Stock Oil Pressure Gauge

[fastestdsm]

I dont know if my gauge is off, but when I bought the car, upon first startup, such as leaving the car off overnight and next morning starting the car, the oil pressure isnt as high, it only goes up a tad bit over the first line, it also takes time to go there, like lil by lil, but maybe a month ago, the oil pressure would go straight up and be higher, how do I check if I have a leak or something? is this where the oil pressure is supposed to be?
I have a leaky valve cover gasket, but its not that bad right now, im assuming I can still drive for 20k miles with it, but I will replace when I can just not immediately because not much is leaking if any at all..

 

[kenamond]

I dont know if my gauge is off, but when I bought the car, upon first startup, such as leaving the car off overnight and next morning starting the car, the oil pressure isnt as high, it only goes up a tad bit over the first line, it also takes time to go there, like lil by lil, but maybe a month ago, the oil pressure would go straight up and be higher, how do I check if I have a leak or something? is this where the oil pressure is supposed to be?
I have a leaky valve cover gasket, but its not that bad right now, im assuming I can still drive for 20k miles with it, but I will replace when I can just not immediately because not much is leaking if any at all..

I'm too lazy to search for the normal idle and high rpm oil pressures, but they are drastically different. My poor recollection is 15psi at idle and 55psi at high rpm.

Anyway, since the stock oil pressure gauge lacks numbers, my gauge shows about 1/8 to 1/4 of the highest marking at idle, but at higher rpm, it will "settle" on the 1/2 mark. This is normal.

You can get a cheap Autometer oil pressure gauge and mount it in place of the stocker (you can mount it in an A-pillar gauge pod or numerous other places including the stock location if you're up to hacking your stock instrument panel, and you can screw it into the same hole in the oil pump housing as the stocker), and it will have numbers on the dial face. I've been contemplating this, but I'm not confident/motivated enough at the moment to do this without more research and a kick in the pants. Anyway, if you have an aftermarket gauge giving you actual psi rather than the lame stocker, you can check the forum for the "correct" idle and high-rpm pressures to see if you have an oil pressure problem (remember that my numbers were guesses, but they give you an idea of the vast difference between idle and high rpm oil pressures).

I'll bet a nickle that someone will post the actual psi values after I'm done.

 

[nightspeed87]

I dont remember them either, but I was going to ask does your oil pressure raise with rpms? If it at least goes over the middle line during acceleration or at least sits on the middle line it should be ok for now. At idle my car used to have almost no oil pressure, but when I drove it went past the middle line, Mines was more so from worn crankshaft bearings (7bolt go figure) but I dont hear of oil pumps going out too often, the thing that would concern me is that you said a month ago it was fine? Well have you changed oil since then, different type, brand?
Or more so importantly if you havent you may have dirt and sludge build up in the oil pick up tube or on the screen knocking off oil pressure and flow... Get that looked into oil pressure isnt anything to mess with, could cost an engine if it keeps getting worse, but dont take that and worry, your sympthoms dont sound too bad. I doubt its the pump at least.

 

[chrisfrye]

Idle is good at anywhere between 15-25 and cruise RPM in 5th gear should be around 10 psi for every 10 mph. So at 50 mph you should see close to 50psi, etc. My readings are higher and yours may be a bit lower depending on how tired the internal parts are

At idle my car used to have almost no oil pressure, but when I drove it went past the middle line, Mines was more so from worn crankshaft bearings (7bolt go figure)

Halarious, same thing with mine, 93tsi. Although in all fairness it was due to the idiot who sold me the car and didnt seat the rear main seal properly and i lost too much oil on its maiden voyage home. haha. oh well been riding on rod knock for over 25kmiles, getting a jdm.

but I dont hear of oil pumps going out too often, the thing that would concern me is that you said a month ago it was fine?

I'm not trying to scare you but the same thing happened to me on my old roomates 1990 ford ranger 4banger, with a mitsubishi engine go figure. (I will say that i pushed that truck over 310k miles, i've never seen that before)The oil pressure was fine for a while, and then it was reading really low for a week or so, and then it stopped reading. I urged him to get an oil pump but he didnt want to. Well on the highway one night the pump died doing 50 somemph. Thats a sound i never want to hear again. popped the hood and notice a whole in the block, must've shot a rod right through the cast iron block haha.
Point being, you dont want to assume its not the pump. But i would start much simpler, check the wiring to the sending unit, make sure its a good solid connection. Whens the last time you changed your oil/filter? and definitely check out the pick up tube.

 

[fastestdsm]

im in the process of cleansing the oil, changing it early such as every2k miles instead of 3k. Ive changed oil to 15w50 synthetic. Car has 130k miles on it.
It was fine with the oil change it happend after I changed my water pump. Its not like its low oil pressure, the oil pressure goes it little over the half mark when accellerate, just not as high as before but the changes arent that much difference..
I know the previous owner before me has never changed the oil or at least not frequently.. when I changed the oil it was dirty etc. even when I put in new oil the oil became dirty almost instantly, owell, all I can is careless driver. I know I wont be able to clense the oil, but if I change faster such as 2k miles instead of 3k it should get a little better to my knowledge.
also had a problem with the oil filter housing coming loose all the time, turns out that it was the nut inside that was loose, fixed that and seems like the oil filter isnt coming loose ne more.

