No oil pressure at idle

krazykuda said

Have you checked to make sure that the oil galley cup plugs are installed that go behind the camshaft thrust plate??? I had a similar problem like this once before and that was the cause, the machine shop didn't put the cup plugs in the oil galleys behind the thrust plate...

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Early small blocks did not use plugs since the thrust plate was machined to seal the oil galleries. Somewhere along the line that changed, not sure when. I have a stash of 60's and early 70's engines, none have the plugs in the oil galleries behind the cam thrust plate. I too have run HV, HP oil pumps with stock pans and never had oil issues. Ran a mechanical Stewart Warner oil pressure gauge and the 273 would see 7,000 rpm regularly.