CraigLandrum
Jedi Hopeful
Offline
A few weeks ago my son and I replaced the oil pump in our TR3 to correct a low oil pressure problem. We replaced the oil (VR1 20-50) along with the oil filter at the same time. When we fired it up, it got 20-25 at idle and 60 at about 2000 RPM, which I considered to be OK, since the guage was previously reading 10-12 for all revs.
After driving it for about 100 miles, the oil pressure is back to being consistently low, and I'm soliciting opinions as to what might be happening. After reviewing some of the latest posts (the one about Tony's bad filter causing zero oil pressure), I am starting to suspect the spin-on filter or the spin-on adapter that we installed when we rebuilt the engine.
I do not suspect the gauge - we actually tested it with a regulated air supply when we were troubleshooting the problem some time ago and it was reasonably accurate - 30 lbs of air gave 30 lbs on the gauge.
The car actually runs fine and oil does seem to be getting up top to the rocker area, but that low oil pressure really scares me.
We do not believe that non-offset ring gaps are an issue - Bob was careful to offset them when he installed the new pistons.
The car does not appear to be dumping oil onto the garage floor, although there's always a couple of drops in that area whenever I check, but I suspect that's fairly normal, and I wouldn't think a leak slow enough to produce a few drops after a drive would be large enough to lower the oil pressure.
The spin-on oil filter that is on there now is the same as we put on originally - its marked as the "high performance" one on the Moss site where we got it.
The oil level on the dipstick seems fine.
So why am I (back to) getting 10-12 lbs of pressure - even at highway speeds?
This is a real pain....
After driving it for about 100 miles, the oil pressure is back to being consistently low, and I'm soliciting opinions as to what might be happening. After reviewing some of the latest posts (the one about Tony's bad filter causing zero oil pressure), I am starting to suspect the spin-on filter or the spin-on adapter that we installed when we rebuilt the engine.
I do not suspect the gauge - we actually tested it with a regulated air supply when we were troubleshooting the problem some time ago and it was reasonably accurate - 30 lbs of air gave 30 lbs on the gauge.
The car actually runs fine and oil does seem to be getting up top to the rocker area, but that low oil pressure really scares me.
We do not believe that non-offset ring gaps are an issue - Bob was careful to offset them when he installed the new pistons.
The car does not appear to be dumping oil onto the garage floor, although there's always a couple of drops in that area whenever I check, but I suspect that's fairly normal, and I wouldn't think a leak slow enough to produce a few drops after a drive would be large enough to lower the oil pressure.
The spin-on oil filter that is on there now is the same as we put on originally - its marked as the "high performance" one on the Moss site where we got it.
The oil level on the dipstick seems fine.
So why am I (back to) getting 10-12 lbs of pressure - even at highway speeds?
This is a real pain....