my 74 has always had good oil pressure and it still does but it has dropped considerably.. from a max of 45 or so at 5500 rpm i now only see about 30.. shows 20 psi all the way from idle up and only goes to about 35 at 5500? any thoughts? it was a bit low on oil and beleived to have a seal leaking. but i have changed oil and added a qt of lucas and didnt seem to help.

 

If your engine has a lot of miles on it, it could be your #2 main bearing wearing in the block. You will get a loose fitting bearing after a lot of miles and the oil comming into the crankshaft bearing will excape out where the loose fitting bearing sits. Unfortunatly to confirm this you have to tear down the engine. This is a common problem with high mileage air cooled engines.

 

Just a guess, the beetle engine lubricates the cam before it lubes
the crank and rods. The cam plug behind the flywheel had problems leaking, this would lower oil pressure.