Oil Pressure Low, maby the Gauge?

factoryblue

Registered User
Odd oil problem. Our 89 was changed from 10/30 to 10/40 at about 110,000 miles. The engine sounds great and tight but the gauge still reads at about 11 o'clock. I've read that others are running 15/50. That seems high to me. I have replaced the oil pressure switch. Another thing to note is the oil gauge reads about 1 o'clock somtimes but rarly. The fuel gauge goes out and a quick tap fixes that. Could this be as easy as finding a gauge cluster ground or more?

Nick
 
Have you made the modification to the oil pressure sender? Because stock, the sender is just an on/off switch - below a few PSI the gauge shows zero, and anywhere above a few PSI the gauge shows about midway.

There are some posts you can search for where you replace the sender with a variable one, and bypass a resistor, which gives you a real gauge :)
 
Even with the different oil pressure sender, the gauge won't tell you too much, since there aren't any numbers and it's not really a precision unit. But, as for the original question, anything in the "Normal" range should be ok. The gauge isn't really designed to move with increasing and decreasing pressure, but slight voltage variations might make it lean back and forth.
 
My pressure sender does something weird--
Under heavy throttle, the oil pressure gauge drops to zero but promptly goes back the second I ease up. I think I might have installed the wrong part, but I sure as hell am not installing another one of those-- that thing was a bastard!
 
The time to do it is when you already have the IC, IC tubes, and accessory bracket out of the engine bay. Definitely a little tricky to replace with all that in place - even with the right tools. (Yet you can see it, mockingly.)
 
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