1936 Oil Pressure Relief Spring

L

lmarsch36

Junior Member
Should there be a washer on the bolt/nut holding the oil pressure relief valve and spring in position on a 1936 coupe flathead? There was no washer when it was removed.
 
No; no washer was originally fitted. However, sometimes over the 70-odd years the motor has been around, a washer has been known to be placed in there by some nameless individual that is attempting to increase oil pressure.
 
There should be a bullet shaped plunger with a round tang up through the spring. I use a piece of 1/8" pipe as a spacer to increase oil pressure. The springs get weak. Do not stretch the spring. I remove the spark plugs, oil the cylinders, put a pressure gauge in where the sender go's and crank with 12 volts with the intake manifold off.
The pressure you see will be the pressure driving down the road. You can change the thickness of the 1'8" pipe spacer to adjust the pressure. I start out with about a 3/16" long spacer. The same spacer applies to the bypass valve in the later oil pumps. G.M.
 
The bullet shaped plunger that G.M. refers to should have several small flat spots on the tip opposite from the spring mounting projection. These flat spots will allow a small amount of oil to flow even while the relief valve is closed. This allows some oil flow for the distributor and possible for the cam timing gear. There is also a special 1/8" npt galley plug in the front of the block under the timing gear. This plug has a secondary diameter extension that provides some restriction of the oil flow. Make sure that this plug is in place as some engine builders will unknowingly replace this with a standard 1/8" threaded plug.
 
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