Low oil pressure in my 292
 

I am pulling this motor out this winter. I never had a complaint with this motor until I installed an oil pressure gauge. Ignorance is bliss, right.
Anyways, on a cold start it reads 50 and after several minutes of driving it is at 25, but with extended driving it gets as low as 8 while idling. The previous owner put in a new oil pump, valve seals, new connecting rods and bearings, new main bearing and new water pump, but that was 13 years ago. I did foolishly put in a synthetic oil last change instead of something heavier. What would you guys suggest to fix this problem? Your suggestions are appreciated. Thanks, John

Re: Low oil pressure in my 292
 

See what it holds with straight 40W.

Re: Low oil pressure in my 292
 

any idea how many miles since every thing was done? pull one valve cover and see how much oil is getting to the rocler arms at idle, if real low oil pressure there wont be much getting there, a bunch of things could be wrong, weak oil pressure regulator spring in oil pump, air leaks on several points on the oil pump, worn cam, main, rod bearings, plugged oil filter screen, bad gauge, ive had oil filters cause low oil pressure because of poor quality, or as was suggested to lite of oil, add a can of stp and see if oil pressure increases, check all the easy stuff first, add stp, heaver oil at next change, and try another gauge, its a misconception thinkink high oil pressure is the thing, its not #of pressure that keeps an engine running, its gallons per minute of oil flow that protects an engine, and some one must have changed the engine because the 55 didnt use the 292 engines, they used 239(rare) 256, 279, and 317, also rare

Re: Low oil pressure in my 292
 

Thanks guys. I will get right on these suggestions. I knew the motor wasn't original, I think I figured once by the numbers that it came out of the factory with the cost cutter 223 6cyl. What type of gauge would be the most accurate? Oh, the miles since the work was done on the motor; approx 25,000 w/o my pulling out records and checking for sure. - John

Re: Low oil pressure in my 292
 

I have ran a lot of vehicles with Y block Ford engines, mostly pickups, F-100/250/350. I always used Castrol GTX 20/50... The earlier Y Blocks all had the canister type of oil filter, where as the '59's and later had the spin on type.. I always converted my engines over to the spin-on type filter..
I would venture the guess that we put in excess of 1,000,000 miles on the vehicle we had with the Y Blocks.... Never had a problem with plugged oil passages, which is so common on the Y Blocks.. I have had engines run over 150k before they had to be rebuilt.
The engine in my '57 Bird has over 25k on it since it was rebuilt in 1982.. I have two '59 F-100 4x4's.. Other than normal maintenance neither of the engines in the 4x's have been apart since the mid 1970's...
Good detergent multi-grade oil like Castrol GTX 20/50 works great in all of the older engines... I also use GTX in my 59AB engine in my '36 Ford and the 403 CID engine in my '49 Olds...

Re: Low oil pressure in my 292
 

I've been running 10/40 in the winter but using that semi synthetic high mileage.. There's a good forum bobistheoilguy.com that shows what oils are doing there job and what not.. I usually go to 20/50 in the summer

Re: Low oil pressure in my 292
 

Re: Low oil pressure in my 292
 

I would not be rebulding the motor because of oil pressure,8 lbs at hot idle is not that bad. That where most FE engines run, at least the ones I had. good luck