Waspination

I Started the lt1 for the first time couple days ago... (bought used).
Ran it for about 20 seconds. Looking inside the valve cover fill hole, and doesnt look very wet. I dont think oil is reaching the lifters.

Now the oil pan has been dented in about an inch on the lowest part of the pan, opposite of drain plug. Could the oil pick up in the pan be blocked??? I dont know how low the pick up hangs so if its near the bottom as it is, i could see this happening. Thoughts?

Checked oil Psi and it goes to 80 and stays there. (i have digital dash being an 87 chassis).

May be dropping the pan, push dent out and check out what it looks like up there

cadwiz_01Z

I would be inclined to think that if you are getting an oil pressure reading, the pick-up is not your problem. If it has been neglected and left to sit for a while, the oil passages to or thru the lifters could be plugged.

cv67

Dont those have a baffle in them? Oil doesnt really go tearing around in there esp at idle. Hard to tell with the valve cover on really.
If you had no oil pressure youd know. Ding in the pan shouldnt hurt you.

Waspination

I bought it from vette2vette. Said engine ran fine.
45,000 miles on it.
I did not rev it up at all. If i leave the cap off, should i easily see oil. Or should i take cover off and turn it over a couple times.
Mind you the oil is brand new so it hard to see clear liquid, but like i said... it looked dry and i couldnt find anything oiled up around lifters.
AND It sound Great running

383vett

If there was no oil going to the top half, your lifters will be clacking in a few seconds. If you have oil pressure, you should be fine. As mentioned, you shouldn't be able to see past the baffles if these are stock valve covers.

87 vette 81 big girl

I know Jason @ Vette2Vette.
Been to his shop several times in the past.
He won't sell you junk.

If he said the engine is a good runner,

Then it is.

He has never sold me junk for my 87 vert.

If the engine has not been run for several months then the entire engine oil galleries have been drained of oil from gravity.

It takes around 2 to 3 minutes of high engine idle RPM's( 1,000 - 1,500)
to fill up all the hydraulic lifters full of oil again & up through the hollow pushrods & out of each rocker arm.

Till then,
the engine is pumping air out of each hydraulic lifter.

Brian

Waspination

WE ran it longer yesterday. Had the cap off and did see oil trickling through. I Didn't know it would be as little as it was, but it was flowing
Yea there is no clacking and we ran it for about a good 5 minutes, revved it a couple times too.

leesvet

WAIT ! !

80 psi is the default for the digital gauge when the signal is broken !
Get a mechanical oil pressure gauge on there and see what it REALLY is before calling it "good".

Showing 80 psi means there is an 'open' to the gauge...the sender is disconnected or damaged.

Waspination

Yea we noticed this. I had the wiring harness done by Lt1wiring... He had two oil pressure wires labeled and i think we had the wrong one hooked up.
One says oil pressure indicator (which we had wired up)
other says oil pressure, and i think this is the one we need to hook up.
Going to make that change tonight.

leesvet

Your harness should have 1 wire to the press sender for the gauge....then another 2 wire plug that goes to the low press switch, that is just an open/closed switch that the LT may or may not use. This is the back up power supply for the fuel pump, so if the fuel pump relay fails , the pump can still get power as long as you crank on it few several seconds to build 4 lbs of oil pressure. That can be jumped and eliminated and just wired "on" or complete all the time. Keep the fuel relay in play to eliminate long cranking times....

Waspination

Ok got the correct oil preesure wire hooked up. REads good now, around 40 at idle. Checked inside the cap today and the head is all wet with oil now... so yea guess it just needed to work through all the passages again. Engine had been sitting for a least a year.
Anyways... thanks for the help and cheers!
Should be on the road soon!