[Healeys] oil pressure relief valve

[Ray Carbone]

Hi All,



To contribute to the confusion, I decided to replace my original oil feed flex
tube with a new one I had purchased a while ago from Victoria British.  As
with most replacements, this unit was far less substantial and I was tempted
to reinstall the 47-year old original.  When extracting the original, I
inadvertently de-installed the adapter fitting attached to the engine and
noted the very small orifice through which the oil would flow.  Based upon
this very small passage, I am lead to think that this orifice is the mechanism
that the engineers intended to buffer out the pulsations to secure a steady
gauge reading.  Should this be the case, air must be bled from the tube going
to the pressure gauge for a true reading.



When starting the engine prior to bleed the air from the tube, the gauge gave
a stead reading of 20 lbs @ about 2500 RPMs using 20W50 cold.  After bleeding
the air, the gauge read 60 lbs @ about 2500 RPMs with an almost unperceivable
needle vibration that I expect will probably disappear after a full run
(possibly a very slight amount of air past the coupling and within the
gauge).



Ray (64BJ8P1)