oil pressure and oil pump questions (440)

[73chargercali]

my 440 has about 83,000 miles on it never rebuilt (as far as i know) and i was running about 52psi on the oil pressure up until recently when it dropped to 42psi. What would cause this and at what oil pressure should i get really concerned at.(35 or less psi) what is a good pressure for 3000  rpm cruising which is 60mph in my car. i was hoping to take the car to hot august nights.

also how hard is it to replace the oil pump? i heard on a rb engine it was real easy and you just had to unbolt it but i figured you need to pull the oil pump drive shaft and the pick up to remove it, right?

what oil wieght should i use? i'm running 10/30 but i heard 10/40 would give better pressure.

[defiance]

I don't know the rest (when mine died it went from good pressure to completely 0 overnight...), but I can tell you about installing a new one.

Basically, remove the oil filter, remove the 4 bolts (one of them is long enough that you probably won't be able to actually pull it out while the oil pump is on the car).  The oil pump body has a small 'tube' that slides up into the block about 1-1/2 inches or so, that's the hard part.  The cylinder it slides into is **VERY** tight, and if the engine is in the car, it's in a place where you have *NO* leverage.  You just have to keep working at it, rotating and pulling.  New one going in is the same way.  Make sure you put the really long bolt into the hole in the oil pump *BEFORE* you put the oil pump off, though; it's too close to some stuff to but that long one in after the oil pump is on the block.

No need to remove the shaft.  I removed mine because my dad told me I had to, but he was wrong .  It's pretty easy to do if you want to, though; Remove distributor and pull it up.  That's it.  The only hard part is making *ABSOLUTELY* sure you get it aligned properly when you put it back in, since it doubles as the distributor drive gear

Altogether took me about 2 hours, but a good portion of that time was spent making sure I hadn't missed some bolt; I expected it to slide out pretty easy once all the bolts were out and it didn't

[firefighter3931]

I wouldn't be too concerned with 40 psi of oil pressure. In the warm summer months i prefer to use a heavier oil. Go to wallmart and pick up some Shell Rotella 15-40 diesel oil. Use a good quality filter as well (Napa Gold).


Ron

[73chargercali]

ok thanks for the info. what pressure should i start to become concerned with?
im glad if i do need to get a new pump i won't have to pull the pan.

[firefighter3931]

The rule of thumb is 10psi per 1000rpm, so at 3000 rpm you should have 30psi or better. You should see a nice increase with the rotella 15-40 and a fresh filter. Get the Napa gold....no Fram JUNK ! 

Let us know how it works out. 


Ron

[73chargercali]

ok thanks firefighter

[Chryco Psycho]

sudden drops in oil pressure are not a good thing , keep an eye on it , change the oil  , you could have a problem with the bypass spring in the oil pump as well , it is easily replaced & cleaned as the pump is outside the engine

[73chargercali]

im going to do the oil change hopefully today. does anyone know what the number is for the napa gold filter im going to need? the filter i have now is i think a PH41 fram filter. anyways im sure kragan auto will be able to tell me thanks for the help, and if it doesn't help then i'll probly get a new high volume pump (my engine doesn't see above 5200rpms so i don't think a HV pump will hurt it)

[firefighter3931]

Just go to your local Napa store and ask for the "Gold" series oil filter for your 440. 


Ron

[chargerbr549]

The Napa filter number is 1515 for the long filter and 1068 for the short filter and if you have the room you can goto the very long filter 1773, I hope this helps.

Kevin

[73chargercali]

i got the 1515 gold filter and the rotella oil. the car cruised at 50psi for 40 minutes so i think it might have been the fact that it has been warmer here that my pressure dropped, but the oil was fairly dirty. thanks everyone for the help.

[firefighter3931]

Thats excellent news....the Rotella is good stuff. I haven't seen an instance where the oil pressure dropped using this lube. 

Dirty (lightweight) oil, fram filter  and lots of heat  will usually affect oil pressure negatively. Just keep an eye on it like Chryco said but i don't think you'll have any problems.

Thanks for the update.


Ron

[73chargercali]

well i took the car all the way to hot august nights in nevada on sunday which was a 500 mile trip and it had great oil pressure the whole time even when it got real hot. thanks again for the help and i'll make sure to put rotella in my other charger when i get it running.