Occasional Oil Pressure Light for 2-3 seconds in my 318. Should I panic?

str12-340 said
An idiot light is just that, a light for idiots. Just because the light doesn't go on doesn't mean that you don't have oiling issues. The thing could be running with 10 lbs of oil pressure all the time and the light wouldn't come on. If the system is sucking air somewhere it would show up with an unstable reading on the gauge or with declining oil pressure as rpms increase (the opposite of what should happen). This is CHEAP insurance for your new engine!

I did temporarily plumb in a oil pressure gauge a year ago. What did it tell me? Exactly what the idiot light was telling me. When fully warm, it was showing a range of about 25-60 psi depending on the RPM (idiot light OFF). When I went around a corner it would dip to 0-15 for half a second (idiot light ON for a moment) before building back quickly above 25 (idiot light OFF). After that, I wasn't so worried, which is why it took me a while to fix it.

Dan Georgino said
Why in the hell did you change the oil 3 times already? 1500 Miles, that's like 500 miles every change. Stop it. Every 3,000 miles is fine.

Dan - sorry to to offend you by wasting $35 on oil for a fresh rebuild. There was the first batch of oil, then I changed at 500 and then 1500 -- maybe overkill, but I wanted to treat it nicely during the break in period. From now on its every 3000, sir.

RustyRatRod said
Yes, but if you look back you will see I mistakenly thought the discussion was about a slant 6. No new pans for those.

Dude I've learned so much from your posts over the years that I'd never fault you for a mistaking a /6 thread for a 318 thread. Either way, I didn't get a new pan -- just used the old one.