Low oil pressure?

nm9stheham said

Much/most of the heat in the oil comes from the heat in the pistons, which goes up with the power being generated, even at cruise.

I was watching my oil temp gauge on the CTD towing a 20' trailer in I-64 through the mtns of WV last week. Going up the mtns, the oil temp would rise to the 220*. As soon as I started downhill, the oil temps would drop like a rock; they would drop 50-60 degrees with a 45 second steep downhill run. That change is overly extreme versus our typical small blocks, what with the biiig oil cooler (plus a big turbo with oil flow in it) in that truck but it illustrated the correlation of oil temps with combustion power.

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That’s a turbo diesel truck pulling a load up a grade, not an A-body cruising the highway. You’re probably producing over 400 ft. Lbs while he’s producing <50 and not trying to oil cool a turbo.

I’m not really convinced that hot engine oil in a 45yo car idling while stopped after a highway cruise would become cooler. It’s a mute opinion anyways and probably not the problem. I’d doubt a 10,20, or 30 degree change in oil temp could drop the pressure so drastically. It especially wouldn’t drop it to zero.

Cope never told us what type of oil gauge he has. Electric or manual. If it’s a manual gauge, could have too much entrapped air in the lines causing some of these issues. Probably needs to be a significant amount of air tho cause everyone has a couple bubbles.