Way high cold oil pressure

[JohnJL]

I am transplanting an engine out of a track car into a road car and just got it fired up to see extremely high oil pressures. Could someone put my mind at ease or identify a problem please?

The engine is a 3.0 from an 82 SC which was running fine in the track car with usual oil pressures (~10psi per 1000RPM). The car was running DR20 cams with oil line restrictors on the cam carriers. Standard brass cooler up front in the wheel well. Pressure-fed tensioners. Twin-plugged on EFI.

I kept the bottom end intact but changed the cams (DR24), weber carbs and twin-plugged distributor. Same heads, different carriers and no oil line restrictors. Same pressure-fed tensioners.

The car fired right up and when idling at 1000 and then 2000 the oil pressure gauge reads way high. At 1000 its got 60psi and at 2000rpm its got 80psi!

The oil is 20w-50 GTX (cheap oil to flush it out after rebuild, motul is the regular fill.)

I have also transplanted the 82 SC cooling system over into the Targa (where the engine has been transplanted.) The thermostat, lines, cooler and connections are all the same.

The sequence of oil flow is:

1 SC oil pump - connection under the engine by the 1-2-3 side return tubes to:
2 Hard line crossing over to 4-5-6 side to -12 Earls line to:
3 Stock SC thermostat inner connection to:
4 Hard line to front cooler (the thermostat hasnt opened yet as idling so far has been limited and the car has not yet come up to temp.) to:
5 Hard line return to stock SC thermostat to -12 Earls line to;
6 Stock 1971 copper oil tank to
7 -12 Earls line to external oil cooler on the engine on 4-5-6 side

Have I just not noticed such high pressures before or is this alarming to anyone else?

Thanks all

[Flieger]

My 1971 911S with 2.7 liter MFI RS spec has similar oil pressures. On start-up, it is around 60 psi but I never give it too many revs until it has started to warm-up. Here in sunny southern California, it comes up to a little over 180 degrees Farenheit pretty quickly. The oil system is stock except for a front mounted oil cooler.

Once up to 150 degrees F or so, the oil pressure is a little over 10 psi per 1000 revs. FWIW, I use Castrol 20w50 GTX as my regular fill. Never had a problem, though I know Brad Penn would be nice.

I think your oil pressure is proper considering temperature and revs.

[slodave]

Oil is thicker when cold. The pressure will be high until the oil warms up. My gauge hits 5 on startup. I run straight 40 wt.