 

[chrisfrye]

Yeah i mean not knowing what half way really is in psi it seems that would be quite acceptable normal range, odd it takes soo long to get up there though.. do you loose/burn any oil? and thats good to change your oil ever 2k, make sure you get it nice and hot first, and wear some good gloves haha. I've heard of seafoam in the crankcase/oil? it also works in the intake and fuel. supposed to work great, i'm going to get some when i get my jdm. I had the same problem with the nut inside my oil filter housing, i must've hit it going home up the mountain one day because i start my car the next morning and i just have oil shooting out from under my car rediculously. i dont know about synthetics, some say they'll make old engines leak, some say you cant change back blah blah, too much bs. maybe you could run a thinner oil? i'm not sure seems like the thicker the oil the more pressure you'd gain. I'll say i've used Lucas oil additive(1qt per 4qt) of oil, and that raised my pressure dramaticaly, helped knock and tick. although it was about twice as thick as hunny it worried me after i put it in my turbo(even though i really didn't notice anything, i'm just funny like that). every other car i've had it in or seen it in has worked great!

 

[kenamond]

If your oil is black, change it. Use Lucas oil additive, run the motor a few minutes with it in there (follow the directions), then drain the whole lot. This will clean out a lot of the sludge that's probably turning your oil black right away. I'd recommend doing this before every oil change to keep your internals relatively clean. I know that on older GM motors, there was a risk in doing this; you could loosen up a big gob of sludge that could block an oil passage and ruin the motor. Don't know if there are the same issues on high-mileage DSMs.

And synthetic has a higher thermal breakdown temperature than organic oils, so it is less likely to coke from the hotside of the turbo (that's what makes your oil turn black so fast - broken down oil from the hotside of the center section). Also, changing your oil every 2k miles is recommended by those who know turbo engines. Finally, either get a turbo timer or let your engine idle for atleast 30 seconds before you shut it down so that the hotside can cool down and not coke up the bearings. All of that is just normal turbo car maintenance practice.

Once you find the oil pressure sender, you'll see how easy it is to replace it with an aftermarket gauge. The only time-consuming part is getting the wire to the gauge and mounting the oil pressure gauge.

 

[nightspeed87]

Yeah i mean not knowing what half way really is in psi it seems that would be quite acceptable normal range, odd it takes soo long to get up there though.. do you loose/burn any oil? and thats good to change your oil ever 2k, make sure you get it nice and hot first, and wear some good gloves haha. I've heard of seafoam in the crankcase/oil? it also works in the intake and fuel. supposed to work great, i'm going to get some when i get my jdm. I had the same problem with the nut inside my oil filter housing, i must've hit it going home up the mountain one day because i start my car the next morning and i just have oil shooting out from under my car rediculously. i dont know about synthetics, some say they'll make old engines leak, some say you cant change back blah blah, too much bs. maybe you could run a thinner oil? i'm not sure seems like the thicker the oil the more pressure you'd gain. I'll say i've used Lucas oil additive(1qt per 4qt) of oil, and that raised my pressure dramaticaly, helped knock and tick. although it was about twice as thick as hunny it worried me after i put it in my turbo(even though i really didn't notice anything, i'm just funny like that). every other car i've had it in or seen it in has worked great!

yea i aggree lucas does work I had a saturn before and it was making horrible noises and lucas made it go away and allowed me to drive it an extra 10 thousand miles before it finaly went. And yea i hear all kinds of stuff too about synthetic also i may look it up one day to see if I can confirm any of the rumors of it, but the ppl tellin them will be the same ppl that say use synthetic oil because it gives you horsepower... (whatever) but after i break in my new motor once my swap and rebuild is done, i think ill go synthetic... Best to start off with the good stuff... I dont aggree with running thinner oil though will only make it break down quicker and loose viscosity. * Not on a high milage engine at least, you normally want to go thicker with age.

 

[kenamond]

yea i aggree lucas does work I had a saturn before and it was making horrible noises and lucas made it go away and allowed me to drive it an extra 10 thousand miles before it finaly went. And yea i hear all kinds of stuff too about synthetic also i may look it up one day to see if I can confirm any of the rumors of it, but the ppl tellin them will be the same ppl that say use synthetic oil because it gives you horsepower... (whatever) but after i break in my new motor once my swap and rebuild is done, i think ill go synthetic... Best to start off with the good stuff... I dont aggree with running thinner oil though will only make it break down quicker and loose viscosity. * Not on a high milage engine at least, you normally want to go thicker with age.

The biggest reason for synthetic in a turbo engine is the thermal breakdown temperature. Non-turbo engines don't send their oil past exhaust parts, turbos do. You WILL get coking with any oil, but you can decrease it with a more heat-tolerant oil.