Oil pressure low at idle when warm

[Andyvinn1]

I agree. Just trying to help him keep the oil pan on for now.

The truck does come with a factory oil cooler. I had 5w synthetic blend, drained it and put in 10w conventional oil it now. In hopes that the pressure would come up.

 

[Andyvinn1]

I'm not opposed to adjusting the throttle and have it idle at about 1k RPM when the oil is warm and in gear. Just to have the pressure go up to were I'm "good" with it. But, if i do have a mechanical issue it's going to show up later. The cam is about .5 on both intake and exhaust lobes. Biggest lobe i could get without having to change the stall converter. The intake is an Edelbrock pro Flo 4 XT with a 90mm throttle body with 24 lb injectors. So I don't know if those changes would affect the oil pressure. The Howard's Cam is a retrofit kit with roller lifters. The reason I used that one specifically was that it was made to be a direct replacement to the flat tappet. If the bearings on the camshaft are bad would i be getting other issues other than the low oil pressure at idle with the oil at operating temperature?

 

[Frank Enstein]

I'm not opposed to adjusting the throttle and have it idle at about 1k RPM when the oil is warm and in gear. Just to have the pressure go up to were I'm "good" with it. But, if i do have a mechanical issue it's going to show up later. The cam is about .5 on both intake and exhaust lobes. Biggest lobe i could get without having to change the stall converter. The intake is an Edelbrock pro Flo 4 XT with a 90mm throttle body with 24 lb injectors. So I don't know if those changes would affect the oil pressure. The Howard's Cam is a retrofit kit with roller lifters. The reason I used that one specifically was that it was made to be a direct replacement to the flat tappet. If the bearings on the camshaft are bad would i be getting other issues other than the low oil pressure at idle with the oil at operating temperature?

The oil pressure you have is enough but just barely.

You are laboring under a couple of misconceptions;

The first number in an oil's viscosity effects cold oil pressure. The "W" means Winter so a 10W30 acts like a 10 weight oil when cold and a 30 weight oil when hot. Changing the second number to a higher one may increase pressure. So a 10W40 may help you achieve higher oil pressure when hot.

Either synthetic oil or an oil cooler can help the oil pressure when hot. The first by keeping the oil cooler and the second by being more stable. Synthetic oil doesn't have as many additives in it to help stay thick when hot as the molecules tend to stay thicker when hot naturally.

The lift of the cam has very little to do with idle quality or rpm range. Duration (advertised) and lobe separation have the biggest effect on idle quality and duration @ .050" lobe lift and lobe separation dictate rpm range and shape of the torque curve. More lift with everything else equal will make more torque if the heads will flow more at the higher lift so it is important too but it is only one parameter that affects how the engine will run with a certain camshaft.

A bit higher idle is fine to do as long as the drivability isn't compromised.

Do you know what the rod and main bearing clearances are?

 

[DamHoodlum]

What Brand Oil Filter Are You Running?
Please Don't Be FRAM

 

[Frank Enstein]

What he said!

 

[Andyvinn1]

Thanks for the oil information, didn't know that's what the number stamp was. Using AC Delco filter PF-52. I don't know what the bearing clearance is off hand. I'll dig through my pile of paperwork to hopefully get the specifics.
Also, how much oil should I be getting out around the lifters? Would the lifters have anything to do with oil pressure?

 

[Andyvinn1]

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[BOOT]

Cut the oil filter to see if it's full of bearing material.

 

[Erik the Awful]

Super Chevy used to have a great article on all the block plugs, and I know that without the article I'd have missed the plug under the rear main cap. I just googled it and MotorTrend chopped the article down to a single paragraph and a handful of pics, so not worth reading any more. Did you get all the block plugs in place?

 

[alpinecrick]

What Brand Oil Filter Are You Running?
Please Don't Be FRAM

Good thought, and that reminds me.
Full synthetic oil filters have obviously restricted flow in both of my 5.7 Vortecs. If you are running a synthetic media filter try a Wix 51036 (not the P series) or NAPA Gold 1036 (not the Platinum).

Edit: I see you're running a AC Delco filter--is it paper or a synthetic media?