High oil pressure?

[Ed Wright]

Originally Posted by BlueOval Ralph

McClintock?

Sounds right.

[BlueOval Ralph]

ran a Street Roadster

Originally Posted by Ed Wright

Sounds right.

[Ed Wright]

Originally Posted by BlueOval Ralph

ran a Street Roadster

Yep. That's him.

[Pvt Parts]

Originally Posted by Ed Wright

Wish I could think of the guy's name that got me thinking correctly about sbc's oil pumps. He was a Modified & Comp engine builder from New Mexico in the '70s. Wish I could think of his name now. (I’m old) Had the pick up tube fall out of the oil pump in my ’56 Chevy at Albuquerque NM. Too much blowing sand & dirt to pull the pan there! I just loaded up. He was asking what happened, and told me I should be pulling the spring and braze the pick up in place, then ask how much oil pressure I had? I proudly announced “65 psi!” He said, “And a high volume pump?” I said “Yes!” He then screwed my head on straight about pumps and pressure. I have an old rear main cap, tapped for a fitting, flexible hose and oil pressure gauge. I bolt the pump to it, drop in the parts washer and spin it up with a ½” drill. What I see there, I see in the car. Been doing it this way since that day. Before synthetic oil too. <G>

Mike Keown got me up to speed on the pumps. I was getting the good synthetic from Alaska and overseas before it was available here. I worked at one of the largest Chevrolet Dealers in Indy when I got out of school. The 302 cid Z28's did have a problem with pumping the pan dry. A lot of it could have been abuse.... not enough oil to start with and too many rpm's. They'd usually spin 1 and 2 or fly apart. I remember getting a repair order to check a Z28 for a blown engine. You never know what the customer told the service writer. It could be anything. I got in the car and was going to drive it into the bay when I noticed the beam of a connecting rod sitting on top of the console. You see it all when you work in a large dealership.

[Ed Wright]

Originally Posted by Pvt Parts

Mike Keown got me up to speed on the pumps. I was getting the good synthetic from Alaska and overseas before it was available here. I worked at one of the largest Chevrolet Dealers in Indy when I got out of school. The 302 cid Z28's did have a problem with pumping the pan dry. A lot of it could have been abuse.... not enough oil to start with and too many rpm's. They'd usually spin 1 and 2 or fly apart. I remember getting a repair order to check a Z28 for a blown engine. You never know what the customer told the service writer. It could be anything. I got in the car and was going to drive it into the bay when I noticed the beam of a connecting rod sitting on top of the console. You see it all when you work in a large dealership.

I know guys that raced those things off the warantee book. LOL Probably the hardest driven new GM cars ever.

[Pvt Parts]

Originally Posted by Ed Wright

I know guys that raced those things off the warantee book. LOL Probably the hardest driven new GM cars ever.

Of course, they had 5 year 50,000 mile drivetrain warranties back then. Rumor was that the Zone reps for Chevrolet and Chrysler were showing up at IRP on the weekends taking license plate numbers. There was a lot of other funny business going on back then as well.

Ex: A buddy drives in with a '69 Z28 complaining about chattering and whining noises coming from the rear end. With a little "persuasion", the stock 3.73 and carrier unit comes out and a new #4 carrier, bearings, clutches and 4.10 r&p goes back in.

You saw that kind of thing happen quite often. I had buddies that worked at Chrlysler dealers and the same thing went on there too. Bob Glidden worked at the Ford dealer right down the street from me. I can't speak for what went on there.

The dealer I worked at had 2 brand new '69 ZL1's sitting out front. Wish I had one of those now.

[Ed Wright]

Originally Posted by Pvt Parts

Of course, they had 5 year 50,000 mile drivetrain warranties back then. Rumor was that the Zone reps for Chevrolet and Chrysler were showing up at IRP on the weekends taking license plate numbers. There was a lot of other funny business going on back then as well.

The dealer I worked at had 2 brand new '69 ZL1's sitting out front. Wish I had one of those now.

If we did we could retire, right?

[Pvt Parts]

Originally Posted by Ed Wright

If we did we could retire, right?

And have money left over. They are now worth about $1m each if they are original. (As defined by the auction/collector guidelines) There's a lot of funny business going on there too.

The last funny deal I read about online, technically only required (as verified documentation) the oem vin tag, matching engine and transmission numbers, the title and a portion of firewall with the vin factory stamped on it. (The rest is believed to be lies and deception) Virtually every other part either could not be verified as oem or was allowed to be replaced with restoration components.

Some of so called "restored" and "original" high dollar muscle cars were never real, whole cars to begin with. Just like NHRA, you can manufacture and race your own S/SS car in your shop that was never a real car to begin with. It just has to meet NHRA's specs. There's a major competitive advantage in doing that.

[carl hinkson]

Originally Posted by Ed Wright

"Many smart engine builders use HV pumps so as to have enough volume later in life of the engine as clearances begin to get larger from wear."

What actually happens is the pump bypass stays open, peeing un-needed oil right back into the pan.

.

On a EOM or Mellings pump when the oil is bypassed and peeing back to the pan how does this happen as there is no orface in the pump cover to do this.

That being said on those HV pumps years ago we use to drill another bypass hole in the cover and bleed off the extra oil pressure when the oil was cold but when we did this we never saw pressure go over on the average 72 pounds.

Since Melling has come out with the 10% more volume pumps years ago we have never used a 25% higher volume pump.

That intersting pumping pans dry as where are you going to put 5 quarts of oil in that engines when the pan is dry.

[Charles Rainey]

I wasnt going to post on this subject any more until Carl posted, but I thought why not just one more. Carl is correct, the SBC does not bypass too the pan. It bypasses within itself, that is one reason you dont want the bypass valve to continually open. It by passes withion itself and builds heat. I, just like Carl, have drilled my on relief hole in the pump so that it will bleed back to the pump. Smokey unit showed me that several, several years ago. The reason, from what I understand, that Melling and other companies came out with HV pumps was to move more oil at the low rpm ban. If you go thru their catalog, you will notice that their HV pump does not make as much pressure. They have a pump called HP to do that. Several years ago, I mounted a remote oil filter with a flow meter mounted in the line. I changed the pumps from standard to HP to HV to Select. If the clearances were ok, There was no more oil going thru the engine, UNLESS you change the pressure. If you up the pressure, then it did flow more oil. It only had more capacity to do so if need. The pulsations WAS slightly lower on the HV. I, just as Carl, now use the 10% HV. Oh yes ED, I, like you, have been doing this since the early 60's. And I think I am too old to see something new, but damn I learn something every time I fire the dyno every day. So Ed, you and I are on the right path to still learn. If you learn something new today, call me. I dont want to miss out on anything. I have to keep notes now though. Book is getting full. I crashed my PC other day and I thought I was really screwed, cause my notes was on it. Then my grandson said, dont worry pops, I backed it up in the sky. So guess he has a direct line to the man upstairs or something like that. I told him to write him a letter and get my notes back. He said I would have them this week end. Now that is service my man.
charles