I've had small oil drips from a pushrod tube for some time, an inconvenience but not real problem.

Then all hell broke loose. In a short time, there were more pushrod tube leaks, leaks from cylinder bases, maybe a front seal and probably more. At the same time, oil pressure dropped from about 30 psi at 3000 rpm to under 25 when the engine was ware. At cold start, the pressure remained about 70-80psi.

Took the engine out and replaced every seal and gasket that I could and resealed the cylinders hoping that the oil pressure drop was a product of the oil leaks. Also put the oil pressure booster kit in.

Now there are no oil leaks but the oil pressure is about 40 on a cold start and drops to about 15 when warm. Used an oil pressure gauge to verify that the cockpit gauge is close. Then I parked it.

Could this be anything but bearings? Since it dropped so quickly I'm hoping for another cause.

Thanks.

You have some strange symptoms and may have multiple things going on that aren't related. Leaks from push rod tubes and base of cylinders won't cause a change in oil pressure. Those area are not pressure fed.

Has ambient temperature changed? That could give you the difference in cold start pressures.

The only thing I can definitely say is that my own personal experience with my original 1.7L was one day I had pressure (no idiot light on) and the next day I didn't (idiot light on at idle, flickered when rev'd). That was before I used to run a oil pressure gauge.

General rule is 10 psi per 1000 rpm when warm. If you're on the low end of that - bearings are highly suspect. If that is the case, better to rebuild than keep running to catastrophic failure.