Re: Hot oil Pressure Problems.

[stans4@ibm.net (Stan Schaefer)]

Having had an oil pump spin its shaft and the engine seize, I wouldn't
be running around with that engine at all until I cured the low oil
pressure.  At a minimum, it should be 6 psi at low idle, preferably
more.  If your non-warranty buddies at your engine shop drilled and
tapped for fittings with the engine together, I wouldn't be surprised
that you have some shavings caught in one or the other of the oil
system's plungers.  These are easy to clean if a bit messy.  Just
unscrew the plug on each one, fore and aft, in turn and pull the
plunger out and clean out the hole.  You'd better have a pan
underneath to catch the oil that comes out.  I've found that a pair of
long surgical hemostats works pretty well, you expand them inside the
hollow on the bottom, the plunger comes right out.  If you drain the
oil first, that helps.

Otherwise it could be a lot of things, all expensive and/or tedious to
fix.  You could have a worn or badly installed oil pump, a leaky or
loose pickup tube, worn bearings.  If it's a line-bored case, it could
have been badly done.  Gene Berg didn't think much of line-boring, he
claimed that the life was too short after that was done.  My
experience has been the same.  My original engine had been line-bored
by the PO and was on 4th oversize, it barely made 10K miles before the
oil pressure was at about 5 lbs.  I replaced it with a new universal
case, idle pressure was 10-12 psi.



On Wed, 6 May 1998 23:05:58 -0600, you wrote:

>In my '66 square, I have a 1914 and a super street trans with the lower
>geared fourth gear for lower highway RPM's, with an external oil filter
>and remote oil cooler, the "quick cool" kind.Shortly after I had got the
>car back from the engine shop who put all this neat stuff in, I noticed
>that my oil pressure light would go on  after a fairly long(2o miles or
>longer) drive at the stop lights when the engine was below 1200 rpm. So,
>to have more knowledge of what was going on in the car, I put in a oil
>press gauge, a cyl head gauge, and an oil temp gauge.  After doing this,
>I noticed that I had 65psi at startup, 30-35psi driving around town at
>moderate rpm's, and about 2psi at the light after a good haul. After a
>long drive, 40 miles or more, I barely made the needle move on the
>pressure gauge, until I revved the engine up past 1500-1800 rpm's. My cyl
>head temps were "normal" ranging from 300-400 degrees F depending on
>terrain. After the short hauls around town, my oil temp was a good 215
>deg. F, and the long ones 250 deg F plus! You could imagine my concern! I
>looked at where the oil cooler was mounted, and the jerks mounted it rite
>above the tranny! At first I bypassed the cooler, to see if it was
>cooling the oil or heating it, and the temp lowered to a long haul temp
>of about 215 deg F. So, I decided a shabby, non-permanent mounting  of
>the cooler to the front axle beam was necessary to determine what
>"correct" placement of the cooler would do. Since the move, my temps have
>NEVER gone much above 180 deg F!!  NEVER put the cooler anywhere but in
>direct air, and especially over the tranny. 
>Still, I have the problem with the oil pressure. True, it might take more
>time to get to the point of 1 or 2 psi at idle, but not too much longer.
>My local parts guy, who has a 64 crew cab with a 2110 and no external oil
>cooler says that his engine (rebuilt the same time as mine) runs at 45-60
>psi on the highway, and 10-20 psi at idle, but just not on hot days. He
>says my oil pressure is not supposed to be that low, and something sounds
>fishy. I think it might be one of the two plungers (I have a newer case),
>either the oil bypass plunger or the oil pressure plunger. The shop that
>built my motor doesn't seem to want to offer an answer, so I'm putting it
>to all of you. Any help is appreciated. 
>Thanks,
>Nathaniel Miller
>'66 squareback
>'75 beetle
>
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