My Weekend Project

[K_Wiz]

Parts I have
Oil and Filter
Oil pan gasket
Tappet gasket
Oil regulator spring

I have low oil pressure when she gets to working so I have been thinking about dropping the pan and cleaning the lower half and adjusting any valve tappit slack. While I have the oil pan off I was thinking about plastic gauge at least the rod bearings. Then maybe replacing the rod bearings if they are near out of spec. I need your advice to say good or bad idea about bearing replacement to improve oil pressure. Eventually one of these winters I am going to go all in and rebuild the engine. I also have pretty good drips from the front and rear I have the seals but another project is building a splitter. I have seen the plans on this site and I have been engineering in my mind how I would build mine. I already procured scaffolding casters. Sorry for rambling. -Kevin

[inairam]

what oil are you using? and what is low pressure?

I would try a number of things before removing the bearings just to check clearance. That is more something you do while rebuilding the engine than a PM on the engine.

[Dale Finch]

Do you have a different oil pressure gauge you can swap out to see if it MIGHT just be your gauge?

As suggested, try the other things first, since they are general maintenance tasks anyway:
Oil/filter change, clean out oil pan (make sure you clean out the filter housing, too), adjust the valves, check compression, and removing/checking the oil pressure regulating valve & spring.

[NJ Farmer]

It’s almost NEVER the oil pressure relief spring/plunger. I would verify actual oil pressure with non-factory gauge but I will go out on a limb saying it’s either too thin viscosity oil or more likely worn main crank bearings. I would lean toward the latter.

NJ Farmer

[tst]

rod bearings do not affect oil pressure much, main bearings are the ones to check