Anyone fix a stuck oil regulator valve or am i stuck with pulling my oil cooler?

I love happy endings.

bbjordan said:

I love happy endings.

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Umm , I dont think he , oh never mind.

could a stuck regulater cause high oil pressure.ive got 90psi at idle.blew the filter off when the guy that put the motor in reved it up

yes or parts missing

icanfixall said:

What usually happens is the spring wears down because its rubbing on the valve. As the spring wears down to about half the wire thickness you loose oil pressure because you loose spring pressure. Shimming it wont help for very long either. Shimming a new valve is the only way to make more oil pressure. I bought a new header and added 60 thousands of shims by making them from stainless steel washers. I learned that from Russ.. Typ4.. Neet trick too.

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Gary, thanks for sharing Russ' idea about shimming. My rebuilt engine, with a new Ford/IHC oil pump and a freshly cleaned and o-ringed oil cooler, makes 35 psi cold at idle. This is really great, except the oil pressure never goes above 35 psi and actually drops to 25 psi when the engine warms up. I gotta tell ya, I really hate the thought of pulling the oil cooler, but it's either that or the relief valve inside the oil pump. So, I'm betting regulator. Problem is, those parts (spring, header, valve) are no longer available. I contacted Discount Ford Auto Parts (dot com) because they had a header (E4TZ6881B) listed for $213. Nope, no such part in stock. The counter guy asked if I minded holding for a few minutes and he'd scan national parts inventories for dealers and Ford warehouses. Came back on the line and said no such number anywhere in the US. He mentioned that there might be an NOS header sitting in a box on a shelf in some dealership's parts room, but good luck finding the one person who would know about it.

I'm gonna pull that spring out of the oil cooler and take it to one of the college engineering classes. This spring currently holds 35 psi. Using these width and length dimensions, what can I do to make it hold 50psi? 55psi? 60psi? There's gotta be a spring supplier somewhere that can provide a darn close or even better replacement than what we have. With new parts no longer available and used parts wearing out, there's got to be an alternative.

I'm surprised the oil cooler rear header that the filter connects to is no longer available. I would call another place or ask a dealer parts department. I'm betting international wil still have them. After all its their design. I really hope you can find a spring maker that can or will help us out. Buying a new rear header last I saw was over $350.00.. Maybe uhaul has a few sitting in some dark dusty storeroom somewhere usa.. Another note I must explain about our oil pumps. They are a gear driven direct drive positive displacement type pump. What they suck up is going to go out the exit port... No matter what. This is why the oil filter blows off these engines if the oil pressure regulater valve sticks closed. I'm thinking the pressure to blow them off hydraulically is upwards of 300 lbs. Think about the dynamics of whats going on. Look at the huge threads in the filter and the body of the filter. No way does 90 lbs blow them off the header. Remember we have that filter bypass where if a filter plugs up the pressure opens that valve and the engine gets dirty oil. And thats better than no oil thats for sure.

Yeah, the out of stock thing caught me a little short, too. Back before Christmas, I checked with Tyler Ford and priced what I thought was an oil cooler assembly. Nope, it was the tubing bundle - just over $420. The two headers were sold separately, and totaled over $650. All together I was looking at close to $1200 to get an oil cooler out the door. Tomorrow I'll check with Price International, the local Navistar/IHC dealer and see what they can do. Like you point out, it is their design, so it may show up in multiple engines and still be a stocking part. Just for kicks and grins, I'll ask about the spring.

Ya know, I'm not sure what kinda pressure you need to blow a filter off the side of a motor. Long ago, Wix stated that the burst strength of their filter cans was 225psi. Give or take. What that meant was first the filter would swell up like a cantaloupe and then the seams would let go and everything got rust-proofed real quick. My experience has been that the rubber gasket lets go long before anything else pops. I've never seen a truly 'burst' oil filter. (torn metal, shrapnel, etc, etc) Or one that shot off the side like a bottle rocket. And since I don't want to see either one of those, it's a good reason to keep in mind that the spring doesn't need to be Super Strong.

Im no engineer by any means but seeing what a difference changing the oil cooler made for my oil pressure I could see a regulator stuck closed as causing seriously high pressure. That valve sticking closed might have uncovered an issue in your oil system that went undetected when the valve was operating correctly. I would try something like seafoam as a start to see if you have a clog somewhere?

I looked into getting a new oil cooler and my ford dealer quoted me 450 for a complete reman or 550 for new. I posted on the 'for sale' section on this forum and had a response in no time. If that doesnt work then I would just keep calling around. They sure aren't cheap though..

If it does come down to changing it its not as bad as I thought it would be. Its a pain for sure, but doable with some spare time and beer.

There is no regulator in the pump, it is all done in the rear header.
90 psi will blow out the gasket on the filter. Its a wide piece of rubber with lots of surface area.
For those who have parts cleaned at a shop, they throw the cooler and parts in the water parts washer then clean them and the reg. sticks. I know this because ive made that mistake.
I have the opposite issue, 42 psi hot going down the road and 10 ish at hot idle, I want it a little higher, so some day ill pull the header and shim it to see if it is that or just the clearances, pressure has not changed in 100k.

