Oil pressure issues

9-1-09

I have 2200 miles on the motor now. Oil pressure was a bit high so I changed oil pumps. I did have a 30mm pump from Berg but now I have a 26mm pump from aircooled.net. Since then, I have been low oil pressures at idle. I did face the oil pump cover and blue printed the pump according to the How To Hotrod you VW book. Then I found that my oil pickup came loose. The tab that holds it to the drain broke. I had to fab up and attach something to hold in place. I also swaged the other end in the case. However, my idle pressure was still low. I then looked at my oil reliefs. I did have a custom oiling system by Headflow Masters that uses a steel ball in place of the original piston. I removed the custom components and reinstalled the stock components. I also had 0w-20 oil in an effort to reduce oil pressure initially. I removed that oil and used 10w-30 Brad Penn oil. All of this finally got my idle pressure to about 7 to 10 lbs when hot.

9-6-09

I changed the oil relief piston back to the ball. What I found is that it was not sealing well and therefore much of the oil was bypassing the cooler and therefore the oil was getting hotter than normal. I changed to a stronger spring also. I will have to make sure that the idle pressure stays where it should. I will report on that in a couple of days.

9-24-09

Well I'm back from camping. My oil pressure seems to be under control now. I actually reinstalled the oil control piston and still using the ball valve for pressure relief. I have several oil control pistons in my spare parts. However, one was taller than the rest. The diameter was the same but longer by about .050". This seemed to make a difference in idle pressure. So that is what I ended up with.