Oil pressure

I have a buick 350-2 in a 1972 skylark its the original motor. At low rpm's my oil light comes on. Is there a problem with these motors or is it just my problem. Also what would be the best fix. thanks for your help. It only has 75,000 miles on it.

 

I also have a 72 and my light will come on once and a while. I have a brand new front cover, new pump with proper tolerance with feeler guage, boaster plate and a oil cooler. I'm running a 180 stat. I have 10w-30 in it now. The oil gets really hot in my engine when I'm running high rpm's and thins out. I am switching to a thicker oil. I'll let you know what oil I end up using.

 

I run 5w-50 synthetic in mine and I love the stuff.....worth every penny.:bglasses:

 

Once I rebuilt a ford 302.....just for safety I put in a new oil pressure switch. I didn't have the distributor pushed all the way in, so the oil pump wasn't turning. After starting it, and the lifters didn't quiet down after 5 minutes, I figured out the motor had no oil pressure. The new switch was defective, and the light never came on.:af:

Yes, idiot lights are for idiots.

Incidently, all my pre-lubing paid off because the bearings never spun and it lived. I drove that motor for 50,000 more miles before I sold the car.

 

trust me on this one.. -you really need a larger oil pump.. -I used to have that problem too, and the best fix (instead of not rebuilding the engine) was to add a larger (longer gear i think, and a thick shim at the oilpump) .. -not sure what they call it, but it's a pretty easy fix...

 

By no means put a high-volume pump on your 350. I did this on a brand new motor about 300 miles ago, after some oiling issues I tear it down only to find out that the "high volume" pump had put so much pressure to the cam that it wiped out the bearings. This also happened to a good friend who only had 3 hours of run time on his 455, same thing happened. Put a booster plate, new gears, and shim it correctly and you will get all the oil pressure you need. Take it from someone who is rebuilding a motor for a second time after only 300 miles, DONT BUY THE HIGH VOLUME PUMP!:Smarty:

 

Goto autozone and get the high volume pump they sell, I think it's a melling kit. It has the taller gears and booster plate, and comes with 3 different regulator springs so you can choose your pressure. I think it's only $30. High volume pump is not a problem... it's the pressure that can cause problems.
Put a gauge on it. The oil light takes very little pressure to turn it off, so if it comes on, it's a problem.

 

In reply to a previous post I am now using 15w - 40 Chevron. Oil pressure is great now compared to the 10w - 30. I drive this car pretty hard and the 10w - 30 was thinning out when exposed to alot of heat. It was fine just cruising but not with the hammer down.

 

What is a good oil pressure for a 350 Buick, mine reads 40 psi on the gauge. I was having similar problems with my idiot light coming on at low revs after it was driven hard. I ended up spinning a bearing, but it still read 40 psi. I might try the 15w-40, on my next motor. What happened? any ideas?

 

Sounds to me like your oil returns were plugged, and the oil was not getting drained back to the oil pan from the heads. :bglasses:

 

What could of caused that. The motor was grannied and had carbon buildup could that of caused it. I could hear a light tapping noise for a week before it all went bad. I was going 100 mph and it sudenly went whack, I limped it home and it still had 40 psi oil pressure. Could it have been a rod bolt or something, it sort of squeeks when I run it so I shut it off. I am changing to another motor so I will pull the oil pan and find out what hapened. Thanks

 

You could try 20-50 valvoline racing oil this used to work for me when I had
the stock motor in it. This always gave me more oil pressure. This is only good for the summer or racing of course, I liked 10-30 penzoil for winter. You should have oil pressure gauge though.

 

350 oil prob

Hey, thought i'd put my $.02 in. Take some wisdom from Larry he's right on the money. With .002" clearance and a booster plate you should be able to run 30 weight oil without problems. I have found that older engines with the aluminum rocker arms wear and leave thick gray deposits either from low pressure, mis-aligned cam bearing, etc. This grey goop will clog lubrication channels all over the engine and cause bearings to wipe out and fail. Once this goop hardens you can't flush it out you have to tear down the engine and clean. Sorry to be a party pooper but sometimes the easy fix is not the way to go.

 

Re: 350 oil prob

So that's what that crap is, I always wondered that. I got a set of rocker arms that have bronze bushings in them, maybe my motor stands a chance.:Brow:

 

bronze bushings

I have put some bronze bushings in my rockers also and it seems to work better. The bronze flakes and doesn't stick together like the aluminum. You definately need the hardened shaft. I really don't have enough miles on the engine and to tell.

 

One thing to note here guys, The 350 high volume pump uses the same size gears as the stock 455 oil pumps. The 350 high volume does not have any where near the loads as the 455 high volume pump.
WHat I am getting at here is that if the gear size is ok for the 455, it is ok for a 350 as well. If someone is having major wear problems on the dist gear on a 350, there is probably something else going on. One other thing, with the high volume pump, you can typically cut way back on the relief spring. That is usually the problem, high volume pump with red spring from the kit usually means 100 psi at cold start-up with cold thick oil. Jim Burek

 

I don't know what my oil pressure was at when things went wrong, I was going 100 mph. When I hooked up a guage it was after, and it read 40 psi then????????????