I've been driving my Omni for over a month and a half now. Everytime that I come to a stop while driving, my oil pressure drops completely and the check oil light comes on. I don't know what would cause this and any help would be appreciated. I check the oil nearly everyday and it hasn't burnt an ounce of oil since in the 1300 miles I have driven it so far. Thanks!
At 7psi on the mechanical the check gauges light starts to flicker on. When my mechanical oil pressure gauge dips below 6psi the dash gauge takes the dump to nothing.
Recently rebuilt?? high milage?? Whats the stats on your engine?
It's the original bottom end with 130k on it. The top end was installed two years ago and it came off of an '86 Shelby Charger T1 motor I had. It had somewhere around 130k as well.Originally Posted by BARRON
It doesn't happen to have OSJ stamped on the driver side of the head does it? I installed a performance cam on my daytona that had this stamped on it. Oil pressure dropped, come to find out it means over sized journal. The oil pressure dropped low at idle but drove fine other wise, until it knocked the wrist pins out of it.
They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Sounds like it might be time to drop the pan, toss a set of bearings in it, and have a look at the oil pump. If it's not knocking yet, you might just get away with changing the bearings in-car without having to do anything to the crank.
It's really advisable to get a mechaical oil pressure gauge in there eventually. The stock in-dash ones look nice but don't tell you much. Oil pressure varys a lot with engine rpm and oil temperature.
If 7psi is indeed the level where the engine light starts to flicker, I'd be very concerned if the light is comming on if that was my car. No reason pressure should be that low. I'd definately check out the oil pump and do new bearings while I was down there.
check the rod bearings ASAP, otherwise you're probaply going to loose your bearings completely
Is this using the stock guage or an mechanical one. If mechanical, its time to drop the pan, if stock,. either check it or replace the sender.
1989 FWD Turbo Caravan-2.5 TIII, GT35R, auto, a/c, cruise, pwr windows/locks, fully loaded with interior and ran with full exhaust. RETIRED FOR A FEW YEARS!12.57@104 :O)
1984 Chev Getaway van, 6.2 Diesel with a remote mounted turbo setup burning WMO-For sale.
2003 GSW 2.0L TDI, auto, fully loaded, modified, 360K-wife's.
2004 GSW TDI, 5 speed, fully loaded, modified.
Aurora ignition wires for sale. Link to info
Super60 roller cams or custom/billet cams. Link to info
Recently, I replaced my sending unit with an aftermarket one from Autozone.
I have an 86 with the digi dash. It has bars for indicators, and mine now reads 4 bars or nothing. Basically, in the middle or nothing. When the car is cold, I get 4 bars at idle. When I'm driving I get 4+, and when it's warm and idling, i get nothing. If I blip the throttle, it instantly goes back to 4 bars.
I was going to post a thread about this, but yours seemed perfect to add to.
Damon
"America is all about speed...hot, nasty badass speed."
-Eleanor Roosevelt
That's interesting. Almost sounds like how ford had their oil pressure guages. They just used an idiot light sensor that was either open or closed. If you had any oil pressure at all, the guage would stay at 3/4. If the oil pressure dropped below the cutoff for the sending unit, the gauge would go to 0.
Sounds like it might be a good time to hook up a mechanical gauge and figure out what's really going on.
Some of the aftermarket sending units are something to be desired,Thats why its best just to buy a cheap mechanical one for testing, then when your guage reads off, you install your mechanical one and see what its really doing.
1989 FWD Turbo Caravan-2.5 TIII, GT35R, auto, a/c, cruise, pwr windows/locks, fully loaded with interior and ran with full exhaust. RETIRED FOR A FEW YEARS!
1984 Chev Getaway van, 6.2 Diesel with a remote mounted turbo setup burning WMO-For sale.
2003 GSW 2.0L TDI, auto, fully loaded, modified, 360K-wife's.
2004 GSW TDI, 5 speed, fully loaded, modified.
Aurora ignition wires for sale. Link to info
Super60 roller cams or custom/billet cams. Link to info
Yeah, I bought a mechanical gauge at lunch. I'll swap it in this weekend and see what she says.
Damon
"America is all about speed...hot, nasty badass speed."
-Eleanor Roosevelt
I keep an old mechanical gauge and fitting kit laying around just to use to check oil pressure on cars with an idiot light or inaccurate stock gauges. It's really nice to have when I'm considering buying a car. It never gets installed, I just hook it up under the hood to check the oil pressure and take it back off when I'm done. It's handy to use to determine wether an oil pressure issue is the result of mechanical problems or a messed up stock gauge.
Thats a great idea, tony. Since mine does this when I get it's warmed up, testing it when i get to the garage seems like the perfect time to do it.
Out of curiousity, what kind of oil pressure should i be looking for with a hot engine?
Damon
"America is all about speed...hot, nasty badass speed."
-Eleanor Roosevelt
I don't remember exactly. Mine was low (like under 20 psi I think) at a hot idle, but it would shoot up to 50-60 as soon as the rpms started to come up.
Minimum spec is around 6 psi at idle warm, then rule of thumb is 10 psi per 1000 rpm.
1989 FWD Turbo Caravan-2.5 TIII, GT35R, auto, a/c, cruise, pwr windows/locks, fully loaded with interior and ran with full exhaust. RETIRED FOR A FEW YEARS!
1984 Chev Getaway van, 6.2 Diesel with a remote mounted turbo setup burning WMO-For sale.
2003 GSW 2.0L TDI, auto, fully loaded, modified, 360K-wife's.
2004 GSW TDI, 5 speed, fully loaded, modified.
Aurora ignition wires for sale. Link to info
Super60 roller cams or custom/billet cams. Link to info
That's minimum spec, but if I see 6 psi at idle, the pan's coming off.
I dunno if it's just a holdover from my SBC days or what, but anything much under 20 at a warm idle or much under 50 by around 3k and I start to get nervous.
That's minimum spec, but if I see 6 psi at idle, the pan's coming off.
I dunno if it's just a holdover from my SBC days or what, but anything much under 20 at a warm idle or much under 50 by around 3k and I start to get nervous.
This isn't a small block chevy,
1989 FWD Turbo Caravan-2.5 TIII, GT35R, auto, a/c, cruise, pwr windows/locks, fully loaded with interior and ran with full exhaust. RETIRED FOR A FEW YEARS!
1984 Chev Getaway van, 6.2 Diesel with a remote mounted turbo setup burning WMO-For sale.
2003 GSW 2.0L TDI, auto, fully loaded, modified, 360K-wife's.
2004 GSW TDI, 5 speed, fully loaded, modified.
Aurora ignition wires for sale. Link to info
Super60 roller cams or custom/billet cams. Link to info
I know, I know.This isn't a small block chevy,But really when you think about it, we're putting more power than most smallblocks through fewer bearings. That alone is enough to make me want to keep the oil pressure up.
The factory service manual states......OIL PRESSURE-ALL 2.2-2.5....ENGINE FULLY WARM....@ curb idle-4 psi. @ 3000 rpm-25-80 psi., I just copied that directly from the manual..........My 84 manual says min. idle psi is 2psi hot.
idiot light comes on at 2-4 psi.
this was cut and pasted from another thread, this issue comes up quite often.
it very well could be worn bearings, install the mech. gauge first and see what it says. the block could be missing the oil restrictor that limits oil to the top end. just some suggestions. of the engines i have built, having around .003 clearances on the bearings has netted about 20 psi hot idle, and around 60psi cold.
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