[AdamIsAdam]

I posted this on CP and wanted to get as many heads together as possible on this one...

In November I changed the oil in my relatively stock and original 77,000 mile 1968 350. For the winter I used Rotella synthetic 5W-30 instead of my usual Rotella dino 15W-40. All was fine and I put the car away for a while.

Last week I took the car out for a ride for the first time in about 6 weeks. I started it up and let it warm up in the driveway. Then I loaded up the kids and drove away. A few minutes into the drive I noticed the oil PSI on my mechanical gauge was around 30psi on the highway. I'm normally running around 60-65 at 2600 RPM. (I have no idea but assume my OEM oil pump was changed before I bought the car.)

I pulled over and checked the oil level. Normal.
At idle the psi went down to 5! It's normally around 20PSI!

I stopped at a store, let it cool the checked the level again. Full. I added 1/2 qt just for good measure.


So, I pulled the synthetic oil out and put back on Rotella 15W-40 dino oil and a new filter. (I actually changed it twice today.)

After warming up the car to about 170*, I still get 35PSI at 2600 RPM and 5 lbs at idle. No lifter tick. Oil level is fine. nothing's leaking. I let it idle for about 5 minutes and it still sounded fine. runs fine.

When I wind out the motor, I get 60-65psi at 4,000 RPMs and over. It seems fine except that it's so different than how it used to behave.

What the heck happened? Should I be freaking out?

HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!