so my idle oil pressure is supper low so im going to drop the pan and clean off the pic up screen and all so change the main bearing, should i change the rod bearings as well will that be over kill and crazy hard. idk

so looks like my car will be out for a couple of days

 

Did you add an oil pressure guage or are you still running the idiot light? I added guage to my 69 , 455 since my light would flicker at idle. After talking about it with a few guys on this site and a couple around here about the 455 they seemed to indicate that running between 10-15 lbs at idle was fine. They also suggested not to go with a high flow pump as it may drain the pan. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

 

you will have to lift the engine up to get the pan off. you may want to just pull the engine out. i would change the oil pump and not bother cleaning the old one.

 

yes i got a gauge it runs low right at 10 some times dipping lower im not going to get a high flow oil pump(it will put all the oil up top and run out). i might get a new pump but the pickup is probably dirty but the thing that makes oil presher is the bearings not the pump so i bought new main bearings and also conecting bearings so im preaty much going to rebild the boudem end. cant pull the engine out no lift and dont know any one with one so ill jack it up pop some wood under it and then work wile laying on my back. bought a new distrubeter too mag pickup every thing will be hear tomorrow

got the enigen jacked up and set on wood blocks done for to day tomorrow i drop the pan and get to some work the oil pump is 35 bucks should i just get one. i think yes?

 

you are right about the barrings and oil pressure but i would also get a pump while you are there.

 

How many miles are on the engine? Just to let you know, it might not be just the bearings that are worn, the crank might be also. It would be a good idea to get a machine shop to measure the crank and see if it needs turned. Changing the bearings might only help a little.

 

56010 miles so maybe it turned over but from the looks and compression test i dont think so probably some crap scored the bearings and messed them up and it all cloud just be that the pickup screen is supper clogged and ill go ahead and chang the pump while im down there

 

get yourself some plastic gauge and check the crank and rod clearence to verify if the crank is within the original specs. also check for scouring. I would recomend pulling the engine and doing a rebuild. If there is any scouring at all it will just ruin the new bearings.

 

Well im a college student so a full rebuild is out of my price range i just spent all most all of my savings on all of the parts new water pump timing set mag disturber gaskets radiator tools odds and ends. the only problem im having now is that i can’t get this stupid oil pan to drop have all the bolts off 4 1/2 and then like 16 3/8 it seemed all the ones around the sides of the pan that’s it right tried using some pbc blaster hitting with a rubber mallet nothing maybe I’ll just have to pull the engine out all the way to get to it a little ezer and pop that thing off

 

well after talking to a lot of people i dont think i need to replace the bearings i mean there was no noised coming from them. ill just replace the oil pump and if i drive a round and see it go back down then ill do them

 

i have the same budget restrictions you do so doing it yourself is a good idea but don't be afraid to ask questions along the way. i pulled off the oilpan from my 69-98 / 455 without pulling out the motor and it was not easy. The biggest problem is getting the front of the pan past the crank so I had to jack the motor up so high that the fan blade cracked the fan shroud. Something to watch for if you have not pulled off the pan yet. Once mine is back together I will run new oil for 500 km or less then change. I also will run some rad. flush to clean out some of the crap I found in the rad. and bottom of block. Then change that around the same time. If you have an oil guage do you have good oil pressure during acceleration and at higher speeds -65mph?

 

I HATE oil pans.... when you put the gasket in be sure it is 100% PERFECT I did mine twice to get it right...What a disaster hope i never have to do it again... my manual says that i'm ok with as little as 5 lbs... mabye you could get away with just running some higher visc. oil in it untill you can afford a new rebuild... I don't know whats it like in FL but in my cars the manual tels me to run 5 in the winter and 10 in the summer... I don't know what i'm getting at here but i started out with a point and i lost it. I guess it couldn't have been that important....

 

Very important to make sure the gasket is sealed properly. When I did mine I used some permatex and rubbed a thin film on the oil pan then put on the gasket , this helps to hold it in place, then did the same to the top. A critical point is where the gasket meets the front and rear seals so make sure you have lots of a good sealer, like permatex at these points and you should be fine.

