Low oil pressure solved
Installed a newly rebuilt 59A in a 32 for a friend. Engine was rebuilt by a well known flathead shop on the west coast . It came as a short block and I fitted the heads ,oil pump and pan,intake etc. Got it up and running but noticed it had about 5 lbs oil pressure at idle and less than 20 above idle. I removed the oil pan thinking maybe something was wrong with the oil pump or pickup tube. Didn’t see anything unusual but replaced them anyway with a known good pump. Still low oil pressure. I pulled the intake to take a look at the oil relief and spring in the front of the block. Nothing unusual there either. So while I was standing there scratching my head I noticed that the fuel pump push rod bushing was protruding above the hole by a 1/4” or more and thought that was unusual. I put my air gun on the bushing and when I blew in it air came out up front where the spring and plunger goes. That shouldn’t be I thought. I took a piece of stiff wire and put a small 90 degree bend in it and slid it in the bushing and could feel that the bushing was not installed deep enough to register in the bottom thus allowing oil to escape and not building pressure. I drove the bushing on down flush the blew air in it again. No air came out up front this time. All back together and now it has 45 lbs idleing hot and 60 going down the road . All this because someone wasn’t paying attention or was in a rush .could have ruined a new engine.
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