[surfacerider]

Hey there....just registered and saw your plight.

There's a few things I need to know to give you my input...........I'm going to assume you have throttlebody fuel injection and the first guess will be the intake gaskets,they have 4 ports to allow coolant to circulate 2 at the front and 2 at the rear.on GM's throttle body the 2 rear ports are blocked off,and the 2 front ports are to allow coolant to flow throught the area under the throttle body to preheat the fuel before it enters the cylinders to assist in the atomization process.

If the intake gaskets are installed wrong there will be no coolant flow and possably airlocks in the upper part of the engine.Higher engine temperatures will also cause lower oil pressures

Your knocking could be caused by a number of reasons........the first thing to do is narrow the possabilities down,when does it knkock,during idling could be caused by depending on the condition of the engine..........a piece of carbon from the exhaust crossover (a passage that goes under the intake for the EGR) that accidently entered one of the intake ports and embedded itself in the piston not a serious problem ,remidied with some combustion chamber cleaner............only at higher engine speeds under load or on a float situation depending on the pitch of the noise possable rod or main bearing,which could also acount for the low oil pressure,or improper bearing instilation, as bearing clearances are responsable for oil pressure.

If the knock can be produced by quickly snaping the throttle then dissconnect sparkplug wires one at a time repeating the snap throttle and when you get one that either makes the noise change or dissapear then you have narrowed the noise to a particular cylinder.

another way is to use a long piece of metal or a long screwdriver and place it on each exhaust port where it connects to the head and putting it to your ear,this will act like a stethniscope and allow you to hear only the cylinder you have the tool on.

So give me some more information on the knocking and we can pin this little puppy down.............

surfacerider.........