 

well its all back together now runs awesome the oil psi is idle around 30 drives around 58 is all i did was change the oil pump to a new higher flowing one just 20% more after looking at my old oil pump the gasket around the blades for the pump had been going may be making the oil leek out back in to the pan but it works grate now today im going to in stall the new hei distubter now i need that thing to run on a full 12V all the time right so how shoud i go about whireing it up

 

I can’t find where it goes from 12 to 4 so what can I splice to make the distributor run at a full 12 can I just jump form a wire or where is the resistor that makes it go from 12 to 4 thanks

 

You are looking for a resistance wire. It usually has a little different insulation on it and the conductor looks like steel. I would guess you can run it with a 12v wire for a while. In fact It probably had a wire from the R side of the starter connected to the pos. terminal of the coil that gave it a 12v shot when cranking it over. I'm thinking the points aren't designed to handle the 12V and will probably fail in a shorter period of time. I installed a pertronics system in mine and tossed out the points.

 

no i bought a full mag pickup hei distributor that needs 12V

so the resistor is in the wire right and i need to replace that whit a 12gage

 

Thats correct replace the resistor wire with a 12 gauge wire

 

Good job liquidpower, glad to see you got your pressure up.

Jason

 

My only concern is going with a higher flow pump. Idle at 30 is fine but regular driving at 58 sounds high to me. What I am worried about is what is the pressure when you" step on it". If you are running it hard for more than a few seconds are you running between 60-70 psi? Someone else needs to pipe in on this cause I am not sure that it will be fine or not with the regular oilpan. Should you use a larger capacity oilpan or not when you run over 60 psi for extended periods of time? Since this is my first 455 I don't have the answer or the experience and I would be interested to know other's opinions on this issue.

 

as far as i was told, 15 lbs is fine at idle and 40-45 is optimum during acceleration and high freeway speeds. if u r running at 58 during 55 and higher mph u need a bigger oil pan. at least 6 qt pan. i have a 455 in my 72 and i hold 40-45 lbs during hard acceleration. i thought it was low just like u, but my bud is an olds jedi and told me that was perfect for my motor. hope this helped. Jay

 

iv only been able to get it up to 60 psi at a hard acceleration the pump only is 20% more flow i wonder if i have some one rev the engine and then i check the dip stick to see if i run out on the bottom and if i did run out at the bottom shouldn't my i see a huge dip on oil presser

i was worried too but i talk to like 3 guys they said it would be fine but now im worrying agen

 

IMHO,
I wouldn't worry about it. And yes if you sucked your pan dry you would notice a guage drop.
There are alot of contributing factors on this issue. I have pounded several Oldsmobiles unmercifully and never sucked a pan dry. I had an 68 Olds with factory 433 gears and drove it 140 miles to a racetrack several times, The tach was at least 3500 RPM all the way. That engine had well over 50 pounds of pressure on the highway and never had an issue.
Keep the oil full and forget it.
Dave

 

X2 wIMHO wouldn't worry bout ie either.

 

Well there you have it , 2 different views. When I start mine up and it's on fast idle with the choke on she runs at 55lbs but after it's warm and then it runs at 12-15 at idle in gear like sitting at lights. On the highway it is around 40-45. I had the opportunity to change it recently but most guys here said that pressure was fine so I just cleaned the pickup. As far as your's goes I would just check the oil regularly and make sure it stays topped up. keep the motor clean and that makes it easier to check for any leaks if you are losing oil , then you can replace any gaskets needed.

 

Every thing is now in the new disturber made the timing perfect but i had to file part of the retainer clip things down to make it fit with the intake. No leeks so far, im keeping my fingers crossed. i need to tune the crab kind of bogs a little bit some times WOT it seams mostly maybe just do a full rebuild on it? How hard can that be lol or should I send it away for a pro to do it. i really should just tune it first before i start to think about doing a full rebuild on it

god i love this place