Hi Dennis,
I was using 20W50.
Yes O had new gears and a new pump housing in, but the old cover, which
i will replace now. I know that I am almost above the pressure, and this
is OK. However that was measured without load. I did try it without the
pressure gauge before and had it run for  more than half an hour. No
buzzer. Ok Lets go on a small trip (a couple of hundred meters). As soon
as i was outside, the buzzer went on.
So It is really something wrong when the engine gets hot. I will check
the housing for wear but I ordered it from busdepot just before
reassembly, and the engine run in total after reassembly not more than
say 1.5 hours. The scratches though are weird. I did sand the cover down
and now there are clear scratches again. Perhaps I am sucking air and
not oil, as David suggested. Hm Will see.
I am not sure about the loose mains, I brought it to a shop with good
reputation to to the job and they ordered the bearings for me. Also I do
not have a cam bearing left around, so I doubt I forgot one. They were
new as well. I did the valve adjustment as written down in the Bentley,
but for the two cam followers (see my reply from 11:41 PDT last night
why two were different),  it was a bit hard as they were not completely
filled with oil, hence i could not feel the exact point when to start
counting the 1 3/4 turns. Could these two followers (actually the valve
adjustment) cause such a pressure drop? Hm will check again when the
engine is filled with oil ....
But first i will check all other stuff once it is open ....

Thanks a lot
Thomas

Dennis Haynes wrote:
> What viscosity oil are you using? This may have been mentioned but
> remind me.
> I doubt you have a blockage. The lenght of hose going to the guage
> will not efect the reading unless you are actually flowing oil. It may
> delay the reading but the final pressure reading is good.
> Scratches in the oil cover is common. Dirt. Was it a new pump and
> housing? You can check the housing for wear with a striaght edge and
> feeler guages. The Bentley has the specs.
>
> 12.5 psi is almost .9 bar. While not quite the pressure that should be
> there you are clsoe to satifying the switch, (.9 Bar). If you can get
> maintain 2 bar, (28 psi) at 4,000 rpm, you should be safe to run.
> These pressures are an indication of loose mains or out of round rods
> or a missing/bad cam bearing shell. Also, how are the vlaves adjusted?
> If you set the lifters with clearance, you will have some excess flow
> there. They should be tight, ( touching + 1-2 turns) so that all oil
> flowing through has to get forced through the rockers.
>
> Dennis
>
>> From: Thomas Pfrommer <pfrommer@PHAS.UBC.CA>
>> Reply-To: Thomas Pfrommer <pfrommer@PHAS.UBC.CA>
>> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>> Subject: oil pressure -- next round
>> Date: Wed, 16 May 2007 22:03:22 -0700
>>
>> Hi again,
>> OK I am in bad luck i guess .....
>> after I measured the pressure (I posted the readings a few days ago) I
>> realized its really oil pressure and not electronics or other stuff. OK
>> got the muffler off, got the tin sheet off (I really hate this f!@#$%
>> sheet), and the engine support bracket. Unfortunately, the water pipe
>> did not allow to unscrew the upper nuts completely, so in the end I had
>> to get the pulley off and then the water pipe.
>>
>> I did not make any mistakes with the gaskets. Everything as it is
>> supposed to be. BUT I do see quite obvious new scratches in the cover.
>> Together with the bit of oil that I saw at the pump after I ran the
>> engine a bit, it looks like I have some backpressure and a blockage
>> somewhere. Any other ideas? Hm in cold run I got 55psi at 1000rpm. Only
>> when it warmed up, I had 12.5psi at 2000rpm (and 3 meters of tubing
>> before the gauge, which will drop the pressure a bit, but not that much
>> I guess). Also that was still beofer the fan of the radiator went on,
>> but the engine was quite hot already.
>>
>> I have to admit I don't know what to do any more. I just don't want to
>> open the beast again ..... I checked all oil gallys with an air pump and
>> felt air coming equally out of every opening. I could not sense any
>> obstacle sitting somewhere. Also the indication of the new scratches on
>> the cover rather show some backpressure than too loose bearings or
>> similar. I sanded the old cover flat before I put it on (now I have a
>> new cover ready to be put on). Also the scratches show that all areas
>> are equally scratched, so i did not flatten it at an angle.
>>
>> Hope someone can help me. Oh man, I hope i could drive around now, and
>> now it seems that all effort wasn't worth it (besides the gain in
>> knowledge about these engines ...)
>>
>> I need rum now
>> Cheers
>> Thomas
>
>