I don't know what the quantity of oil would be going to the cams, but there should
be oil coating everything. When the engine is idling and you take the oil filler cap
off, droplets of oil should be flicking out the filler and making a mess
The spring loaded relief valve in the oil pump normally will only open at high rpm
when the pump is flowing more oil than the engine can handle, and pressure gets
high. At idle it normally will be closed. Your oil filter should have a bypass/relief
valve built-in to allow oil to get to the bearings if the filter element gets clogged
and creates a high pressure drop.
Oil pressure is a measure of the resistance to flow... the tighter bearing clearances
are, the harder it is to force oil thru the gaps, resulting in higher pressure. To get
100psi at idle should not be possible, because as you say, the oil pump relief valve
should open... IIRC it opens at something like 75-80psi.
The fact that you are over-pressurizing a new filter is also strange, unless you had
a filter without an internal over=pressure relief valve. Even so, to get that much
pressure at idle or just above, suggests that there is unusually high restriction in
oil flow to the crank and cams.
Got to ask this... what kind of gauge are you using ? I am assuming some kind of
aftermarket gauge, so electrical or mechanical ? Does the needle move when you
turn the ignition ON ? And does it go immediately to 100psi when you start the
engine, and drop straight back to zero when you turn the ignition OFF ? Or does it
take a few seconds to hit 100 and maybe a few more seconds to drop back to zero
when you turn the key OFF ?
Cheers... jondee86