Originally Posted By AndyF
Higher oil pressure from thicker oil isn't necessarily a good thing. The higher pressure just means that the oil isn't flowing thru the engine very well. The pressure rise is due to reduced oil flow which isn't necessarily a good thing. The bearings need some oil flow across them to carry away the heat so less flow could be bad.

60 psi with thick oil and a standard pump could be a lot less oil volume than 60 psi with thin oil and a HV pump. People tend to focus on oil pressure since almost everyone has an oil pressure gauge but oil flow is also important.


By this logic (which I agree with) is 53 psi necessarily a bad thing? From my limited understanding of journal bearings, as long as there is enough oil present to support a hydrodynamic layer, the feed pressure isn't that critical. It's hard to picture a bearing being starved at 53 psi or for that matter 30 psi.