alan
i didn't bother going into the whole story in my first note, just looking for someone intersested.
the engine was re-build in 1974 (i've had the car since 1973). had to replace the head gasket a few times as it was always blowing out between 2&3, the last time being about 6 years ago. after competing the job i found that there didn't seem to be much oil in the rockers and so we ran a lead off the oil pressure guage pipe directly to the back off the head gallery. this appears to have fixed the problem and there is plenty of oil up top. the oil guage has always seemed to show low pressure although the car performs really well. after changing the oil and filter last week for a run, i noticed it was even lower, so turned the pressure up a bit. when i got back, i had oil leaking everywhere. checked where the banjo is bolted to the front stud of the filter housing and found that in 1974 they had put the wrong stud in, it was solid with no chanel for the oil to pass to the banjo. cut a groove through the threads, reconnected it direct to the guage (blocked the pipe to the head) and sent the dial straight to the max at 2000 revs.
consequently, i am hoping by running direct between the oil galleries, i can get an acurate reading from my guage as i beleive that by connecting from the guage line, the pressure is bleeding off to the head faster than it is getting to the guage. i am considering putting a flow adjuster in the gallery to gallery line.
i am trying to avoid having the head off again as it has been running so well for the last few years and never overheats even in our hot summers (australia) and basically "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"
steve