Got ambitious yesterday and started acting on Gary's suggestion, I hit the Longview Ford dealer (Pegues-Hurst) and the IHC/Navistar dealer (Pliler International). The college has an account with the Ford dealer and they've always been helpful. The counter guy (James) looked up the part number I gave him and then cross-referenced it by year and model. He handed back my sheet and said, "We don't have it in stock, no other Ford dealer has it in stock and there's nothing at any of the regional warehouses. As far as Ford is concerned, this part no longer exists." OK, so much for Ford.

Headed over to Pliler International. The counter guy (James) looked up the 1805 part number and then started going through screens on his computer. He handed me back my sheet and said, "We don't have it in stock and neither does any other dealer. (Jeez, deja vue all over again!) BUT, it doesn't show as discontinued, so it might still be available from Illinois. I'll call Monday morning and see what they can do. List on this is around $420." OK, so International might still carry the part. We'll see what happens Monday.

Based on all this, I'm going to get serious about finding a suitable replacement spring. $400 bucks is a lot to spend! David Gingrass sold me one of his oil coolers (GREAT GUY!) and the oil pressure on that engine was good. I'll use that good spring as my example and we'll see what's out there that we can put to use.

typ4 said:

There is no regulator in the pump, it is all done in the rear header.

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Thanks for the reminder, Russ. No second thoughts about pulling the oil cooler. There's nothing to be gained by pulling the pan. Gotta tell ya, that doesn't hurt my feelings at all!

I have the opposite issue, 42 psi hot going down the road and 10 ish at hot idle, I want it a little higher, so some day ill pull the header and shim it to see if it is that or just the clearances, pressure has not changed in 100k.

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Yup, mine starts at close to 40 and then drops as the engine warms up. Problem is, the 'idle' oil pressure doesn't increase. What you see is what you have for the entire rpm range. 30 - 35 psi is just too low for my comfort zone. Even though the spring is old (30 years/300K miles) I'm going to shim it. Gary's concern is that the fix won't last. I understand that and view this as a temporary fix that buys some time while I find a good replacement spring. I'm thinking about shimming more than your original 60 thousandths. Maybe .080" or .100". I want to make up for the original weakness and get running pressure around 50psi to 60psi, but I don't want to get crazy.

Ok. When you remove the valve and spring look closely at the wire the spring is made from. If its worn flat on one side then you will have an issue with gaining any pressure no matter how much you shim it. If there isn't enough material to make it flexiable then there wont be an increase in pressure. Now about adding shims. I used stainless steel washers that I needed to grind down the outer diameter to fit in the regulater valve under the spring. Also ading too much can lift the bypass valve in the top of the filter header. That bypass is there in case the oil filter plugs up. Dirty oil reaching the engine is better than no oil reaching the engine. Model A and T had a splash oil system. Didn't even have an oil pump. My 1937 Cord engine has a floating oil pickup so it only sucks the clean oil on the top of the oil level in the pan.. Gees how things and beliefs have changed. Today we all know clean oil is pumped thru our engines and then the dirt it picks up is washed back into the supposedly clean oil on the top. What were those engineers thinkng back then.

icanfixall said:

Ok. When you remove the valve and spring look closely at the wire the spring is made from. If its worn flat on one side then you will have an issue with gaining any pressure no matter how much you shim it. If there isn't enough material to make it flexible then there wont be an increase in pressure.

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Good point - I'll check the outer diameter of the spring real closely for wear. If worse comes to worse, I'll use the spring out of the 'new' cooler. That'll create a bit of a delay, because I want to show that spring to the mechanical engineering guys and the Auto Technology guy on the other campus. Oh well, that'll give me more time to polish chrome. Or something.

Now about adding shims. I used stainless steel washers that I needed to grind down the outer diameter to fit in the regulater valve under the spring. Also adding too much can lift the bypass valve in the top of the filter header. That bypass is there in case the oil filter plugs up. Dirty oil reaching the engine is better than no oil reaching the engine.

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For washers, I'm gonna go with mild steel washers with the same OD as the spring. And you're right, I definitely don't want to overdo the spring loading, because all that'll do is increase oil flow back to the pan. Ya know, here's a thought - slightly higher than normal oil pressure out of the cooler would be a help with an add-on bypass filter. I could tap off the inlet side of the filter from that plug located on the front of the rear oil cooler header. hmmmmm.......

My 1937 Cord engine has a floating oil pickup so it only sucks the clean oil on the top of the oil level in the pan.. Gees how things and beliefs have changed. Today we all know clean oil is pumped thru our engines and then the dirt it picks up is washed back into the supposedly clean oil on the top. What were those engineers thinking back then.

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Actually, I see some logic here. The grit and crud falls back into the oil pan. The oil is at operating temp (HOT!) and all that nasty stuff drops through the thin(ner) oil and settles on the bottom. The pickup tube pulls supply oil off the crud-free stuff at the top of the pool. That's really not a bad idea!