oil pressure

[cannucky]

My oil pressure gauge has started acting funny it slowly starts to climb over the course of about 30 minutes till it is almost at the last bar the backs off a little then climbs again etc , anything I should worry about ? I know the dangers of low to no oil pressure but what about to much? or is the gauge getting too old ? I only have a couple of hundred miles on it since we redid the top end on this motor { new cam .lifters , springs ,360 heads }so the oil is still pretty good I think .it's not black or anything could this be a viscosity problem?

 

[demon seed]

My oil pressure gauge has started acting funny it slowly starts to climb over the course of about 30 minutes till it is almost at the last bar the backs off a little then climbs again etc , anything I should worry about ? I know the dangers of low to no oil pressure but what about to much? or is the gauge getting too old ? I only have a couple of hundred miles on it since we redid the top end on this motor { new cam .lifters , springs ,360 heads }so the oil is still pretty good I think .it's not black or anything could this be a viscosity problem?

Is this the factory dash mounted pressure guage, if so it's electric and gets its power from a voltage regulator (1 inch long) in the back of the instrument cluster. If it starts to go wonky the voltage will move around and effect the pressure guage (I'm pretty sure) and I know for sure the gas guage.

Terry

 

[clifftt]

You can buy a brass tee and an inexpensive mechanical oil pressure gauge (Equus is one brand sold here in some Northern Cal parts stores....I think they're made in China). Plumb the nylon tube/gauge into one side of the tee and you can put the stock sending unit into the other side of the tee to compare readings simultaneously. The mechanical gauge will give you the true reading.
You can do this under the hood as a temporary reading, or mount it under the dash with a bracket, which adds to the "cool" factor of your car.

 

[cannucky]

it,s a nos gauge , we changed to the electronic version of the voltage regulator when we rebuilt the dash , I don't want some after market crap gauge under my dash I just want to know what the danger or cause is if the gauge is working properly ie. why is my pressure rising so high and fluctuating I've never had a high oil pressure problem before only cars with low or no pressure -prior to death.

 

[fishy68]

Sounds like a bad sending unit.

 

[cannucky]

Sounds like a bad sending unit.

thanks now we 're getting somewhere I'll try a swap , I would still like to have some ideas of what could cause a high pressure situation , I'm going to give her her first oil change at the same time , I was thinking she might have a light weight oil in her from breaking in the cam , my motor guy is away for the holidays still and I'm thinking I should start dealing with the engine stuff myself , thinking of doing my first full build { i've done plenty of accessory swaps and small repairs on bowties } a stroker kit is on the menu for this car and I might just take a shot at it

 

[fishy68]

The only thing that can cause excessively high oil pressure is a stuck relief valve in the oil pump. An electric gauge such as a stock gauge can read excessively high due to a bad sender or gauge defect but that doesn't mean the oil pressure it actually high. BTW I sure hope it doesn't have the break-in oil still in it!! That would not be good.

 

[cannucky]

yeah that would be bad , my motor guy came back yesterday so I signed him up here at FABO and he assured me he changed the oil after break-in ,he thinks it's the gauge we'll see in time I guess it seems to come and go if I shut the car down for 10 minutes it seems alright for awhile then after 20 -30 minutes it starts doing it again go to 5/8 down to 1/2 up to 3/4 down to 5/8 and so on back and forth up to near max it's just getting annoying but if it's no threat then oh well cause I don't want to tear into that dash again ,the cuts have finally healed from the rebuild eh !lol