hot oil pressure
 

would you be comfortable with 14 psi hot oil pressure at 800 in gear idle?

mechanical or electric gauge? the 454 in my jet boat idled at around 700 and had maybe 20 psi and it lived thru hell with me in that boat. 14, if actual is still a little low. what oil, filter etc and is this something new or has it always been low?

checked with both. new builds by a very good shop. 20w 50 valvoline vr1. hardin thermostatic oil filter mount and 3 x 20 cooler. -12 an lines, wix filter, cant remember number but it holds over a quart. canton pans, melling pumps

How is the pressure at higher rpms?? You have good sized oil lines so its still flowing a lot of oil.

I prefer to see more, but a lot depends on build, clearance and pump springs, what you see at 4000? WOT?

Really depends on what oil pump. Anti Cav pumps are low at low RPM's

its about 70 at 5700 rpm. it will bump up to 20 plus at 1100 rpms. when the oil temp is only 140 the pressure is about 20-25 at 800 rpm idle.

I would say that if you have some hours on the engines and the pressures have remained steady that they are fine.

they are 557 bbc's based off bulldog 500's. they have about 25 hours on them. 650 hp on dyno. runs 93 on the gps. engines run great but that needle down on the gauge scares me.both engines read exactly the same.

It bumps right up and you are good at RPM, Your large oil lines and T-Stats all contribute, I ran a build that was almost exact for 6 years and my builder said it was normal.

That's fine then, just gets warm, if you had 45-50 WOT then I would say worry, run it!

builder thinks that the lifters and the valve spring oilers are bleeding off some oil and lowering the pump volume at low rpm's. since they are already hv pumps do the new billet melling pumps provide any more volume?

I know I ran the melling select pumps, I opened lifter bores to .0022 and also opened lifters to increase more oil to rockers, guys said I would lose a lot of pressure, I did not, also have big clearancing.. ran 80 PSI, anything over 1500, was 3-40 idle

my lifter bores are bushed, lifters have oiling to the cam,if i remember correctly? keith eickert valve spring oiling.https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...403895c820.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...5f7c6a16e4.jpg

Spring oilers will eat about 10psi. I put check valves inline... I adjusted them to close anything below 35psi (no need to push oil up there at idle)
Anything below 40psi they are really just dribbling not really spraying anything .


https://www.hylokusa.com/catalog/one...e-check-valves

great! looking for something to restrict flow at idle. mine are plugged right now, didnt seem to make any difference in oil pressure though.

and thats the question i'm trying to answer. pull them but do what?. is there anything i can do to bump up the pressure? they run great, idle like stock, and throttle response is unbelievable. is there really anything wrong? i'm taking it from the posts here that there isnt. these engines are a result of 7 years of planning and saving money to build. they are pure overkill from a build standpoint. every part on these things are capable of handling much more hp than they are being asked to now.

Some good info https://www.melling.com/aftermarket-...u-k/technical/

2 things, the #12 lines are large(not bad) and the valve spring coolers both lower the pressure, I know a lot of stock BB mercs go scary low at idle but live fine. I would try Penn Grade strait 50 oil and see what that does, other than that I think you will be fine with pressure you are saying at high RPM...

Remove oil filter, cut open and inspect. A lot of material that should not be in there then pull engine. No suspect material... boat on and don't worry.
Pressure is the inverse to flow. More pressure is less flow.

nothing in the filters. is it oil flow or pressure that keeps the bearing from contacting the journal? i thought it was pressure.

btw ,thanks for the heads up on those oil check valves. ordered some, looks like that will cut off flow when the oilers are not needed.

i guess pretty well, didnt try any other intakes. made 650hp at 5600 and a good flat torque curve. they run great and have unbelievable midrange. they are very tall though, i have tall decks , quickfuel 1050's , 3" tall air filters , and a raised 2" hatch. and i still had to clearance the underside of my hatch. be aware of this.