mark IV block, however, I'm running the Hardin Marine "extreme" block adapter, and it doesn't have a bypass or relief of any sort. Only bypass I have is what ever is in the oil filter itself and the relief in the oil pump..

I'm no engine builder, so what am I looking at in these pics?

That is the oil pump pickup screen.. The square one is the Summit Racing brand installed on my engine. The round one is off a stock engine...

I'm a bit skeptical that would be your problem. There are still far more holes than the area of the 3/4 inch pickup tube it's feeding. I guess it's possible the size of the holes could be restrictive, but there are over 1000 of them! I notice there is a broken out piece on the far left of the pickup. Wonder where that piece of wire ended up? I was just looking at the pickup that came with a Hardin 502 pan I have. The holes in the screen are more like the original in size, but the pickup is only 2" in diameter. What are the dimensions on that pickup? Also, if that were the cause you would expect a lighter weight or hotter oil to improve the oil pressure since it would flow much easier.