oil pressure loss - Ford Forums

08-24-2002, 17:37

i'm having an oil pressure problem this has just started recently. at idle when hot it drops to almost 0 and even when the engine is cold it will never climb above 40psi i have confirmed the pressure with a gauge set so it's not the gauge i dropped the oil pan and pulled the pickup tube and oil pump the tube had a couple of little gasket pieces on the screen but nothing major i took the oil pump apart and cleaned it up it looked fine there was no junk in the pump and after putting it all back together still the same pressure i did find recently a couple of small gasket pieces on top of my oil filter when i changed it and when i drained the oil this time there was a bunch of fine silver metal flakes in it i figure the gasket pieces came from when i installed the cam or when i changed head gaskets i always change the oil after opening the motor up but i guess some junk got left behind where the metal flakes came from i don't know i figure bearings the motor is a '92 302 ho stock shortblock except for a custom ground cam. gt-40 y aluminum heads w/ 1.7 rockers intake and 1.6 on exhaust side and a trickflow track heat intake it has about 130,000 miles on it the oil pressure issue has just started it had great oil pressure before now.also the pressure relief valve in the pump wasn't stuck open. any help is greatly appreciated.

Gearhead99 · 08-25-2002, 18:00

Check the main bearings while you have the pan down.
I think you'll find that they have a wide clearance.

cougar190 · 09-10-2002, 11:09

I agree with dave !! we have a "79" F-150 w/302 3 or so years ago we experienced the same problem , so I pulled the motor installed a new crank and bearings, problem solved !!