Outer Limits 4x4 Board

G'day folks, just thought I'd pass on todays discovery.

Have had low oil pressure for a while (205,000 kms travelled) and figured it was normal for an older engine. Recently it had begun to take a while to actually get oil pressure up from cold start. Then it got to the point where I had to start it 3 times and shut off before oil pressure actually registered.

I thought that was a bit weird, as I had a quiet engine with no clonking. I figured I might pull the oil pump off and have a squiz.

Lucky I did. The pressure relief valve inside the filter housing had its bore scored badly enough to freeze the piston slightly open.

A bit of 400 wet and dry in the piston bore and a lot of cleaning and we're off again, no more dramas.

Might get another few hundred out of the old cow yet, except for that pesky blown head gasket I've been putting up with for the last 35,000kms!

just a thought
your blown head gasket may be the reason you burst your heater tank. It may be leaking compresion into the water jacket as well as leaking water out of the head. I would do the head gaskets while I had the dash apart just to be sure would'nt want to blow the new core when you put it in.
cheers

Yeah, that was the reason the heater bypass hoses blew and the heater core went the same way.

The heater is diconnected ATM and the radiator cap is slightly loose to prevent pressure build up.

Luckily I have pressure only just escaping into the water jacket and not a big enough leak to have any noticible water loss through the overflow or into the cylinder.

I suspect this will not be the case for too long, though.