problems with low oil pressure while on inclines

[spdcrazy]

so my oil pump on my 87 b2 must be up front huh. because when i get on any kind of steep incline, my oil pressure drops to zero... so is there a solution? maybe someone makes an oil pan with some baffles built in? or a way to put the oil pump in the back instead of the front....?

whats your thoughts?

 

[IMenriched]

so my oil pump on my 87 b2 must be up front huh. because when i get on any kind of steep incline, my oil pressure drops to zero... so is there a solution? maybe someone makes an oil pan with some baffles built in? or a way to put the oil pump in the back instead of the front....?

whats your thoughts?

Ummm No, the oil pump is in the rear/belhousing mount end on 2.9 v6's.
It would be in the deepest portion on the oil pan. As far as baffles go, yes there is one, it is where the oil pan starts to go deeper...pretty sure anyway that is where I saw one.

the pick-up tube does tend to pitch forward some...but there is screen covering that and they can get stuff/gunk paritaly blocking it. If that was the case you probably would notice low Oil Pressure whether it was on level or inclines. Take a look see at the bottom of the oil pan if it has gotten dinked up from rocks, logs, stumps and other items from crawling the pickup tube for the oil pump could of gotten damaged (cracked and allowing oil not to reach the oil pump) and or moved/bent up thereby raising the it in the oil return area of the oil pan.

the Oil Sending Unit, however, is mounted in the extreme front of the engine, (Drivers side, in front of the engine mount). If you have the factory sending unit, not a aftermarket mechnical gauge, then these tend to give false readings. But most engines are not really designed to stay on severe inclines for extened periods without some mechical suffering. unless it has been designed to do so.

Another good Idea is to remove the rocker shaft and make sure that they are not full of sludge While you got that open you can get a better idea of the topside condiction of your engine, if it has a some thick sludge on the top side of the heads...then you maybe wise to find a replacement relatively soon.

 

[rickcdewitt]

if it has a some thick sludge on the top side of the heads....

then somebody probably ran pennzoil in it for years.that stuff is horrible

 

[Hahnsb2]

Stick a mechanical gauge on it first to confirm pressure loss.

 

[krugford]

+1 on the mechanical gauge. Make sure you have a problem first. What kind of inclines are you on?

If you are seeing a loss of oil pressure on inclines, then the only real solution is a deeper oil pan or a drop in oil level (not recommended). When you tilt the engine back, the oil is most likely coming into contact with the bottoms of the connecting rods. This whips the oil into foam, which doesn't pump well and will result in a drop in oil pressure (more tilt will give more drop) The other cause could be the fact that the oil pickup is being exposed, which would result in complete loss of oil pressure. Since this is a rear sump pan and you are tilting the engine backwards (crank nose up), then I would lean torwards the oil vs. the connecting rods as the problem.

A pan with more baffles would probably help some, but baffles don't stop the oil from flowing away from the sump, they merely slow it down to help out in transient conditions, if you're climbing an incline for more than a few seconds, then baffles won't really do much good. Does anyone make an aftermarket oil pan for a 2.9L?