TECH: Oil pressure restriction! No oil to heads! HELP!!!

96gt226410 · Apr 24, 2007

I did a PI swap and now the passenger side head is ticking real loud. I have 90 psi of oil pressure and what seemed to be dry lifters only on the passenger side head. I took the valve cover off today and there is some oil up there, but not much. I turned it over a couple times and there wasn't any oil getting to the top. Oil is supposed to pump through the lifters and when the cam pushes the rocker arm down, it's supposed to push the oil out of the lifter which lubricates the cam. All of the lifters looked to be bottomed out reguardless of cam position and pressure on the rocker arms. I don't think they're pumping up. I think that there's a restriction somewhere causing the dry lifters not to pump, my terrible loss in power, and the 90 psi of oil pressure. Has anyone come across this? Could I have put the head gaskets on the wrong way? They were new OE right from Ford. The driver's side is fine, just the passenger side is having the problem. Any other ideas??? Thanks guys...

DropTopPony · Apr 24, 2007

Did you check to make sure the oil galley plugs on the new heads were plugged/unplugged in the correct places? I put my new heads next to the old to make sure everything was correct. Just throwing that out...how long did you run the car? The lifters do take alittle to get full.

96gt226410 · Apr 24, 2007

I don't have the old heads anymore. I just figured they were all the same... I let it run for about 20 minutes over a week.

DropTopPony · Apr 25, 2007

were these heads you used new? when i picked up mine used the oil plugs were present and in the correct location but i've heard of people getting new heads and they were not.

Thomas_W · Apr 25, 2007

Did you bleed down all of these lifters before installation? Did you get a seperate driver side and passenger side head gasket? (they are different). Did the oil pressure value change after you did the headswap, or is the oil pressure indication the same as before the headswap?

I know with my new motor it took about 50 miles for the lash adjusters to shut up completely.