F-Body Europe

Well I cranked it today after 9 mos ) but had this problem even before hibernation. Oil pressure would fluctuate at idle but hold steady while driving and dip a little under braking. I figured possibly the oil pressure sending unit being bad so I purchased a mech guage to verify. Well it's erractic to say the least. At idle it'll start @ 40psi and match the OEM oil pressure but after 5 mins it would drop down to 20psi and bounce up and down from 35 to 55 psi.....all this at idle. Daddy saw it too. Run 50/50 w/ 15-40 and 10-30 castrol dino oil thinking that would cure it but to no avail. Like I said it holds steady under load and increases as the rpms increase all the way to 6700 rpm's....but the moment it goes back to idle it's all over the freakin place but nothing lower than 20psi. Is that bearing damage, oil pump, cam bearings, or what? I'm a little frustrated but if it holds 20 psi I'll just deal w/ it and go a thicker weight and see if that at least will give me 35psi. Thinking 20-50 weight. Oh forgot I've got nice chips from when I cut open the last oil filter during hibernation. I'll take pics and post em' definetly the 1st layer of my tri-metal coated federal mogul bearings.




The volt meter is another problem I had before hibernation as well. Under load it would drop to 7 volts esp reaching 2500 rpms and then it would regain itself and hold a steady charge at 13-14 volts. This came out of no where too. I was thinking the alternator so I bought a used one off a friend and worked perfectly on his car. Put in mine and I still have this dip underload causing the car to lose pwr and trip off sensors in the dash. Only thing I've done since its storage was put 4 guage engine ground wires on and nothing else. I'm running a total of 6 guages, 1 amp w/ a stealth box, and a speedo calibrator and it was fine until recently out of the blue the dip in volt guage. Is this the battery perhaps?

Lots of metal chips in the oil is always a bad thing. Let's look at a "worst-case" scenario that happened to a friend if mine: the erratic oil pressure was due to the chips interfering with the oil pressure "overpressure" relief valve. Finally the valve stuck on "open", he lost all pressure and had cam seizure before he woke up.

YOUCH!!!! I'm hoping that I got all the chips out at least. I've flushed the system twice. At cold start up it's a constant 55 psi but after it warms up it's all over the place from 20psi to 45psi then it'll level off around 35psi and twitch 5psi either direction. This is through the mechanical guage. I'll be cutting this filter open too to see if there are chips in it. If so it'll be getting another set of bearings this fall/winter. Hopefully the cam bearings are fine.

Jon
Let me put your mind at ease here . If that is truly bearing material there. that motor is as good as dead. It just a matter of time.
Since its still running its always cheaper to repair then when its not.

Yeah I kinda figured that. I'm still going to go w/ a different weight 20/50 and see if I get steady pressure. It'll have to be torn down this fall or next spring when I get back from the Stan.

The bearing material is the 1st layer of the tri coated bearing. Now you don't think I could get away w/ a thicker oil? I know it's a band aid....I know but I'm just wondering. Only thing is I don't know how many bearings are damaged but I believe it to be only one now whether that's a main cap or rod bearing I'm not sure of.