Please respond if you have an interest in a company manufacturing an external adjustment screw for the stock oil pressure spring. It will screw onto the stock oil pump just like the OEM cap, but will allow for adjustment of the spring tension to raise or lower peak oil pressure. It will look something similar to what is pictured below, but if someone already makes this please advise. If there is sufficient interest I will have it prototyped and then you can deal directly with the company if you want to purchase.

 

This isn't needed with the ER oil pump gear.

Bypassing the oil isn't the best solution to too much pressure due to the location of our bypass. Slowing the pump down is the way to go.

 

I was hoping you would respond so thank you for the input. ER makes great products so you can't go wrong with their pump gear. The cost of what I am suggesting would be under $100 and could be installed in about 15 minutes by a novice mechanic. On my Curt Brown 2L I lowered pressure by shaving the stock spring ~0.125" to get the pressure in check so this is a cheap and easy way to regulate oil pressure.

The ER gear is $180 plus you have to buy adjustable cam gears to retard cam timing 2deg so depending on whether you have an 8 or 9 this could be an additional $125-$250 plus a few hours of install/modification time. I think this is the overall better approach technically of the two based on the points you made, but there is a cost associated with this and likely overkill for just a daily driver that doesn't track the car.

I have ZERO financial gain by having this product offered to the community and I personally run an external oil pressure regulator with a custom pan so I obviously don't need it.

 

I like the idea but ill stick with shimming/cutting the stock spring.

 

You bring up a valid point, you can purchase springs for about $5/per so through a process of trial and error you can achieve the same goal, which is what I did on the 2L. I would personally rather buy something to adjust, but it really based on whether that convenience is perceived as providing value. Thanks for the input!

 

Would you not still want to the ability to tune pressure even with the ER pump gear? Again, I have ZERO interest for whether this is made or not, just offering to make it available to the community.

 

uhhh....

doesnt this just increase the flow? by reducing the pressure?
your pump is still tuning the same speed... so it now has less resistance so the flow rate goes up

therefore, now you have even more oil up in the head.

 

I have no need to tune oil pressure. Proper bearing clearance, 5w50 oil and my pressure is right where its supposed to be 19-21 psi at 1050rpm idle when the oil is 190*, and ~95psi at 8500.

 

I don't believe that is correct, for a given engine whether I run the ER pump gear or the adjustable spring I have proposed, at 8K RPM and 85psi you will have the same amount of oil in the head and the same amount of oil in the pan. Let me explain and please feel free to challenge.

The oil pressure is created due to the restriction of flow and let me provide some examples most can relate to.

Balance Shaft Delete
When you delete the balance shafts why does this increase oil pressure. The oil that used to lubricate the balance shafts is now blocked off by rotating the bearings, which creates an additional restriction after the oil pump. This additional restriction increases oil pressure.

HLA
Why does the HLA claim it keeps more oil in the pan? Because the HLA limits the oil pressure to the lifter at 15psi this creates a restriction, but why do they claim more oil in the pan? More oil is in the pan because the extra oil that used to go to the lifters is dumped out of the bypass in order to maintain the oil pressure.

So knowing this we can provide 2 scenarios, one with the ER pump gear and one with the adjustable oil pressure spring. These scenarios assume you do this on the exact same engine, oil viscosity is fixed, 8000rpm, and 85psi oil pressure.

Scenario 1 - ER Pump Gear
Scenario 2 - adjustable oil pressure spring

In both scenarios if the engine is at 8k rpm and you are seeing 85psi, the amount of oil in the head and the amount of oil in the pan is the same. With the ER pump gear the pump will be turning slower so the oil pump will bypass less oil to the pan to maintain 85psi oil pressure. With the adjustable oil pressure spring the pump is turning faster so the oil pump will have to bypass more oil to the pan to maintain 85psi pressure. In both scenarios the amount of oil in the pan and in the head is the same. However, with the adjustable oil pressure spring you are dumping more oil out of the bypass to maintain pressure so you are putting more of the oil in the back of the pan. When you are racing you desire more oil around the pickup so dumping in the back of the pan can be detrimental when experiencing high G's such as in a turn our or straight line acceleration on a high hp setup.

Again, I believe this is an accurate assessment, but please feel free to challenge.

 

Curious as to the specific 5W50 you recommend because my cold start oil pressure with 20W-50 hits 130+psi.

 

I use Amsoil signatures series. Cold start pressure is specifically why I run it.

 

my water hose has a certain pressure on it...
if i pull the nozzle half way, the pressure in the hose is - some number

if i pull the nozzle all the way, the pressure in the hose is now less ... and my flow is more.

this is why the ER underdrive works because it slows down the actual pump.... slowing down flow

 

It's makes the pump flow less.

 

You are correct to say the ER pulley turns slower thereby reducing flow from the oil pump, which is what I stated in my previous explanation. However, you lost me comparing the ER pulley to your water hose. In the hose analogy you have the ability to adjust the restriction, more restriction creates higher pressure in the hose with less flow and less restriction creates lower pressure in the hose resulting in more flow. However, in the motor and after the oil bypass valve the resistance is fixed and does not change. So 85psi of oil pressure at 8K rpm will always be the same amount of flow after the bypass valve whether I use the ER pump gear or the adjustable spring. The real difference is the adjustable spring will dump more oil to the back of the pan because the bypass will have to stay open to regulate pressure to 85psi.

I think the confusion is the the ER pulley turns so much slower than stock that you never actually open the bypass valve and at 8K RPM you only have enough flow to generate 85psi. In comparison, the stock pulley on the same motor might generate 110psi or whatever pressure it takes to open the bypass valve. If I run the stock pulley and lower the spring tension so that I see 85psi at 8K rpm, whether I use the ER pump gear or the adjustable spring, both are providing the same amount of flow to the head and the same amount of oil is in the pan. However, as I previously said the stock pulley will cause the pump to flow more so in order to keep pressure at 85 psi (like the ER pulley) it has to dump oil from the bypass to the back of the pan.

 

ill think about it more.