When to worry about engine noises?

RustyRatRod said

I'm not questioning that, I'm sure it's right. It makes sense. The ID of the rocker shaft is what? 5/8"? You'd need WAY more volume than an HV pump could flow to reach a measurable amount of pressure. But again, we're not talking about a rocker shaft assembly here since it's a Magnum based engine.

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Actually, you can gain a bunch of flow (and by that pressure) with a HV pump and a decent idle speed. No less than 900 and no more than 1050 RPM if he tune up is correct.

If you can’t get it with just the HV pump, you groove the cam to get full oil there all the time. Every roller cam I’ve ever seen is grooved.

I have grooved some of my SFT stuff when I was shifting those at 8000.


All these guys snapping their suspenders about how cool they are with no oil pressure have never tested it. I’d bet my life on it.

I have. And every time the pressure went up, the power went up. Within reason. My last stuff was 110 pounds at 8500 and it was making an average of 15 HP better everywhere.

Not everyone is doing that. But it illustrates that if you don’t test this stuff and just assume what everyone says or every magazine says it right you don’t know what you don’t know.

Low idle oil pressure is damned stupid on a Chrysler. It’s dumb on everything else. You might (maybe) save 3, maybe 4 HP at idle with low oil pressure. Maybe. I suggest you are losing power.