Went to go start and drive the Rex today. Haven't driven it in about a week, so you know I miss it. Roll it out the garage, and fire her up.

Fire her up.

Fire her up.

Flood her.

DOH! So, I grab my 13/16 wrench and pull the plugs. Soaked, so I grab my torch and burn everything off the plugs, and in the plug holes. Fire makes me happy. Turn the motor over without the plugs, and greeted by a nice fog. It starts to clear up after 10 seconds, and I fire up the spark plug holes again. Plugs in, wires in, and begin to crank it.

Crank it.

Crank it.

Fires! but very very low idle, my tach isn't even moving. Also sounds like its running one rotor too. Hit the gas a few times, and she is golden. Then I look at my oil pressure... Idling at 65psi? I am running 10w30 right now, Royal Purple. I figure since it is cooler outside than usual (it is a mild 75 here) the oil would be thicker and when it warms up, all should be well. Well, car gets warmed up, and now my 1000rpm idle is pushing about 50-55lbs of pressure. Thats not right. I know I usually sit around 20-25psi when I idle. Go driving around and notice that at full pressure, it is pushing 85-90! A part of me is like oh crap, another part is excited at the higher oil pressure.

Get home, and look at my lines. Nothing kinked to the gauge (mechanical gauge, and I would think that a kinked line would show lower pressure?), nothing out of the ordinary. I know she drops about 3 or 4 drops of oil after I shut her down from the lower banjo bolt on the oil cooler. Nothing has given me problems before.

I will start her up again in a few hours, when she is nice and cool and see if it is still doing the same. Also, the oil has maybe 2200 miles on it. Almost time to change it!

PS - Running premix



What do you think could be causing my higher oil pressure?


Here is a ported exhaust for your pleasure:

 

I see an upside down D shape. Good luck with that.

As for the oil pressure, check the connection at the sender.

 

Shitty *** fram oil filter plugged up. I know how you N.C boys love your frams. I wold drop the oil and see what it does. Maybe your oil reg bypass is fucked!

Sometimes Jeff i wonder if you read lol. What sender you mean the fitting lol.

 

You're right, I skipped over that part. For those with the stock guage and sender, there is a mushroom shaped dealy on the rear plate that likes to loose its connection often from oil that dribbles down from the filter and covers everything back there.

Maybe the guage is just "breaking in".

 

Sorry, that would have been good to state. Autometer oil pressure (mechanical) and Autometer oil temp gauge. Both ran through Respeed oil filter blocks.

Also, my oil temp was in the 140-150 range today, which is strange since on hotter days it won't rise past 140...

 

Wtf is fram?

That was done by hand, with no template

 

Are you running a stock thermal pellet in the front of the e-shaft?

 

Yeah, so were mine. I've since distanced myself from the upside down D and instead have a slightly curved opening and a straighter closing. I guess it drives a turbo better but I've never tried it with one.

 

Stop driving it. Change the oil and filter, then try again. But if the pressure is still high, then I wouldn't drive it until I figured it out. If there is a blockage somewhere, then what parts of your motor might not be getting oil right now?

Good luck man....

 

Pretty sure he has a first gen engine, in which case we do not have a thermal pellet. Could be wrong i suppose....

 

^^ First gen 12a, 1982. Sorry.

 

Heh, that's the first thing I thought of, too.

 

Change the oil filter and see if the oil pressure returns to normal.

 

IIRC, the re-speed block taps into the 'dirty' oil for the 1/8" NPT port (pressure) and the 'clean' oil for the 3/8" NPT port (temperature). If this is the case, I would suspect a clogged oil filer as others have mentioned. If it is a decent filter, it should have a relief valve build in to relieve pressure in case of a clogged element. The FSM specs this value to be 14psi between the inlet and outlet of the filter as to when the filter relief valve should open. This is to make sure that the engine still gets oil even if the filter is clogged. It is possible that this valve has failed and you are not getting any oil (or very little).

The oil pressure reg is before the filter. Even if it was sticking, it shouldn't impact pressure at idle. It would just allow the high RPM oil pressure to go higher than stock.

Thicker oil (heavier weight and/or lower temps) will also show a higher pressure. However, you are using a fairly lightweight oil, ambient temperatures are mild, and it is still showing the high pressure after the engine has warmed up. This means that this isn't the prob unless someone added sand or some Portland cement to your oil.

The gauge could be faulty, but it isn't too likely as it is a mechanical gauge. You could test it with a known pressure (from an air compressor for example).

The other possibility: Sam put in an FD oil pressure regulator when you weren't looking.