Is it normal for oil pressure to drop under hard loads? Granted i'm just going off the stock gauge but whenever I put my truck under a heavy load in 3rd or 4th gear the oil pressure drops a bit. I don't recall if it did this before the engine rebuild or not. I do plan on getting a real pressure gauge soon, but the stock gauge must be giving me some indication of what's going on.
Is it normal for oil pressure to drop under hard loads? Granted i'm just going off the stock gauge but whenever I put my truck under a heavy load in 3rd or 4th gear the oil pressure drops a bit. I don't recall if it did this before the engine rebuild or not. I do plan on getting a real pressure gauge soon, but the stock gauge must be giving me some indication of what's going on.
Worn out cam bearings can cause that, but didn't you just finish a rebuild? I installed back-up mechanical gauges for oil pressure/temp/vacuum after my rebuild.
Yes, this motor only has about 800 miles on it. But it had a rough start. First I forgot to install the freeze plugs in the lifter galley and filled it with water then after I fixed that it ran for about 4 minutes and seized due to an improperly made gasket between the oil cooler and block. Crank got polished again and I replaced the main bearings but the cam and rod bearings looked fine. Maybe they aren't. It's running great but it's a little strange seeing the oil pressure gauge drop when I get on the throttle hard and when going up long hills on the highway. Another odd thing is I can't seem to get more than 14 inches of vacuum out of this motor. I do have a higher lift and longer duration cam than stock, and I have one of the high rise Weber adapters, but it seems a little low. Of course I haven't checked it since re-jetting the carb recently. It was running really lean.
