Update: MC engine - low oil pressure

[EBavely]

Marc...

> As I recall your oil cooler is mounted in front of the radiator..
> correct?

Yes, it is.

>That means that you must have a decent length of big diameter
> line leading uphill to the coooler..

Well, the two lines are probably about 3- 4 feet long and it's 12.5 mm hose
connected to the AN8 fittings.

>so if the thermostat is sticking
> open it is possible that the pressure drop is due to the
> location/distance from the source of the oil cooler.  Then again now
> that you are only seeing low pressure when warm it could just be that
> your pump simply isn't strong enough to push oil uphill through your
> cooler and still maintain a decent oil pressure (say, ~20psi+ at idle
> when warm).

I had thought of this as well, but another friend said that as soon as the
air was out of the cooler lines and cooler, that it would create a sealed
hydraulic circuit and that there shouldn't be a signifigant drop in the
pressure.  Setrab confirmed that there'd be only a few psi drop going across
their cooler.

Plus, the stock 5kt has a cooler with bigger lines than I'm using and the
system was designed for this... and others have put the cooler in front of
the radiator and have had it work out fine.  I wonder if my oil cooler is
too big? It's either a 13 or 16 row... Hmmm...  Blockage in the brand new
cooler?

>I would suggest buying some AN caps or use some other means
> to seal off the oil cooler fittings and see what happens.

Good idea... I might see if the hose place has anything like this.  I could
also make a short bypass loop with the extra hose I have from the oil cooler
lines....

>Maybe even a
> brand new pump would have trouble maintaining pressure due to this..

Yikes... yeah, I'm dreading changing oil pumps.  What a gigantic hassle. I
don't want to deal with getting that crank pulley off and pulling the front
back off the car.  Maybe I'll put the pan back on and do the bypass type
thing first before doing that.

Thanks for your help.

Elliott