CK5
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The Shop Truck

1971 Chevy C20 with a custom flat bed.
I am definitely considering getting one now. I took the truck out for another short drive and grabbed a video/audio.
Sorry for the watermark, it had crazy camera shake so I had to do something.
I had another weird oil pressure issue while I was driving. After I took that video I took the next exit, when I made the left turn at the intersection my screen started flashing low oil pressure. It was bouncing around between 17 and 25, obviously sucking bubbles or something. I stopped and shut the truck off, waited 30 seconds and restarted with about 30psi. It was still a little lower than it should have been, but I drove it another couple blocks to a better place to park and shut it down. 10 minutes later when I left I had 50psi again.
 
Sounds great to me!
Hopefully you can get your oil pressure issues fixed without too much hassle.
 
I cut the oil filter open. It has some metal in it, but I don't think it's more than I'd expect in a new build, although I'm certainly not an expert.
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This was what was in the bottom of the filter.
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I dumped the 1/2 quart of oil that was in the filter through a paper towel. The picture didn't turn out very well, but there isn't much there.
IMG_20260427_134652089.jpg
 
After talking to my tuner and a few other people, the best guess is that the regulator is sticking. I'm actually going to drop the front crossmember so I can pull the pan, while I have it out I'm going to clearance the crossmember so I can remove the oil pan without dropping it. That should give me enough space to get a tray under there so I don't have to run a diaper.
 
We took a long weekend and went camping for 3 nights over the weekend, so that was nice. Today I got back out into the shop. I drained the coolant, drained the oil, removed the accessory drive and water pump, and then I pulled the crossmember.
Looking online there are a lot of people that "pancake" the front crossmember to lower the front end. I figure if all these people were cutting 2" out, that should be fine for me as well. I marked the area to remove with tape and cut it out with an angle grinder.
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I'm not sure what thickness the front crossmember started life out as, but with the way it was formed some areas looked like 3/16" and some looked like 1/8" or thinner. I cut out some 3/16 plate to make the center section and welded it in.
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I didn't measure, but hopefully this gets me enough clearance to pull the pan now. It will definitely be enough space for some sort of catch pan or engine diaper depending on which way I go. It should give me about 2.5" of room under the pan.
Tomorrow, I'll finish up the crossmember, drop the pan, pull the front cover, swap the oil pump, and put everything back together. Hopefully it will be back on the road Thursday.
 
We pancaked my buddy’s k5 if you saw it and everyone complemented it on being so low. If you want to go low do it but it’s a lot of work.

Porterbuilt near us has it made but it’s money
 
We pancaked my buddy’s k5 if you saw it and everyone complemented it on being so low. If you want to go low do it but it’s a lot of work.

Porterbuilt near us has it made but it’s money
I'm not doing this to lower the truck, I'm doing it to make more clearance between the oil pan and the crossmember so I can remove it without dropping the crossmember.
 
Sorry, I was just comparing what I did to the traditional pancake for strength concerns.
The front crossmember is done and will go back in today.
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Yesterday I dropped the oil pan, pulled the front cover, pulled the oil pump and pickup, installed a new oil pump, cleaned and reinstalled the pickup.
The o-ring was fine, the pickup tube had a bit of "fluff" in it, maybe paper towel fuzz? One thing I did notice about the pickup tube is that the screen in the bottom is pressed up against the tube so the only place it can suck through is the screen right over the tube. There was just a ring of "debris" over the tube on the screen, so this isn't ideal. I'm going to try to pull the screen away from the tube a bit so it will suck through more of the screen. I'll get pictures later to explain what I'm talking about.
The pan was clean, no debris there. Most of what I see is from the coating on the bearings.
 
Sorry, I was just comparing what I did to the traditional pancake for strength concerns.
The front crossmember is done and will go back in today.
IMG_20260506_184509049.jpg

Yesterday I dropped the oil pan, pulled the front cover, pulled the oil pump and pickup, installed a new oil pump, cleaned and reinstalled the pickup.
The o-ring was fine, the pickup tube had a bit of "fluff" in it, maybe paper towel fuzz? One thing I did notice about the pickup tube is that the screen in the bottom is pressed up against the tube so the only place it can suck through is the screen right over the tube. There was just a ring of "debris" over the tube on the screen, so this isn't ideal. I'm going to try to pull the screen away from the tube a bit so it will suck through more of the screen. I'll get pictures later to explain what I'm talking about.
The pan was clean, no debris there. Most of what I see is from the coating on the bearings.
So you think you figured what was causing oil starvation?
That's a good
 
So you think you figured what was causing oil starvation?
That's a good
I think it was the pressure regulator in the oil pump. It's the only thing that moves that can cause oil pressure to completely go away. I'll likely find out later today if it's actually fixed.
 
I think it was the pressure regulator in the oil pump. It's the only thing that moves that can cause oil pressure to completely go away. I'll likely find out later today if it's actually fixed.
I was thinking the screen obstructing the flow was a contributing factor
 
I don't think that was an issue. If it was, I think it would have been way worse cold (20-50 oil) than when I was cruising with 200+ oil temps. I've always had 60+psi at startup.
I took a macro shot of the screen. You can see some of the blue fibers from blue shop towels (I think?). I cleaned those off with a pick after I took the picture. I couldn't move the screen without damaging it, so I left it. It's the same pickup tube as I was running before, so I don't think it's the problem.
IMG_20260507_092653464_HDR.jpg

It doesn't show real well in these shots, but there's at least 2.5-3" of clearance between the pan and crossmember now. I don't know that I'll be able to get the pan off, but I'll at least be able to add a catch pan or diaper easily.
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Unfortunately, it didn't drive today, because I didn't put it in drive... We didn't get to adding coolant or bleeding the front brakes, but it started up and had 65psi of oil pressure. It will drive tomorrow for sure.
While I had it apart I swapped the 187° thermostat for a 174° one. I'm going to reprogram the fans to keep it closer to 200 instead of 215. Fingers crossed that the oil pressure doesn't go away anymore.
 
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