454 rebuild problem. 6 psi oil pressure.
 

Before I pull the motor back out to put another oil pump in I'm looking for some ideas. I went to break in my new rebuilt (by me) 454 yesterday and got only 6 psi oil pressure. It runs great with no noises, but as soon as I saw the oil pressure wasn't registering I shut it down. First thing I did was put a mechanical gauge on. Same thing. Next I pulled the dizzy and put a pump drive tool on and spun it with my electric drill for quite a while. Same thing. 6 psi max. I pulled the gauge adapters from the back of the block to verify there wasn't anything plugging them. Clear.
Even though I knew they were in, I went back through my pics and verified the gallery plugs are in. The only thing I modified was I drilled a small hole in one behind the timing chain for a little extra oil lubrication. I was thinking about pulling the remote oil filter off and putting a regular oil filter on to remove that from the equation.
Any other ideas?

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what were your bearing clearances?sound like they could be off.also,that drilled hole looks awfully big.

I have read of people putting the lines to the remote filter on backwards and having no to low oil pressure. Just a suggestion to check the lines.

Bearing clearances were in spec. Mic'd them. No plastigauge used. Crank only had to be polished and was oe. The plug I drilled the hole in should be ok. I did the same thing on the motor for my 69 and I have plenty of oil pressure. I like the idea of the reversed lines, but they really can only go on the remote adapter one way if I remember right. Two different fittings. I think it's possible on the cooler, but I think that's free flowing right?

This is the one in my 69. It's also an L29 block.

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did you braze or tig the pickup to the pump ?..........years back I had an engine installed and they did reverse the lines at the filter head, lifters rattled like crazy

Did the oil pressure relief valves get put back in ?

Against my better judgement I didn't braze the pick up. When I installed it I used the correct drive tool and it fit very/extremely tight. It wouldn't turn without some serious torque. I set the depth very carefully and installed the pan very carefully.
I'll move the oil filter from the remote housing to the block just to check the pressure and see if it makes a difference. I'll double check that I removed the center bypass and installed the other bypass at the same time. I remember doing it, but it'd be good to triple check.
I like the thoughts guys. I appreciate it. Please keep them coming.

I'm starting to think it might actually be a pinched remote filter line. It's a tight fit and hard to see down that side. When I still had the engine on the stand and spun the oil pump with the priming tool I got a big oily surprise where I didn't tighten one of the hoses on the filter adapter on the block. That tells me I had plenty of oil pressure at that time and nothing changed from then except me installing the FWC and installing the motor in the boat. I need to look closer before I start getting pissed at myself... I could see it getting pinched near the power steering pump/oil cooler.

Even with loose bearings etc you would get more than 6psi. It’s shocking how easy it is to reverse or kink the oil lines and that’s my best guess as well.

I agree completely. I'm far from perfect and could easily have reversed something. Right now all I can do is go over all my pictures I took while I was doing the build. A little later I'll be able to put my hands back on the motor.
All I had the time for was to spin the oil pump tool a little more. She's at 10 psi, but there's no way in hell I'm going to leave it like that. It should be at 60 or so. A little later I'll go through the hoses and if I don't see something I'll pull the remote filter adapter and go from there.

Oil press relieve valve/s?

Hole drilled thru galley plug looks a little big to me too. I drilled the same hole on my 383 Camaro eng. Don't remember the size but it was definitely smaller.

Are you talking about the oil bypass valves or are the relief valves something else you're talking about? The hole is a little bigger than I normally drill but I don't believe it's 6 psi oil pressure big.
I haven't been able to get back to it yet. It's in my yard on a trailer, but I wasn't able to get back to it last night. Later today hopefully I'm going to first reverse the remote oil lines and test it with my priming drill and if that doesn't work I'm going to try putting a filter directly to the block and eliminate the cooler and the remote filter lines. They're the original lines when I got the boat and the motor was a mess. I should have looked at them closer to confirm they were ok.

I didn't think about the hoses going to the oil cooler. Ive seen the inner lining on some of the hoses collapse on the inside but the outside looked good.

That's a good point. I was thinking they might just have crap oil plugging them, but you're right. They could have delaminated on the inside. This is what the oil pickup looked like when I tore the engine down. She was ugly... PO had no clue how to maintain a motor obviously. Oil change? What's that?

