dying oil pump?

[jt1583]

i got around 15psi of oil pressure at idle and 50+ at 3000rpm, then I was playing around and when the motor would go over 7000rpm the oil pressure would jump anywhere between 50 and 75 really quickly, so i let off. This happened twice. I was on a normal 15-40 oil, non synthetic. After this oil pressure at idle appeared to be 5, just real low on the gauge. At 3000rpm i'd be lucky to get 40psi. Im not sure if this is because I used a base oil and pressure is just low because I had just beaten on the motor, or if my 7000 rpm runs killed my pump. Im going to switch to a 20w50 synthetic tomorrow and see where things are at, but does these sound like the symptoms on a dying oil pump? My real concern is because theres a race saturday and if my oil pump is going, you guys think it could die when I beat on the motor at the race?

[ledzeppelin240]

At idle you want about 10-15psi of oil pressure and then 10psi for every 1000rpm from idle. You could have a clogged pick up, and oil pump that is dying, pressure relief valve sticking....