Oil pressure / pump ?

Ok, going to add an aftermarket gauge so i know the true oil pressure, cause the dummy gauge only reads between the N and O or NORMAL.. Has read that since i bought it, except for about a week, it read about center (RM) area of the normal.. Now back down again.. Either way, after i put the aftermarket gauge on, if my pressure is lower than i like, my question will be is it safe to replace the oil pump only? I know on older gas motors most people are warned not to just changes oil pump cause new pump put the pressure back up and blow the rings.. Is this the same for diesel? I know i may be thinking way ahead but I don't want to run the engine with lower than normal oil pressure.. What ya'll think?

I would not replace the oil pump. These pumps rival a semi truck pump in quality. I had to remachine my new melling when I got it. and if I ever have the pan off I am going to put the IH 150k miler back in.

Russ has posted whats very true about these oem oil pumps compared to the after market pumps. You will not "blow the rings" just by installing a new oil pump. Actually I've never heard of that saying in the gasser world. I don't believe it either. Low oil pressure is not something we tend to worry about. These engines push massive volumes of oil thru the system instead of high pressure. About 7 lbs is what you may see at the lowest idle setting warmed up. These oil pumps push almost 18 gallons per minute at 3000 rpm. Now If you want to increase the oil pressure you need to shim the spring located in the oil regulating area of the rear oil cooler header. This is not something that is easy to do either. You need to drain the coolant from the block from the block drains. Drain the oil. Lift the engine off the motor mount and support it by the pan rail and not the bottom of the oil pan. Then remove the oil cooler with both headers. Thats a tuff job. Now you have the cooler out using a very small dremmel grinder bit grind back the aluminum thats staked over the regulater and remove it. A 70 thousands shim is placed in the valve and reassemble all the above. Or you can pay around $300.00 for a new rear header from Ford. The issue of low oil pressure is because the spring rubs on the sides of the valve internals and wears thin. Then the pressure of the spring reduces and you loose oil pressure. Thats still not an issue because we run these engines hard and generally the oil pressure is not what kills them. Hope this guides you along the way to solving your oil pressure issues.

On my autometer gauge I was reading about 16 at a warm idle, changed my oil now at a warm idle im right at 20psi. So try changing you oil? Worth a shot instead of diving into the motor.

The cable spoolers I worked on in the wire factory had a room with about 50 cable wrapping machines, all running off a central driveshaft with belts (kind of like you would see in an old factory somewhere.) All the shaft bearings were plain bearings and had about 2psi lube oil pressure.

We very rarely had to replace any bearings, and there were probably over 100 bearings on the driveshaft. It's surprising how little oil pressure is really needed to keep the shaft a'float.

thanks for all the info, yeah i won't be going any of those routes..i wasn't sure if these were high pressure runners or not, the appearance of lower pressure won't bother me as much now that i know i a little more.. still gonna add the aftermarket gauge and pyro soon...

oh and it's about do for an oil change so i will go ahead on that one and get it done.. thanks ya'll..

No fram filters.

no FRAM? what do you suggest?

dizdak said:

no FRAM? what do you suggest?

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WIX

I run a motorcraft 1995 power stroke filter. The are larger and are a better micron filtration than the frams or the stock filters. The psd engines require a finer filtration because of the injection system they use.

I`m glad I read this post mine runs exactly the same place between the N and O in normal. I am in the process of installing new gauges and if I had seen 17 or 18 lbs at idle it would have sent me running to the Jack Daniels bottle.

Me engine right after the rebuild, has 12-15 HOT idle and 45 hot above 1300rpm.

Oh and that blow the rings statement, total BS.

Blow the rings...That makes me do this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiUyJzVZHLA&feature=related
Now if you really want to know what ruins rings its running softly after a rebuild. The rings never get hot enough to burn the oil off of them so the oil creates a varnish on the rings and mostly the cylinders. Then the rings never seat and talk about blowby and oil useage... You need to WORK and new engine. Put a load on it and work it hard. Not so hard that it overheats but run it like you plan on using it. Ever see a peterbuilt or other over the road rig taking it easy till its broken in... Nope... They start earning a living right now. The rings need to be run up on rpm and then allowed to drop down in rpm. This up and down works the top and bottom of each ring. It gets boreing doing this but it really works.

typ4 said:

Me engine right after the rebuild, has 12-15 HOT idle and 45 hot above 1300rpm.

Oh and that blow the rings statement, total BS.

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I have built many engines and have driven and flown many a mile behind them and I have never heard of "Blown Rings" especially from oil pressure, possibly blowby due to rings not seating