oil pressure/water temp. Does this sound about normal?

[Moparal]

I know my factory guages are slow to respond, so curiosity got the best of me and I hooked up some after market gauges to my car.

Cold start with 180 thermostat   oil pressure cold is 85 lbs . This is with the choke set and fast idle working.  Temp goes to 192 then the thermostat opens up and goes down to around 150 and works its way back to around 184 hot and driving and setting in my shop for 20 minutes hot it reads around 186

Once the engine is warm and the choke off, the oil at an idle is around 63 lbs then goes up to 78 above 2500 rpms.   

Does this sound about normal for a street engine? Or is my oil pressure to high? It does have an HV pump on it.  I am sure the engine never overheats.

[MEK-Dangerfield]

What weight of oil are you using?

[Moparal]

straight 30 wt

[matt63]

Your oil pressure sounds high for hot idle.  I would expect around 20 psig with 10w30 or 10w40.

[Moparal]

Maybe I should put a stock pump on it.  I use penz z7 High zink oil. It is hard to find and only in single weight. It still has sulfer in it.  Dual weight is for cold starts in cold weather I thought.

[moper]

It needs 10psi per thousand, regardless of use. Any more is ok, so long as it doesnt force the pump to bypass and generate heat. IMO, you should swap out the pump with an HP pump. It will still reach 60-70psi depending on the clearances with 30wt, but draws less power to turn, and will not bypass until it reaches max pressure. I dont use HV pumps in new engines. It sounds like you have good clearances and simply dont need the HV.

[Chryco Psycho]

you are in the normal range & definatly will not hurt the engine with oil pressure like that

[hemiken]

Hi Alan, my engine oil pressure is around 80 and their is nothinf wrong with good oil pressure, it is better to have it that little bit higher like you have it.  The only problem i find with a high volume pump is that it emptys the oil pan real quick, so i will have to fit a larger capacity pump to hold more oil to overcome this.    Your water temp sounds spot on aswell

[Chryco Psycho]

if it is a HV pump it can empty the pan , if it is just an HP pump no issue

[Moparal]

Neil, can you explain the difference in HP and HV pumps for me.  Or anyone for that matter. I know the HV pump has a bigger notch cut it it where it fits the gasket on the block.  Seems high pressure would also suck alot of volume to keep the pressure high.

I am taking off the 402 big block pan and sticking a hemi/6pk  6qt pan on.  I feel it should be adequate, wouldn't you think?  It's not a race car.

[duodec]

HP pump has a higher pressure spring in the bypass (overpressure) valve, so it can generate higher pressure without, well. getting bypassed.  HV pumps vary but the ones I've seen (smallblock) have taller gears so they can pump more oil at a given RPM; the bypass valve will open at a lower pressure than on an HP pump.

[hemiken]

HP pump has a higher pressure spring in the bypass (overpressure) valve, so it can generate higher pressure without, well. getting bypassed.  HV pumps vary but the ones I've seen (smallblock) have taller gears so they can pump more oil at a given RPM; the bypass valve will open at a lower pressure than on an HP pump.

It is the same senario for a big block pump, they are physically larger in the housing and rotors for a HV pump.

[Chryco Psycho]

as explaned HV is HIGH Volume with taller rotors so it moves more volume of oil / rotation , I have never seens a need for these on street engines
HP is just higher pressure with stock volume  , this is what I generally use on performance street engine builds

[Moparal]

So since I have a 7 qt system now, do you think I would be ok with the HV pump?  It seems to do ok now, but I haven't ran it through all 4 gears hard yet, And wont be running 5k on the interstate either.

[FJ5_440]

I used to run a HV pump on a car with a deep aftermarket oil pan.  One day I scraped a hole in the oil pan over some rail road tracks.  I put on a stock 440 pan and ran it hard that way for years.  I switched back after I emptied the pan doing a "sustained" burnout and the oil pressure dropped.  I didn't hurt anything, but it scared me into welding up the deep pan.  Unless you enter burn out contests regularly, you should be OK with the 7 qt pan.