I have problem keep my "rebuilt" engine running and have a few questions.

I have oil pressure and it flows oil up to the head. But after I stop cranking it can take a long time before the oil pressure light comes on again. Is this normal that there are so much pressure left sometimes several miuntes after I stopped cranking.

One problem might be a bad battery but when I started this engine before I teared it down it started very easy. It backfired thru exhaust and carb. Which indicate it running lean or and rich or bad timing. I have set the timing so it fires up but does not have that last little power to keep it running. Sorry for beeing scatter brain right now but I have really put my heart to this build and done everything slowly and how it should be. But right know I feel like is some small issue giving me this problem and want to burn it to the ground for threating me this way.

So if someone have some suggestion what to do I would appriciate that. Since my temper keep me lose my rational side.

A newly-rebuilt engine has very tight clearances so it can take quite awhile for oil pressure to bleed down. But several minutes is unusually long. What grade of oil have you put in the engine?

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

10w30 mineral and 1 quart 15w40 mineral diesel oil. I know it's to thick but I had no option where I live. So there are no problem with it acting like this?

The sender for the light could be wonky. It would be worthwhile putting a mechanical gauge on it just to see exactly what the oil pressure is really doing.

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That's probably wise. I actually bought a gauge to have when breaking in the cam in my 318. But probably wise to check the actual pressure. But what can cause the pressure not bleeding of fast enough?

I charging the battery so I can try again tomorrow. Going to focus to get it start up and running right. I hope I get my NOS BBD so I can run it instead of my rebuilt 318 BBD, which runned good before. Then I must deassemble the rocker shaft and lifters to put some more break in lube.

It may be the switch acting weird. Maybe it's sticking? It could have nothing to do with the true oil pressure.

_________________
--> Check out my FI Turbo build <--
--> And the race truck build project <--
--> The Diesel Corvette <--

I got the engine running good after charging the battery, set timing better and change distributor cap.

After I did the break in I checked if the lifters rotated and they all did rotate. So I'm happy everything went good.

I didn't hook up the oil pressure gauge gauge. But today I checked the oil pressure and I have 55-58psi at idle but when I rev the engine it went down to 30psi. I checked a second time and the pressure didn't drop immediately but after rev it a little higher(~2500rpm) it dropped fast to about 10psi so I shutted it down. It's a new pump what can cause this intermittent pressure drop at higher rpm. Oil level is good also.

After shut down I can hear small "burst" of oil drain back is that normal?

That is way, way, WAY too high.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

I know it sounds high. I read that if you have to much oil you can loose pressure at higher rpm. I had to much oil on the dipstick so I drained 1/2 quart of oil. Now I have more normal pressure att idle 10-30psi but now the pressure drops at lower rpm. I think it must suck air in the oil pan or pick up.

Disregard the last post I wrote the pressure is acting like discribed before.

Here is a clip showing what I'm talking about. Sorry for the clip beeing upside down.


My gauge in the clip is in bar so therefore I posted the pic of the gauge with both psi and bar together for easy cross reference.

Sticking bypass valve?

_________________
--> Check out my FI Turbo build <--
--> And the race truck build project <--
--> The Diesel Corvette <--

Removed the relief valve and took a 800 grit paper and sanded it smooth so it slides in without a effort.

I have ordered a mechanical gauge since I don't trust the cheap electric gauge to much. Another thing could be that I dont have the alternator hooked up so I use a battery charger to charge the old run down battery. Maybe when my rpm goes up the load on the battery make the voltage to drop which in turn slowly shuts the gauge down.

I think that is a good idea,if it's a new pump there have been reports of relief valves sticking in Ford aftermarket Mellings pumps,always polish the relief valve and hone the bore to remove any sharp edges. A lot of these well known brands lack the quality control they used to have. I think fitting a mechanical gauge is a very good idea to see exactly what pressure you have.

I think I found the problem today after removing the oil pan. The oil pickup was pointing way to high and didn't have a interference fit with the oil pan either. I read after I had mounted the oil pan about how the oil pickup should be mounted. Leason learned