I've seen it happen on three different cars. A 74 Pontiac GTO (Ventura I believe) 455, HV pump/stock pan. The oil pressure would go away at 5000 RPM in second gear. He had a warning light and he'd all ways lift in time. We put a Moroso 7 or 8 qrt. pan with the right oil pick up tube. The problem never happened again.

Two SBC 355's. One was just like the Pontiac. We changed it to a 7 qrt pan and he was all set. The other guy put a 7 qrt. pan on after he rebuilt his engine. He held it up there just a little to long....

I know more guys that have ran HV pumps/stock pans and never had any trouble at all. I plan for the worse. It seems like every time I try to "just get by" something go's wrong.

 

Stock SBC engines over oil the top, that is why you hear of the "big boys" limiting top end lubrication in SBC engines. Of course they are revving them to 9k rpm sometimes too. You and me ain't gonna do that on the street so no real worry about that. This is the truth: All you need to keep a small block Chevrolet engine happy is a bone stock (yep bone stock!) oil pump. A high volume oil pump puts too much oil to the top end where you don't need it. The only alteration I'd possibly ever suggest for oil pumps in a SBC is putting a BBC oil pump in one to prevent spark scatter at sustained high(er) rpm. And even at that I'd suggest a little more press. relief allowed in the pump. Remember all you need is just a light coating of oil on any surface to keep undue wear at bay. A light coating doesn't require much oil to the top of the engine. And as long as you can keep no less than 20psi. in the oiling system you're good to go. Stock. That is all you need!

 

i decided on a gm performance pump. its for a lt1 and has high pressure with stock volume. im using a moroso 5.5 qt pan.