[slow_3.0_ranger]

So as the title says I have a 1994 Ford ranger I’ve got a 302 in that I just got back together after putting a cam and springs in, after breaking in the cam I took it on a test drive and was cruising about 5 miles in the oil pressure gauge started fluctuating a little but not too much. Shortly after a knock could be heard whenever I gave it some throttle but not a bottom end knock sounded like top end, limped it the mile back and coasted down my hill and got it in the shop where I pulled the valve cover to find the rockers having very excessive slop in them. Pulled a few off and they are very worn but this may be installation error as I’m not sure my dad lined the oiling grooves up. My question is would this cause the oil pressure to drop? It will get very low at idle but it’s not too noticeable when revved a little, I’m very new to engine building but I’m a diesel mechanic and want to see some opinions. Some have said that maybe my higher tension valve springs aren’t agreeing with my rockers where some have said maybe cam bearing and some say bottom end is bad. I’m pretty confident in the bottom end though as I’ve never been into it and I’ve put a few hundred miles on it. Any thoughts different than what I’ve said? Any prior experience with this issue?

 

[R.S.LOGAN]

Oil pump / oil pump screen partially blocked ? could check oil pressure with a master gauge to verify or not

 

[slow_3.0_ranger]

I’ll be pulling it out in a few days to check everything over. The oil pressure never fully dropped off though just lower than normal operating range and rockers are fried.