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Old 11-10-2004, 07:00 AM
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Big-Foot Big-Foot is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Kenyon, MN
Cobra Make, Engine: RCR GT40 #45
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With today's quality lubricants and better bearing materials, running oil pressure in excess of 60PSI regardless of RPM / HP / Load - is not only a waste of HP, but will kill far more parts that you can imagine.
We typically set the pressure relief valves on competition engines to limit the pressure to 60-70 (HOT) as long as we maintain 15-20 PSI hot idle pressure. Anything that causes the pressure to run outside these limits means the engine needs to come back apart for inspection. One of the biggest wasters of oil pressure is excessive connecting rod side clearance - the other is lifter oiling that is not restricted when it needs to be.

Smokey Yunick was a genius - His "Rule of Thumb" of 10 PSI for every 1,000 RPM was made back when oil was not anywhere near as pure and stabile as it is today and bearings were made primarily from steel, aluminum and babbit.

Edit - You are lucky you did not blow the can off the oil filter. I had one go at 80 PSI on the dyno once. Wasn't pretty... Nice fire!
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Regards - Randy
RCR40 #45 http://www.GT-Forty.com
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