Did you do all the rings? If so, read this: http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

Congrats on the job. It surely is tedious.

 

That doesn't sound too abnormal to me. I'd be concerned if there was less than 10psi at idle and the pressure didn't rise.

 

The problem is that when I first start the car when it is cold, the oil pressure light will stay on for much longer than it used to and my oil pressure gauge doesn't even register until a few seconds after the light has gone out. When it does register, it only registers 15 psi. Before I replaced the rings, it would go all the way up to 80 psi when cold. The guage just bounces around like it did when I was 3 quarts low on oil. I checked the oil and it was at the max line, so it isn't that. I think I may have overlooked something when I reassembled the engine. There weren't any extra parts left over, so I may have not tightened the oil pickup enough, or something....

 

yeah not tightening the pickup was the first thing that came to my mind when you said your oil pressure is weird. that might be worth dropping the pan to check. if it was me i probably would.

 

Yeah. The pressure at 3k rpms is only about 40psi and the service manual states that the minimum is 60 psi. I was driving today and I coasted to a stop and my oil pressure dropped to zero and my idiot light started blinking at me. I guess it is telling me something.....

Anyway, I will check the oil pickup because that is the only thing I can think of since there is no external leaks at all. Is there anything else I could have botched during the "rebuild"?

 

Pickup could definitely be the culprit. If you didn't touch the oil pump, the only other thing you touched is the oil squirters...but I doubt that's your problem.

 

I am going to check that right now. I didn't touch the oil pump at all, so it is highly unlikely that it just decided to go out. I forgot to mention that 2 bolts on the cam holders broke off. I doubt that this would cause any concern though, since there are 12 more bolts holding it down. I will check the oil pickup and check back with you.

 

I dropped the pan tonight and found to my horror that the nuts holding the oil pickup on were not even tightened when I reassembled it. One of the bolts was about halfway from coming off and the other had come off and fallen into the oil pan. :shocked: I put it all back together and the oil pressure shot way up. I fixed the problem. Luckily, I didn't blow my motor. Thanks for your help guys, you were right on.

 

I did the same thing, good luck getting them out if they're flush in the head. I had to take it to a metal worker and have him pour new aluminum in.

 

This is why I always double/triple check torque specs...especially on critical pieces.