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Old 07-23-08, 01:57 AM   #3 (permalink)
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Mike Drew
3 Tenths
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Vacaville, CA
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Re: Roush oil pressure

High oil pressure can be a bad thing. The oil pump is driven by the camshaft. The gear on the distributor turns the distributor up top, and the oil pump down below. A high-pressure pump puts additional strain on the gear, which is held to the shaft with a shear pin. Eventually the strain can become too great, and the shear pin does what it's supposed to do (shears) leaving you with no oil pressure, no distributor, and a dead car.

Additionally, too-high oil pressure can blow cheap filters apart which creates a hell of a mess at best, and at worst can oil down your tires and send you backwards into the trees.

Both my Pantera and GT350 clone were built with high-pressure oil pumps, and deliver 70+ psi all the time. The GT350 will generate 100 psi when cold, until the oil warms up. This is decidedly a bad thing in my view, and since that engine is being rebuilt, the pump is being changed to a standard one to give a more-desirable figure, such as 50 psi.

Be happy with what you've got.
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Mike Drew, Vacaville, CA (MikeLDrew@aol.com)
'72 De Tomaso Pantera, '66 Contemporary 427 Cobra, '66 Shelby GT-350 clone, and gearing up for a Superformance Mk 1....
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