Low oil pressure update, beware!

I had low oil pressure on startup of a new engine I purchased ,as ya'll may recall. It was around 20 psi at idle and 25 psi max. I bought another new oil pressure relief spring and plunger and tried it. I added a washer for inside the plunger just to say I did. Still had low oil pressure. I pulled the oil pan, checked the main and big end clearances with tape, oil pump clearances, ect. All was ok, and still low pressure. After some head scratching, I decided to try another oil pressure relief spring, and whalla! This one was alot bigger in diameter and the same 3" length, and the oil pressure came up. 55 psi at idle and 75 psi at 2500. Beware of buying the wrong spring!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's great news and a good sleuthing job. I bet you about peed yourself with joy when you saw that pressure come up like that.

You got that right Wray! I was thinking the only thing left was maybe that they had not put new cam bearings in , and I was going to pull the engine and tear it down. I thought I would try a new spring once again and it worked!!!!

It is great that you got it fixed. How long did it take to put in the new spring? I replaced the valve and spring with mine in the car, and it was a real pain. With the proper spring, it is very hard to push it in and turn it enough to get the threads started because the manifold and steering column are in the way. If it goes in easily, you know you have the wrong spring.

Good to hear - I would have been freaking out big time.

That's great to hear of you finding the problem and not being a big expense!!!! I take it the spring was already installed in the engine when you bought the car right?

Marty, an old plunger and (unknown) spring came with the car. I bought a new plunger and spring. The new spring was the same as the unknown (old spring). They both looked the same, and were the wrong ones. The final spring I bought was the correct one. It was alot bigger in diameter. Almost the same diameter as the inside of the plunger.

Was this a new engine as new to you or a rebuilt and sold to you as rebuilt/new? I ask because they may have gotten rid of the engine because of low oil pressure.

Jim

It was sold to me as rebuilt/new. Everything that I have inspected inside the engine is new. It was seperate from the car, and never ran.

Great job of running that down. When you replace something with new parts it is really disturbing to find that the new part causes you such grief! I replaced a starter in mine once because I had bought a bad battery - intermittent short in it made the starter work sometimes, not work at other times, yet had enough to blow the horn, operate the lights.

....jack,...I did the same thing,...felt like an idiot

Jack, Wyatt, I would have done the same but had two spare starters and figured all three could not be bad (and work fine off the car!). My dumb move was to buy new batteries and then find that it was bad terminal connections!

Good Job Gary!!

Thanks Tom, I sure a little more upbeat now. Took her for a spin around the yard sitting on the floorboard. Also converted to front disc brakes today. :D

I think it's the law or something; you must drive the car before the seats go in. I drove mine sitting on a milk crate.

neely Wrote:

Thats good:)

Where did you purchase the springs....both the incorrect one and the good one. That info might save someone else from having the same problem....

Yo Joe! The guy I bought the car from used VB exclusively as far as I know. So the first was probably from them.The second was through a middleman who uses VB and Moss, so it could have been either. The third was from the local LBC shop with several years of old stock on hand, and from an unknown source..

Great News, Gary!!

.... and a sigh of relief

You know everyone, I have seen situations like this through out my restoration with the MGA. I have had several times with parts that did not meet up to expectations and I notified the supplier. They would tell me that now one has ever complained for the parts that I had issues. Now as we all know, they can be playing the Convenient Amnesia Syndrom at the time. But this has happen several times in my restoration. It does make one think that people are not notifying suppliers of their problems with certain parts. I hope everyone notifies the suppliers to resolve their quality issues. This will help the others out there in the future when faced with the same part problems.

Gary, I am happy that you were the 1st to drive your LBC of the two of us. The way my project is going, it will be this coming winter before I drive my car. Kinda like getting the Air conditioning going in the winter and furnace in the summer.

Good job Gary!! I was worried for you. I find Scraborough Fair usually has correct parts and she is knows her stuff unlike moss and VB. I am not even sure if the people who answer the phones at VB have even seen a MGA before and my crowning moment with Moss is when I was told it is impossible to have knock offs on steel wheels.

cirillo500 Wrote: