Crabby oil pressure problem

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Most likely I will. This blows but better be safe than sorry. And I've always ran Rotella 15w 40 for over 10 years in my dart as well as my other classic cars and never had a problem! Definitely good oil!
 
Get an oil priming shaft and spin the oil pump as you tear the engine down a little at a time. Look for oil gushing out somewhere, that will be where you are loosing pressure. That is the best way to find it on your engine. You can change parts and gaskets all day long and hope it was the problem, but spinning the pump and looking for oil gushing is the only way to 100% make sure what your problem is...

Start with the rocker arm covers and intake, then front timing chain cover, then if needed get into the block. I recommend to start "at the top" and work your way down until you find it...
 
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schwinger said:
The dipstick was not the original one but I put 5 quarts in plus another one for the filter and made my own mark on the dipstick. unless these magnum engines take more oil I'm not too sure about that. I can try another gauge to see if that might be the problem.
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That's not right. A stock engine takes 5 quarts including the filter. The filter takes 3/4 of a quart, and the engine gets the other 4 1/4 quarts.... (If you are using the proper Mopar filter)...
 
I corrected myself after bobscuda67's post that it's a total of 5 quarts not 6. My mistake. I'll try to yank the engine out as soon as I can and keep you guys updated but thanks for all the replies and great info on what to look for!
 
Ok got the engine out, took covers off and primed the engine. It's getting oil to the rockers but not gushing out anywhere. So moved on to removing the timing cover exposing the timing chain Primed it again and it was gushing like a sob behind the cam thrust plate drivers side oil galley. I took off the thrust plate and the galley plugs are still in there but I remember drilling a hole in the drivers side plug since the original plug had a tiny hole in it but i might of drilled it to big since it was literally gushing. Also did a little research and some blocks don't have the oil hole and some do, can someone give me insight that. Im still gona take the pan off tho and check clearances since the engine is already out just to be on the safe side.
 
schwinger said:
Ok got the engine out, took covers off and primed the engine. It's getting oil to the rockers but not gushing out anywhere. So moved on to removing the timing cover exposing the timing chain Primed it again and it was gushing like a sob behind the cam thrust plate drivers side oil galley. I took off the thrust plate and the galley plugs are still in there but I remember drilling a hole in the drivers side plug since the original plug had a tiny hole in it but i might of drilled it to big since it was literally gushing. Also did a little research and some blocks don't have the oil hole and some do, can someone give me insight that. Im still gona take the pan off tho and check clearances since the engine is already out just to be on the safe side.
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Replace the galley plugs behind the thrust plate with ones that don't have holes.
 
I was not aware of holes there... but I don't know everything by any means. Perhaps this is being confused with the hole in the upper passenger side thrust plate bolt, that leaks oil out onto the chain from the valley?

When you primed the engine, the cam has to be turned to a specific angle for each side before yo get full oiling to the rockers. Did you do that?
 
I think I got lucky on the cam position because just about all of them were oiling. There was 2 that wasnt oiling well but took off those 2 and had no abnormal wear. Probably wasn't positioned right for them 2. Did my bearing clearances and on the mains and all checked out ok at .002 one at 1.5 but the biggest was .003 on the thrust bearing but the thrust clearance was a tight .006. And the rod bearing just about all were .0015 and biggest which was only one was .002. Rod side to side clearance tho were all over the place #1 .021 #2 .012 #3 16 and #4 .012 these measurements were taken between the caps. Wonder if this might also be a problem and couldn't find any specs on that.
 
According to my FSM the spec for rod side clearance is .009-.017", it's only #1 that's out of range but it doesn't seem like much (someone else confirm??). I have heard of drilling the plug behind the cam thrust plate, to me it seems like overkill as long as you have that special cam plate bolt with the hole drilled through it that allows oil drainoff from the valley to lube the timing chain.
 
Cam bearings looked great, no problems there, lifters looked great so i visually checked everything else, didn't see no abnormal wear so I ended up buttoning it back up last night. Put a plug in with no oil hole behind the thrust plate. Put timing cover back on, checked pickup tube clearance and made sure it was an 1/8. Bolted pan back on put oil in it and primed the engine. Oil pressure went way up an extra 20 psi!!! Before when I primed the engine the pressure was at 65 with a cordless drill. Now its at 85 psi with the same drill!!! I believe that plug with the hole I drilled was the problem bcs it was really gushing out when I primed it and everything else checked out ok.
 
Okydoky got it in after roasting my *** of today in the hot char boiling sun. Fired her up and DAAAM pressure went way up. Cold pressure at idle was 60 and when I revved it went up to 85!!!! Warmed up idle pressure was at 35 psi at 600 rpms and when I revved it pressure was at 65! Took a nice 30 mile drive and pressure was great! cruising was 65 psi and took it into the nearby city. Above 1500 rpms in 1st 2nd and 3rd gear it was a nice solid 65 psi! Finally!!! Took care of this dilemma!! Noticed Pressure did rise just a tiny bit probably 2 lbs momentarily when I let off but nothing big like before so I'm believe that's fine. Wonder if the pvc system might have somthing to do with the momentary spike also since I do hear it sucking up pretty good compared to my other car that has a 360 in it. Probably higher vacuum idk but engine is running like a champ and I'm glad this is taken care of and thank you guys a lot for the tips, info and what to look for!! Won't make this dam mistake twice!
 
Good deal.

And for anyone reading this and wondering about the rod side clearance..... brand new SCAT (and maybe Eagle) I beam rods put the rod side clearance up to the neighborhood for .025-.027", which is not any issue for my son's 340. It runs full pressure (65 ish) no problem hot and cruising with that side clearance. Of course, none of us have pressure gauges right on the rod journal to know exactly what the pressure is to the rod bearings LOL, but no problems so far.
 
hard to believe mopar had this camplate, and I like to use 4 bolts
cam plate.jpg
 
That's the same one I have in my block and since the original plug had the hole I figure I do same but I had no luck finding a plug the had the hole in it so I drilled a hole to mimic the original plug Drilled it close to the original size but must of been a tad to big to give me this problem. Lesson learned but that 4th hole on the drivers side the drip tab has a small tab that goes into that hole so a 4th bolt can't be used if using that tab. Also I don't recall seeing a threaded hole there when I had the thrust plate off so im pretty sure it was only 3 threaded holes only but I could be wrong. I have over 300 miles now and still running strong so all is well and a huge load off my mind!!!
 
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