I hate when things light up

Recently in my SC, my Check Gauge light keeps coming on and my oil pressure gauge is low, in the red, but my oil is fine and im running 5 w 30. I recently got my headgaskets replaced, approx 4000 miles ago. Also, when i hit the gas, and get to exactly 3K RPM's the gauge goes back to normal and the light goes away, until i idle. Any ideas? Thanks
Mike

Oil pressure switch is bad. The reason it goes up when you give it gas is because when the oil pressure raises it pushes the contacts harder in the oil pressure switch and makes a better connection. Your gauge is really a fancy idiot light. For some unknown reason (maybe the sending unit is too much of a pita to install on an assembly line), Ford decided just to use a cheap oil pressure switch instead of the sending unit to drive the gauge. They installed a resistor inline with the gauge to limit current and cause the gauge to read about 3/4 scale.

Jeff

J57ltr said:

For some unknown reason (maybe the sending unit is too much of a pita to install on an assembly line), Ford decided just to use a cheap oil pressure switch instead of the sending unit to drive the gauge.

Click to expand...

The switch is probably cheaper to buy than a sender.

Plus they get a side benefit of a reduction in "Low Oil Pressure" warranty claims. Most people don't seem to understand that an engine's oil pressure will vary depending on RPM and temp. I see a lot of repair orders with oil pressure low at idle for concerns. A swithc eliminates that as it either reads or it doesn't.