Rebuilding the bottom end in the car is not that difficult unless you can't
get the oil pan off without pulling the engine. I've done it several times
and driven the results for years. On my 73 Imp, it made a huge difference
and took my marginal oil pressure to solid mid range. It doesn't always
help. I have a non Imperial pickup I bought from my Pastor a few years ago.
Once upon a time, the throttle body caught fire and he dumped dirt in it to
put it out (!!!!!!) Not surprising, the oil pressure worsened over time in
spite of my changing the oil several times after I got the truck. I pulled
the pan and changed the mains and rod bearings. They were about shot. It
helped significantly but the cam bearings are obviously worn as well. Can't
really do anything about them without pulling the engine. I put a real
pressure guage on it and just keep an eye on it. It runs 20 at speed and 5
at idle which is less than I'd like.
KerryP
Patch panels fabricated
Pinkertonk@xxxxxxxxx
dte.net/57imperial
Imperials -- 50 Limo, 57 roadster, 61's, 62, 68 Convert, 73, a 66 300 and a
bunch of lesser marques
----- Original Message -----
From: <dardal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2003 5:43 PM
Subject: Re: IML: Help again -oil pressure
> Quoting Ted Blackington <cebuisle@xxxxxxx>:
>
>
> > which I should also have changed out. BUT-that brings up an interesting
> > question-since the warning light no longer comes on, how would the
> > average driver know his oil pressure is seriously low?? Or does Chrysler
> > consider ten pounds on the road adequate??
> >
>
> The rule of thumb is that for every 1000 rpm of engine speed you need an
> additional 10 psi. So, for an engine that revs to 5000 rpm, you would
need at
> least 50 psi at that speed. Now, the question: how is the driver going to
> know? When the cars were new, the idiot light was all you needed. If
> something was wrong, it would be most likely an oil pump or low oil, both
> pretty fatal. So, they installed these idiot lights that are triggered by
> pressure below 5 psi or so. Now that the cars aged, you need more than
that.
> All 60's and many 70's Imperials had oil pressure gages in them (real low
> response electrical units with no nymbers on them, just "high" and "low".
My
> suggestion for all is that if you are in doubt what the oil pressure is up
do,
> install a mechanical gage.
> D^2 (2x68s) that needs to install a mechanical gage on the LeBaron
(although
> confident the oil pressure is fine)
>
>
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