A buddy of mine recently purchased a survivor 67 Hemi GTX. He’s concerned about having only 10psi at hot idle, 25+ cruising. I haven’t had anything stock in decades. I told him to enjoy it and not worry. He’s leaning towards an engine rebuild. He did say that the car has a racing history and the engine likely was rebuilt at some point. What are your thoughts?

First thing I would do is try another gauge.
Doug

He did. New gauge, 20-50 VR1.

Generally that would be considered adequate but low, rule of thumb is 10psi per 1000rpm. On performance engines (better clearance controlled assemblies) the pressure will typically be higher. Thicker oil (50 wgt) will increase the pressure but not fix the problem if there is one. What weight oil is in it now?

20-50 VR1

Many years ago I was doing re-ring jobs pretty regularly.
These were low buck deals on high mileage engines.
Most were BB Mopars.
Unless there was a real problem with the crank, they got polished and new bearings.
Several had well over 100k on them when the re-ring job happened.

Those things always had plenty of oil pressure........50-ish going down the road.

I’d pull the oil pump off and apart and check the clearances.
If it’s good, try the HP spring in it.

If that doesn’t help...... there’s probably just a lot of “leaks” in the motor.

I’ve seen big chunks of babbit missing from the cam bearings on old stock engines.

I agree with fast68plymouth, going down the road it should have at least 50lbs. Nice thing is hemi's got the oil pump on the outside, I would take it apart, and check it out. I have had pressure relief valves stick on BBM a time or two, as well.

I assume that the engine is quiet inside or you wouldn't have to ask your question. Do you know if the pump is a standard or high volume? If standard, you might try a new high volume. If it is already a high volume, you might try a new one anyway. I know they are a pain to get to on this, but $50 and a few hours might be worth the effort.

A stronger relief spring won't do anything, the 25 psi pressure never kicks off the one you have now.
Definitely don't use hard throttle until you fix this.
A stuck relief valve wouldn't even do 25.
I suspect loose internal clearances, which means take if down.

I believe in having more oil pressure than I need but that is me. I would take the pump off and look closely at every part of it including the bypass spring, bypass valve and the upper housing where the valve works for damages like grooves and wear marks, replace as needed
I've ran into low oil pressure with hot 5W20Wt in my old pump gas Duster that had a lot of rod and main bearing clearances intentionally , it would idle at 15 to 18 lbs. at 850 RPM in gear with 170F+ oil temps. It would have 20 Lbs. at 1200 RPM and 30+ lbs. at 2000 RPM, 65 Lbs. at WOT above 4500 RPM up to 7500 RPM
That worked well for me

Find some thick green straight 30 or 40w oil and run it. I ran straight 40w in my semi high mileage hemi car.

It was never mentioned if it was stock, rebuilt, ever been apart. I recall oem the had more clearance from new.

Think its 1975, what oil would we use to have good op in a hemi car?

Not the kind of engine to ignore low oil pressure on. I’d start with the oil pump as the others suggested and work from there.

A very common thing in the 70's and 80's. Everything you bought back then was wore out. I changed the oil to 50 weight Valvoline racing oil. If that didn't fix it you put on a high volume pump. I never saw one that these 2 things didn't fix.

I was thinking, id do an oil change and send in a sample to see if there is a lot of bearing material in it then like above and I mentioned go the thick oil.

I do think an oil sample sent in first would be a good starting point before spending money on other things. Why toss parts at it if your bearings are close to being shot?

Can we get a pic of the car????

all the factory street hemi stuff i played with decades ago had a loose wide groove tri-metal main bearing set ms2896p and a cb665p rod bearing that was .001" looser than the cb527p bearing. in stock condition 10-15psi at hot idle wasn't abnormal. some folks would freak out about it and install wedge bearings that were .001" tighter on rods and mains. of course being a survivor with unknown use there could be some wear on the bottom end. also they used a standard rotor pump with a black relief spring.

If it has the stock volume pump you can buy the rebuild kit new rotor/ring assembly and follow SM for rebuild specs. If that is fine and you are running correct oil level, your going to be inside the motor. Anything from a cracked input pickup, bearing clearance, and don't discount lifter bores.

Long shot, pull the bypass valve cap and spring, see if the spring is broke.

Hi guys, I just joined the forum, I'm the guy with the car in question. It's a 66 Satellite Hemi 4 speed, not that it matters for this thread. It's a numbers matching car with less than 1600 miles. It was drag raced in the '60s and maybe early '70s in Alabama, then found its way to Iowa and was stored in a garage for 28 years. Jeff Bobst found it, got it running and had it painted, and sold it to the guy I bought it from. Photo attached for the guy who requested it.
I appreciate all the responses, thanks! One reason Greg started this thread was to see if you all thought the oil pressure was too low for a stock motor, it appears that the consensus is yes, it is too low. The motor is worth more than any car I own, so the low pressure it makes me nervous.
I'm sure the engine has been apart, probably a couple of times. I was told the motor spun a rod bearing at one point. I don't know who worked on it or what's inside of it. It doesn't knock, smoke, or make any weird noises. I'm suspicious that it may have been rebuilt with loose clearances for racing.
I finally got the oil pump out last week, and found it missing an o-ring on the pump drive shaft. Pump rotors looked okay, relief spring was intact, I didn't check the rotor clearances. I have a new high volume Melling oil pump but I couldn't get it on because it wouldn't clear the motor mount. I couldn't get the motor mount out because it wouldn't clear the steering box. At that point I put a new o-ring on the pump drive shaft, put it back together and crossed my fingers. No change..
I guess I'll try to get the high volume pump on again, I'm going to loosen both motor motor mounts and lift the front of the engine with a cherry picker. If the new pump doesn't do the trick, I'll pull the pan. It has a 6 quart pan from another big block on it and there's a decent size dent in the bottom. Once it's apart, I'l plastigauge some rod bearings and see what I've got. As someone stated previously, thicker oil and a high volume oil pump won't really help if there are underlying issues with bearing clearances, lifter bore wear, etc.
Thanks again for all the input.

That dent may have cracked the pickup tube where It’s threaded in the block. If we’re me, I’d drop the pan first. I think u need more oil capacity for a high volume pump. Stock pumps always worked for me in a street car.

from the responses i've read here that nobody is old enough to have had their hands or eyes on the original builds or experienced a factory street hemi.

www.ebay.com/p/8021821548

www.ebay.com/itm/321829849908