Tinker,

I use 15-50 in the summer, thinner stuff in the winter, 10-30 maybe? Mobile synthetic. I went for a 45 minute drive today, oil was hot enough to get into the cooler, at idle (1k, a little low i know), I had a needle's breadth under 2.5. If i goosed it up to 1.1k (where i understand these are meant to idle at?) i have it floating JUST under the peg mark. I just remembered that its time to change it, so i'm probably 3/4 quart low as well. I just replaced my 'oil pump' such as it is, the old one showed no wear.

I have 147k on mine right now, before my o2 light came on i was getting about 25-26 highway driving (i cruise with the rpm's in the sweet-spot and keep my foot out of the 'carb', it helps), i'm down from that but i dont know how much, maybe even to 20 or so.

Weird side issue on the balls/no balls. I vaguely remember one in the cap, but really cannot be sure. If it was there, i didn't remove it. The rachet part of the tensioner is only in use when there is no oil pressure-i don't think that style of mechanism, in and of itself, would necessarily cause lower pressure. I do wonder how similar these updated tensioners really are-mine had the number '43' inscribed on the cap and the body, i took it to mean low-volume production run, maybe hand-fitted to ensure fit. No, I don't think the tensioner design would cause the drastic drop in pressure. If he took the whole cover off though, i bet he could get an internal leak with the oil either going back into the pan or into the h2o.

Good thread-always enjoy the ones JimSmith (and his sons) starts

cheers,
dan