Weighty Matters

Lee...in answer to your questions. The oil pressure DOES indeed run low after running it hard and then slacking off. I would say in the neighborhood of 5-10 minutes. No, there is no problem with over heating whatsoever. I have no numbers on the oil gauge but it starts to go into the red which is a significant enough change from when it is running under load. It corrects after a few minutes or when I ramp up the rpms again. I am suspecting all of the items you ticked off--worn bearings, worn oil pump and the idea of clogged oil drain holes from the valve cover area also occurred to me. I was wondering if any one else would come up with the same conclusions. I have always run Castrol 10/30 in it for many years and changed the oil faithfully so I am a little perplexed how anything could have become sludged up. For the amount I use it I am tempted to avoid a rebuild. I was wondering however to check both other peoples analysis and see what they thought could be done in terms of proper oil weights. That 15/40 sounded like a good idea. Again...thank you all.

Lawn mower is 29 years old, always got 300,000 miles on V8 GM, my V6 Buick is up to 280,000 miles, got 600,000 on a 6.2 diesel and always 4,000 hours on Farmall gassers, 10,000 hours on diesels. By the way that 6.2 diesel is still going in another truck.