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You are using the old lines and cooler?
Did you clean them at least.

Yes. Using the old lines and cooler. The cooler was basically new so I just cleaned it. The PO did throw a bunch of new parts at it. Old lines are the unknown right now and could be the issue. I'm hopeful...

You spend thousands on a rebuild and not $300 on new cooler?
Was the engine blown or just tired?
Did you pressure test the cooler? If it has a leak between the oil and water internally you will have low oil pressure also.
You cannot clean all of the metal from the oil section of these coolers, if the engine was blown.
Good Luck I hope you find it and it is something simple.

It wasn't blown. Just neglected, tired and docked in high salinity salt water.
Well, that sucks. I pulled the remote filter adapter and threw a filter directly on the block. Same result. Must be internal. Lame.

Score! I just figured it out. I was studying the pictures of the last 454 I built and this one. There are three oil galley plugs in the valley I left out. Pain in the ass, but could have been a lot worse. I have to pull the intake. You can see them next to the spider bosses in this pic of my other motor.

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Great News.

Oh wow!!! That’s really bad. It’s a cheap fix vs pulling the engine again. Good luck. Hopefully it’s something simple.

I'm good to go now. It's just three pipe plugs in the valley I forgot to put in. Now to figure out how to drain off some antifreeze without making a mess and without getting it in the oil. If I had left this raw water cooled this would be a 1/2 hour project.

While you have it apart please weld or braze the pickup. I did this once this way too. Cost me an engine. Was tight as heck on stand with cold engine. Engine warmed up and it fell right out. Spun block bearings. Very expensive mistake!

I was referring to the press relief valve in the oil pump. I'm more of a car guy so wasn't sure if there might be another relief valve or not in a marine install. Glad to hear you found the issue.
When I drilled the galley plug, I was told by a much more experienced mech not to go too big. Just need a little more oil on the timing chain. I agree that hole alone wouldn't drop press that much, but it could definately contribute if there were other factors involved.

If you do wind-up brazing the pick-up on the oil pump, be sure to remove the oil press relief valve spring. Heat from brazing can significantly reduce the spring force leading to low oil press.

the truth is the hole in the front plug had nothing to do with oiling the chain, there is plenty of oil around it. it was done starting in the late '60's when hydraulic lifters came out. people complained about noise on startup as the air in the system would have to go all the way thru the lifter oil system and they would rattle for a minute if they had been sitting. the hole was added to bleed air out of the lifter oil bore so oil would get to the lifters faster.

I use an oil extractor (dedicated to antifreeze) to suck the coolant level way down before I remove the intake or heads, I keep the coolant in a 5 gallon bucket to reuse. My block drains are too hard to get to and catch anything is impossible

If your not reusing the antifreeze you can use a shop vac and crack open a block drain.

Thanks a lot for all the help/suggestions guys. Sometimes you just have to bounce some ideas off somebody. I was really starting to sweat this one. I didn't want to pull the motor back out and have to drop the pan. I pulled the intake last night and breathed a huge sigh of relief when I saw I did leave the three plugs out like I thought.
zz28zz - I've always been a car guy too so I get it. My machinist and good friend looked at the hole and confirmed for me that there was no way that was my problem.
compedgemarine - You're right, but I still do it to throw extra oil on the timing set. I'm sure it's a waste of time, but it doesn't hurt anything and anytime there's a little extra oil up top it's good thing.
sailtexas186548 - Great suggestion. Luckily I didn't have to drain much coolant. I hadn't finished filling the system yet. I just ended up draining it out the block drains. I caught it coming out the drain plug. I knew I wanted to clean the bilge one last time when I'm done so I didn't worry about it after all.
Here's a couple pics of the missing plugs and after I installed them.

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Ahhhh.... She's running great with perfect oil pressure. Thanks again for all the help gents. It's running a little hot, but I think it's because I still have the timing advanced. I'll put it to the 8 degrees base timing later today. It was fun, but I wedged myself back in and re-installed the remote oil filter before I changed the oil.

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Good to hear! Thanks for keeping us up to date;)

Thanks. I hate it when I see people spending time answering and helping and never hear the outcome...