Cam/Head Swap Disaster.......

xLURKxDOGx said

It ran strong for 45 seconds and was a fresh engine before cam issue. To be honest, the water issue is secondary to the high pressure blowing out the oil filter. And actually, I did pull the oil pump and put a new/used one on since I found some bits of cam in the pump. Could a relieve valve spring on the pump cause this sort of problem? Thanks

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OK, so more than cam, heads and intake were worked on right before this happened? To your question, can a relief valve spring cause an oil filter gasket to blow out? Yup, absolutely. If the relief shuttle sticks closed, if it's shimmed too much or the spring rate is too high, oil pressure will not be regulated and the oiling system will see full pressure. In theory, the pump could provide pressure into the hundreds of pounds if the relief valve doesn't function.

As to the point of the water causing higher pressure, water is zero viscosity (Edit: I just checked the graphs, at 90 degrees F, it would have a viscosity of about .2, slightly above 0) so, all things being equal, it "should" have lower pressure in an oiling system as it would leak down quicker. (Not that you can substitute water for oil) The other aspect is that all fluids are incompressible, they function as a solid in a closed system. Oil does not compress, if it did, hydraulic systems in presses, jacks and front end loaders would not function.

Tom