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Cleveland Enquiries oil pressure, compression pressure

10K views 7 replies 7 participants last post by  ebxr8240 
#1 ·
i'm going to check out some clevo engines and need to know what sort of oil pressure a healthy engine should have and what sort of compression pressure should i get when i do a compression test?
are there any other tell tale signs i need to keep an eye out for?
 
#2 ·
I just got my cleveland back on the road today, I rebuilt it because of the two things you asked about. Compression should be 110-140psi, mine had 60psi !!!!!!!(302 numbers quoted but I doubt the 351 is much different)

Oil pressure not sure of the number and the service manual is at another guys house tonight. Mine was great pressure when cold but none when hot, big end bearings were rooted in the highest order. (S-pack dash pressure gauge is all I used)

Make sure you get the cleveland to operating temperature before you test anything. When mine got hot and the oil pressure backed off the tappets got very noisy (lifters collapsing). As a plus it looks like the engine I bought had bad big end bearings for many years and was in a daily driver, after all this the crank was still good as new.

I put in new rings, bearings (mains, big ends, cam), new cam (cant tell yout the details but not stock). Running very well today, sounds nice on the single system exhaust, thats the next part of the project).

Adrian
XD Ute, 302C, XG front.
 
#3 ·
excellent, i bought an engine from an F100 wrecker in brissy and it was all rusted in the inlet manifold and i could see rust stains in the exhaust port also, when i tried to crank the motor over it was seized up and stuff.
 
#4 ·
My mate and I tested his stock standard 302 from his 28yo XB coupe. It had 150psi in most cyls and 145psi in two pots. Retest found all @ 150psi. Thats a 302 and XB coupe that was a genuine 1 owner and never touched but maintained car.

If it's getting around 130psi it's time to supercharge or turbo it as the compresion is around 8.8:1 @ 150psi the compressions 9.2:1.

Decent performance motor wants atleast 10:1.

Brenden
 
#5 ·
I believe that the oil pressure should be in the vicinty of 400 to 500 kpa at running temperature and running speed. When the engine is hot and idling it will drop off to approx 300 kpa but remember that at idle loads are less and you still have a the dynamic/wedge type lubrication.

Most importantly, as stated above, make sure that there are no noise's, lifters and big end noise's, and you should be right. It might be prudent to check that the seller has not filled the sump with heavy oil or the like. This is best done whilst the engine is cold.
 
#6 ·
brenx said:
My mate and I tested his stock standard 302 from his 28yo XB coupe. It had 150psi in most cyls and 145psi in two pots. Retest found all @ 150psi. Thats a 302 and XB coupe that was a genuine 1 owner and never touched but maintained car.

If it's getting around 130psi it's time to supercharge or turbo it as the compresion is around 8.8:1 @ 150psi the compressions 9.2:1.

Decent performance motor wants atleast 10:1.

Brenden
If its getting readings that low, it could also be a very tired motor and the last thing you would want to do to that would be put a Super Charger on it..
 
#7 ·
mine was the car brenx was talking about my oil pressure gauge reads 70 psi aswell.not bad from amotor that was put together 28years ago. all thats been repalced was the cam and chain manifold(to a stock cast iron 4 bbl) and a holley. And she has done 202000klms and still going strong.
 
#8 · (Edited)
I found my old Clevo had valve guide seals parts in sump, which wore out oil pump. All that was done though heads,valve gear cam,chain and new Mellings oil pump with bigger sump.It had over 400.000 Klrs on it...Tmk it's still going...

Compression test before o/h was 120- 140 after heads overhaull all over 160+ Lp Oil pressure never dropped too much say 35 idle hot and 55-65 around 2000 rpm. The mellings high volume held it up 50 idle and 75-80 when crusing..No point in checking bearing when oil pressure is good...
After seeing seals in sump, I checked oil pump...
 
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