[AdamIsAdam]

Today I tried an experient that someone from CP suggested. The basic idea is to block oil flow to filter and them spin pump with primer to force oil to flow through pressure regulator ball and spring in hopes of clearing out the debis caught in there.
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It goes like this:

I removed the oil fiter housing. It was pretty clean (the spring, valve and all) except that I did find a grey piece of rubber in there. (see pics) It's a broken off piece from something, not a piece of silicone. It's about 3/8" long but part of something that was round. I traced it out to be a complete circle which is about 1/2" diameter. it's light grey, and soft and rubbery. It appears to be a manufactured item as it's got circles or ridges along the outside of it. Similar to the O ring used on the water pump connection to the intake manifold, but softer and much thinner.

Anyway, on to my results. First I bolted the oil filter housing back on with a piece of aluminum sandwiched between it and the motor to close off the oil holes. Then I started the drill and priming tool. After just a few seconds, maybe 20 or 30, the RPMs of the drill seemed to pick up. I continued for about 2 minutes then stopped, thinking I may have freed the pressure regulator ball.

I then removed the aluminum block and reinstalled the filter housing, but not the filter. I again ran the drill and primer and watched a bunch of (BRAND NEW!) oil come out into a drain pain, hoping to flush out whatever was in the pump. I dumped about 2 qts.

Finally, I put the filter back on and had my 7 year old ;-) run the drill again while I watched the oil gauge. Yesterday, the drill was only able to produce 20 psi. This time it quickly went to 25psi!!! At this point I'm thinking it's fixed! (I was wrong)

So I put the distributor back in, topped off the oil, adding a bottle of STP for good luck.

I fired it up (got the distributor back in correctly on the first shot ;-) and the psi went right up to about 70 or more psi!!!

Unfortunately, that didn't last. As the car warmed up, it was dropping. And now, it's back to where it was before I started. About 30 at 2600. The pressure at idle eventually dropped back to 5, although it seemed to take longer to do that this time.

So, the only thing that encouraged me was the fact that my drill produced 25psi this time instead of 20psi. And that was before I put the STP in.

What do you all think? I'm thinking I'll repeat the process but run the drill for a lot longer with the filter bypass installed.

Other ideas?