Flathead oil pressure? compression test psi?

Hey guys, im going to throw a mechanical oil pressure guage on the flatty this weekend and also do a compression test to see what kind of work it needs. It is bone stock, no mods whatsoever. What would be normal oil pressure for startup and at running temp. ALso, how many psi should i have for the compression test. I need to buy a damn book with the specs in it! any recommendations?

 

Normal oil pressure should be between 40 and 50 lbs. Compression can vary a lot but if you had around a 100 lbs without too much variance between cylinder that would be considered good.

 

My bone stock 80,000 mile original coupe (see my album) idles at 45 lbs, runs at 65 lbs, and all cylinders were between 100 and 110 lbs the last time I checked. I think this reflects a vehicle that has been extremely well cared for and pampered since it was new.

 

Usually not much pressure on old resurrected motors, don't panic if 5#hot idle, 15-30 cold most common. My 21stud has 50 cold & down to 15 warm, use 15-40 rotella, the relief has obviously been tweaked, too much pres can be bad so I plan to un-tweak a bit. Can get a broader range of responses from fordbarn, also look at Vanpelt's site.
Relief in later motors are in the pumps, early engine under the intake. If yours turns out lower than general opinion, consider pulling the pan & clean out the fine screen in the pickup, new ones are available cheap investment.

 

ok thanks for the advice. Im gonna throw a guage on it this weekend, and see what we have. Hopefully its not whooped!

 

Well i threw a mechanical oil pressure guage on the flattie today. Getting that old sending unit out was a royal pain in the ass. They couldnt have put it in a better spot! haha. anyway, i ended up with about 50lbs cold on startup, and then it stayed right at 40lbs when it was at running temp. I got on it at bit when it was warm and it went up to about 55lbs, then off the gas and back to 40lbs. The outside temp today was around 40 degrees and i have 10-30 Castrol in it. I didnt do a compression check yet, so im gonna do that tomorrow. Time to watch some football, go Steelers!!