A lot of people who has owned & or built high performance Holden V8s for the street, strip or track will have experienced inadequate oil pressure issues under load & or high revs & over the years there have been several theories behind this problem & countless hours have been spent on trying to solve it with high volumn/pressure oil pumps, extensive engine block preparation, custom built oiling systems, dry sumps, however the problem still exists. I'm far from an expert on this subject, but having owned several 308-355 V8s, I have experienced engine failures usually attributed to lack of oil pressure causing spun bearings, scored crankshafts etc & I've experienced some stressfull moments watching the oil pressure drop on some of my engines on the street & out at the track, sometimes dropping to zero after a hard run. Ned Sassine from Hercules Competition Engines is a master engine builder with plenty of experience in building Holden V8 engines & after a lot of research & development, he has come up with his own solution to the inherent oil pressure problem these engines suffer in the form of a completely re-engineered & designed oil pump system.
Without going into technical detail, Ned backs his theories up with results & I was able to witness first hand the results. The test engine was a fairly stout VN headed 355 making around 530bhp. With the revised oil pump fitted, Ned run the engine on his dyno. On start up the engine read 50psi at idle, normal for 308, but increased to as high as 80psi at 7000rpm. The crucial part is after reaching operating temp, the pressure never dropped below 35-40psi at idle & even with the revs held at 3000rpm for several minutes, the pressure never dropped, instead consistently held around 50-60psi. Rather than boring everyone by trying to explain in intricate detail, i'll let the dyno run tell the story.
In the last video the engine can clearly be seen reaching 80psi at 7000rpm, I myself have never seen a Holden V8 run over 60psi max stone cold on high revs. Even after several runs with the oil well & truly hot, the pressure never dropped below 30-35psi. The engine was also running 40W oil as opposed to 50W usually run in older design engines. The other point is how the pressure remained consistant, usually it will fluctuate badly with the standard pump, actually dropping as the revs increase & are held such as on a quarter mile run or hill climb. This was the first test run of Ned's prototype, the production items will be almost cosmetically the same as a standard Holden oil pump so they won't look too out of place on authentic muscle car restos, a standard oil line/gauge fitting will fit straight on & the pump only sits marginaly lower than a standard pump. For more info call Ned on (02) 9718-0189
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