Hey guys,

Im in another dilemna here...Was doing the last of things to my scamp to get it running finally- adding oil and priming the system. But when I went to go prime it the oil pressure sky rocketed past 150 psi pegging my needle on my gauge! At first I thought it was the gauge, so i tried another that only goes to 100, and it shot way past that one too!!

The engine itself is a 91 360LA block. I did full block oiling mods including a ported standard volume meiling pump with a high pressure relief spring, all block passages to 1/2", crossover tube in the lifter gallery, stock pan and pickup tube, and some restrictors in the mains for the cam bearings. Bearings are full groove on the mains, clearances are about .002, using 15W40 Rotella oil on break in and during this prime. The engine is using hydraulic roller lifters

I pulled off the oil pan (A giant chore within itself!) and i also had a valve cover off, and all the rockers (hughes rockers) were getting oil. I pulled the pump apart thinking the relief valve may have been getting stuck, so i pulled it apart, cleaned up and made sure it was in the right way, and then put in the standard releif spring for good measure. Instead of putting the pump back in the motor i tried this- I blocked off the side that attaches to the main cap with a bolted on plate tapped for a oil pressure gauge, and then i sucked oil through the pickup while spinning the pump...once again the pump skyrocketed to past 100psi. Im thinking the concept of this test should work since i really didnt want to put the pump back in the car and have this happen to only pull it out again.

The pump itself is brand new, was inspected too..Im wondering if there is a right way to reinstall the plug for the spring? Ive been installing it with the dimple facing the outside of the pump. Im thinking of ordering another new oil pump tommorow and testing it the same way i did with this one before i put it in to see what happens, but if it reoccurs, im stumped

Does anybody have any suggestions as to what this could be? Sorry if this is long winded, and yes a new pump is the best answer, but now im afraid to take apart a new pump and port it to have this problem again, so id rather use this one if i can...any ideas on what could be going wrong? I feel like my little test helps isolate the problem to just the oil pump itself, but i could be wrong