Oil pressure issue

[FLYIN-9]

Ok guys, I'm at a loss & need some help! 2.3 ford. I bought a running, race winning, short block with aprox 6 races. I checked it over before installing & all looked new. I bought an already worked head, but had it checked over, & changed the cam & springs. this is a non roller. Cold oil pressure is 40. after running the cam brake in for 30 minutes, & dropped the idle speed to 1500 rpms, it dropped to 15!! The cam bearings are not slotted. I noticed that the 2 center cam towers were drilled & tapped but were not capped. I capped them off but only gained a couple pounds of pressure. I was running a remote oil filter & even unhooked it & put a filter back on the block. Any Ideas? Thanks for any help or ideas you may have. F-9

[Browndog]

Did you have the oil pan off?

[car62]

could be sucking air somewhere,could be wront bearing tolerances, could be weak oil pump

[FLYIN-9]

Well pulled all the rod & main caps, rods look good, but mains looked pretty rough. The guy I bought it from couldn't remember what the engine came out of. The block # is, E89E-6015-AD, & crank is E89EAB. Thanks for any info you may have. Our Ford dealer can't seem to look up much more than oil filter!!! LOL...

[Browndog]

It sounds like you need to find someone that knows what they are doing in your area that can go look at it for you. A fellow racer perhaps?

[FLYIN-9]

Well, pulled the pan. The rod bearings looked good, but all of the mains showed a good amount of wear. Also checked the oil pump & valve was not stuck. I'm going to put all new bearings & a turbo oil pump in. I did notice on the last 2 main caps, someone has put some punch marks where the bearing goes. Could that be for more oiling to those bearings? I've never seen that before. Thanks, F-9

[car62]

go with a Melling M-127 pump, also check your main clearances...or just buy a motor from me,custom built to your specs!!!

[FLYIN-9]

yea "62" wish I could !! Is there such a thing as oversized cam bearings if the head is line bored?

[1195]

FLYIN-9
Just throwing out a couple ideas. You said the cam bearings are not "slotted" Do you mean on the outside or inside?
The improved oiling cam bearings are grooved on the outside and require the holes in the cam towers to be plugged.
Did you check to see if the plug was in the rear of the cam?
Good luck

[FLYIN-9]

Ok, found the problem!! You can't make this stuff up. here's what I found out. Now keep this in mind, this guy works in a machine shop. Was putting in a new cam & bearings. When putting the new cam bearings in it was found that the head had been line bored so the bearings were too small. Now the good part. the OLD bearings were put back in the head, & were "smoothed up". Looks like they used a grinder disc to do the smoothing. after pulling the cam out, you could tell it had high & low spots & deep gouges in each bearing. Anyway I'm blasting this guy, & getting the correct bearings. Thanks to all who posted their thoughts!! F-9

[Z53racing]

You should say the name of the shop to help other racers beware. In my experience and my engine guys says 10 lbs for every 1,000 rpm. My car has to much pressure and stays at 60-70 all the time. Any thoughts

[Browndog]

You should say the name of the shop to help other racers beware. In my experience and my engine guys says 10 lbs for every 1,000 rpm. My car has to much pressure and stays at 60-70 all the time. Any thoughts

What does your "engine guy" say?

[FLYIN-9]

Hey Browndog, I never said anything to him. He just wont do anything else for me. I've since found out, he's not done much with the performance side with the 2.3's!! Wish I knew that sooner...