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what is involved in having the regulator spring changed out? I am now seeing way too low oil pressure and was noticing ticking when the car finally warmed up on a long drive. I have heard lifter tick in the past and when I first got the car it burned a little oil but I think maybe it just sat a while. Haven’t seen oil burn in a long time since I drive it pretty regular. Guessing maybe I need to do valve stem weals but I wouldn’t think that would cause low oil pressure?
looking at your short history
WAG, something is causing the bypass valve to stick
seems it Was stuck making too much psi
now it seems it's hanging up the other direction.
Suggest you buy a NEW standard pressure , standard volume pump AND a NEW pickup tube as well.
Unless you know a reason specific to the engine build bearing clearances or some other internal modification that requires additional volume/pressure, you should stick with standard volume/pressure pumps and stock oil viscosity.
Some racing engines are purposely built with bigger bearing clearances (internal "leaks") or other specific engine modifications that require the additional pressure/volume. The higher viscosity 20W-50 oils are required in applications that need to keep the pressure up.
Try a lighter oil weight first because it is easy and cheap. Change the pump/pickup if that is not enough to get the pressure back inline.
Right now it is clear SOMETHING is wrong. At idle for some reason you can’t really hear any issues but the gauge reads very low now or basically completely to the left. That has me thinking there has to be a blockage somewhere. Car seems to perform fine while driving but it is very loud now while driving and i think I need to pull the pan at this point. I would have liked to get a lift or at least a quick jack before I needed to do some major work in my garage but I might just take it to a mechanic and task someone who might know immediately by hearing and looking at the car. Otherwise I was going to pull the oil pull and try to find an exact replacement depending on what is currently in it. The engine has a cam and upgraded lifters, valves, and springs but it was a crate engine so I have no way of knowing anything more specific.
Finally got my lift installed and pulled the oil pan. Looks like I have a high volume pump. The funny thing is it never really burned oil, no leaks at all and just had a fresh oil change but when I drained the oil there was barely anything in there. I’m guessing the spring in the pump is stuck like people have suggested.
im going to order a standard oil pump and go with that. Everything I’ve read says the high volume pump isn’t a great idea to have. I’m thinking my real problem was just a heavy oil and I guess not enough oil. Either way it’s off so I might as well put a new pump in so I don’t have to do it down the road.
The funny thing is it never really burned oil, no leaks at all and just had a fresh oil change but when I drained the oil there was barely anything in there.
Your low oil pressure was lack of oil in the pan, had this happen on a RV I owned once upon a time. I discovered this also during an oil change and after adding 6 qts of oil and checking the dipstick found out it was reading the wrong oil level. I marked the dipstick with a file and never had that issue again. I got lucky and didn't burn up the engine figuring this out.
Your low oil pressure was lack of oil in the pan, had this happen on a RV I owned once upon a time. I discovered this also during an oil change and after adding 6 qts of oil and checking the dipstick found out it was reading the wrong oil level. I marked the dipstick with a file and never had that issue again. I got lucky and didn't burn up the engine figuring this out.
my guy swears he had 5 or more quarts in it when i took it get an oil change before all of this began.
Now I'm hesitant to NOT use the same oil pump because i'm not 100% sure this engine was built with a high volume pump in mind. Any easy way to check since this was a crate 454, i don't have specs for it from really anywhere unfortunately.
I was thinking to put the same high volume melling pump in but just a new one (they're only like $60) but ihad read the stock ones tend to be better.... also i would really like knowing my pressure is good since it was just crazy high then completely 0.... coudln't figure out what the problem was and i checked the oil probably 20 times before pulling the pan and it read fine... no leaks.
thinking the problem HAD to be the pump even knowing barely any oil came out.
The installed pump you have is a High-Volume, Standard Pressure unless someone swapped out the spring and made it High-Pressure. The HV pushes out 20-25% more oil. Can't speak to what you have for engine but I wouldn't be opposed to a High-Volume or Standard-Volume as long as it was Standard Pressure.
The installed pump you have is a High-Volume, Standard Pressure unless someone swapped out the spring and made it High-Pressure. The HV pushes out 20-25% more oil. Can't speak to what you have for engine but I wouldn't be opposed to a High-Volume or Standard-Volume as long as it was Standard Pressure.
Pull the spring on the old pump, what is it?
no cotter pin. Any trick to get this out? Quick google search and I’m still here lol.
How do you blame the Pump when you don't have enough oil in the pan.
I'll take a melling pump any day
checked oil more than 10-15 times before pulling pan. Trust me this was last resort. Oil was fine on dipstick.... would never have pulled pan otherwise.
You're looking at a roll pin, you need to tap that out with a small punch.
I did a quick run through the internet and there is nothing on this subject for a M55 or M77 pump. Weird.
yeah I’m having trouble finding out how to do it without wrecking it. The pin only has a hole on the one side. I tried pressing the spring in and using some needle nose pliers to try and slide the pin towards the side that it looks like it should come out but it doesn’t budge.
the other funny thing is this pump has the feed tube welded to the pump so I can’t even reuse that lol...
Last edited by Adollarwodbnice; Apr 13, 2021 at 09:57 PM.
6-22-2020 Post #1 - noticed the oil pressure gauge in the car was just pegged to 70.
10-4-20 Post #24 - At idle for some reason you can’t really hear any issues but the gauge reads very low now or basically completely to the left.
4-12-2021 Post #27 - pulled the oil pan. Looks like I have a high volume pump. Very low on oil
What happened from June to October last year to go from 70 psi at idle to almost 0? We know lack of oil but where did oil go? How many miles was car driven? Any oil changes?
your oil pressure was too high. now it is too low. check all of your rod and main bearings. and check oil flow out all 16 pushrods. i THINK you had an obstruction in oil flow which caused the high pressure. the obstruction has caused damage which is now causing the low pressure. hate to say it but you may need another engine.
6-22-2020 Post #1 - noticed the oil pressure gauge in the car was just pegged to 70.
10-4-20 Post #24 - At idle for some reason you can’t really hear any issues but the gauge reads very low now or basically completely to the left.
4-12-2021 Post #27 - pulled the oil pan. Looks like I have a high volume pump. Very low on oil
What happened from June to October last year to go from 70 psi at idle to almost 0? We know lack of oil but where did oil go? How many miles was car driven? Any oil changes?
I put about 2kish miles on the car (drove it ALOT) my guess is i burnt oil and somehow didn't realize it (always parked in my garage and NEVER leaks on the floor.
My guess is the spring is the culprit but ill take another stab at that later today. I had times where it would read VERY high (now i know that should be normal) and then crash at idle. Moving it around the last few months (mostly been parked but moved here and there) i would check oil level cold and warm and no change and looked filled... so obviously now i know the main problem seems to have just been oil level so i'm wanting to double check the spring before i just throw it back on and give it a go.
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