PatriYacht

Nova 26 do you have an oil temp gauge? It sounds like you are frying your oil if it is dropping pressure like that.

jeff1000man

Don't get offended, but I have heard of this happening a lot. Do you have the oil lines going to the remote routed backwards? Have you noticed the oil filters collapsing?

Also, you said you were using DART blocks. I have never seen a genVI Dart BBC Block. THey are set up like gen IV. Do they make a 1 piece seal block?

High volume is good because of the length of time that the engine runs at high RPMs. 5500 for extended periods is actually pretty high. You don't need high Pressure. If you can get the guage between 60-80 you are just fine.

Where is the oild pressure at idle?

3 thousanths should be fine for crank and rod clearance. That is plenty loose.
Good luck.

Nova 26

patriyacht, yes and to double check it I used an infrared temp gun, stayed a little cool at about 180-200 deg.
jeff1000, no offense taken at all I'm greatfull for the help and input. I did check oil line routing, I run to the oil filter first and then to the cooler. Not a dart block, Gm gen 6 block with one piece main seal. At idle COLD, it will peg my 100 psi oil gauge, idles at about 850 rpm. Where can I get an 80# oil spring for the melling pump? Part number would make it really easy, Thanks for all the help so far!

jeff1000man

I don't know the part number for the spring. I always use the pumps the way they come. I will get you a part number for the pump assembly.

You can call Melling and ge their advise if you wnt to rebuld. The whole pump is only around 100.

I gave some thought to your problm earlier.

What weight oil are you using? I didn't see it earlier.

If you are using multi weight it might be heaing up and be to thin for your bearing clearances.

Try runnung straight 40 weight for a little while and see if the presure range changes a little. It might not drop as much after it heats up. If that is the case, then it might just be about running the right oil. I need to read back on this thread and see if thi has been discussed all ready.

jeff1000man

Filter first and then the cooler is right, but is it coming out of the right hole coming from the block. I know your probably OK, easy way to check is to take off the filter. Crank to engine over and make sure that the oil is coming out of the center.

Nova 26

Jeff1000, I use gold cap mobil 1 oil, 15-50. Have not tried a single weight oil, I can try that, but this winter, I have my engine out anyway and figured I'd try and correct this problem while it was easy to change everything. I may just buy a new oil pump, but the one in the engine now only has 50 hours run time on it and I was hoping a new pressure spring might just solve the problem.

ROB FREEMAN

airation, drop oil level 1 qt , see if this helps , just a thought , although when i got my 598 first back , id loose oil pressure just as stated , verry frustrating tryed everthing . ended up sendin g engine back to find out they didnt clearence the pan gasket enough and the crank caught the gasket and sucket it into the pump , thus causing the oil pressure to be great cold . but would run to 30 psi before id shut her down , dislodge and then suck back in , DAM I WAS PISSED , lost whole summer and was very frustrating too , good luck

articfriends

At a 100 psi I'm worried about scalloping the distributer gear and possible spark scatter from the distributer going crazy trying to turn the pump but I guess I'm worrying about nothing,thanks for the reassurance. Our water temp here is quite often in the 60's also and I run a 14qt pan,it takes a while to get the oil warmed enough where I'm comfortable that the valve springs are warmed up enough to run hard. If I'm just running around without long distance continous running I run 11 or 12 qts instead of filling the pan to the max. I do have a oil cooler with a thermostatic bypass. As far as the extra timing chain oiling,I had rollers on a good cloyes true roller set start to get small pits in the rollers when I tore the motor down to freshen it at 114 hours,I figured they were galling from a lack of lube. In the past I have used rollmaster premium timing sets on small blocks and they always insist that you make some kind of a provision for "extra" chain/thrust bearing oiling,either a small oil channel in the cam bearing or a small spray hole in the face of the block over a oil passage or a gallery plug.
In the past (before this dart block)I used 20w/50 kendall (I know its no longer as good as it used to be) or ran mobil1 vtwin 20w/50 and ran straight50 wt if running in real warm water on vacation. I have never had any bearing problems,everytime I have freshened/rebuilt my 540 they looked like new (120 hours or so) but I'm not trying to get 200 plus hours out of it either,Smitty

PatriYacht

Nova 26 I would agree oil aeration. High rpm running for long periods of time require good oil control. A deep Dooley oil pan. windage tray and a scraper are what I'm using along with the high volume oil pump. This is what I'd like to get. http://www.billetfab.com/index.htm 100 psi at cold idle is nothing to worry about.

Nova 26

Patri and all the others, thanks for all the input, I think my next step will be to replace the stock 6 qt oil pan with a 10-14 quart pan. Anybody have one for a gen 6 block cheap?