oil pressure
- Thread starter fatboy
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Fatboy - I had a '90 that did that all the time. The oil gauge was all over the map. It would drop past L, then all of a sudden spring back to normal. Sometimes right away, sometimes it took days.
But I had a mechanic check out the engine and he said the engine was getting oil. And that new gauge cluster would cost me $400. I kept driving it for a while and sold it to my dad who's put another 50k miles on it in the last 2 years. Must be a bum gauge...
But I had a mechanic check out the engine and he said the engine was getting oil. And that new gauge cluster would cost me $400. I kept driving it for a while and sold it to my dad who's put another 50k miles on it in the last 2 years. Must be a bum gauge...
That is a sign of worn bearings. When the engine oil is cold it is thicker and you have more pressure. As the engine warms up the oil thins out and you lose pressure. What weight oil are you running? If you are running 5w-30, I would switch to 10w-40.
You could hook up an accurate gauge and see what the true pressure is. Rule of thumb is that you need 10 psi for every 1000 rpm. So at 800rpm you need 8psi. At 5000 rpm you need 50 psi. If the pressure goes up when you rev the engine then it will probably live for quite a while. Just be careful you don't let the oil get low.
You could hook up an accurate gauge and see what the true pressure is. Rule of thumb is that you need 10 psi for every 1000 rpm. So at 800rpm you need 8psi. At 5000 rpm you need 50 psi. If the pressure goes up when you rev the engine then it will probably live for quite a while. Just be careful you don't let the oil get low.
