Oil pump cover gasket and oil pressure

Scott21 · Post by **Scott21** » Wed May 20, 2020 7:30 pm

Hi everyone. Today I reindexed my distributor so I could time the motor without the distributor hitting the block. Now runs perfectly. I had to replace the oil pump to block gasket. While I had the pump out, I made a gasket for the cover with some gasket material I had laying around. Started motor. Oil pressure looked low. I have the 120 psi gauge. I pulled the oil sender and hooked up a mechanical test pressure gauge. I have 8 psi at idle and 28 -32 at higher RPM. oil pressure seems to have dropped about 5 psi. Could too thick a cover gasket cause a drop in pressure? The old cover gasket was significantly thinner. 1952 M38

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time,
Scott

Scott21 · Post by **Scott21** » Wed May 20, 2020 7:41 pm

After more research, I thinking that it will affect the pressure. I still would like to hear some opinions.

Thanks,

Scott

Post by **wesk** » Wed May 20, 2020 7:49 pm

Both pump drive gear teeth spacing and face to cover spacing effect oil pressure. Stick with the original design gasket for the end plate.

Scott21 · Post by **Scott21** » Wed May 20, 2020 8:39 pm

Thanks Wes, much appreciated.

Scott

Scott21 · Post by **Scott21** » Fri May 22, 2020 1:22 pm

Got a scrap piece of the proper thickness gasket paper from the high-end restoration shop down the road a bit from my house. 15psi at idle warm and 50 psi at rpm warm.