I'm pulling the engine in my 65 valiant/6 -225-- -I'm going to do a compression check before it's pulled- anyhow should a new oil pump be put on with it out? The odometer has 127K don't know the history, valve train really clean when i did valve adjustment. Anyhow I asking for some thoughts-- I don't plan on rebuilding- just fixing broken head studs & tranny seals. the oil light comes on at hot idle/ in gear -- no valve train noise thanks

Its hard to say because you have a idiot light instead of a gauge. I had a low pressure problem at idle, but at cruze it was up to 40psi. You can run a thicker oil and see what happens or as you said the motor appears clean but looks CAN be decieving as to the real condition of the motor. I ran a quart of tranny fluid in the oil for 100 miles or so before doing a oil change and you wouldn't believe the amount of gradoo that came out of the oil, pressure also went up about 5 psi at idle and at cruze.

Oil pump is cheap, like $40 for standard ones so I would just replace it while the engine is out. Less hassle that way because while its in the car the engine needs to be lifted a bit to swap pumps because of the length of the shaft.

I would clean out your pickup screen/tube at the same time your in the engine.

While you're in there, you could mic one of the rod bearings and get some piece of mind about how worn things are.

It won't hurt anything to check, and if you find they need replaced, you'll be saving yourself a lot of future trouble.

"Knock Knock!"

"who's there??"

"rod bearing!"

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1980 Aspen 225 super six