6.2 Diesel low oil pressure

[mountainexplorer]

When a 6.2 Diesel suddenly drops oil pressure readings to the 7-15lb range (when before it ran between 30 warm to 75 at initial start up) what could it most likely be?

Gauge/sending unit?

Oil Pump or component?

Crank or motor internals going bad?

 

[tRustyK5]

Mine had a bad guage in the panel. Was reading 5 psi at idle and maybe 7 psi at cruise rpm. Swapped out the guage and it reads 65 psi cold and 45 ish warm at cruise rpm.

Rene

 

[mountainexplorer]

Thats kinda how mine is. It's like it still reads but just not very high. I'm hoping it's just a gauge. With all the knocking a 6.2 makes anyway, it's hard to tell if anything's making noise from the bottom end.

I've run it this way for a while, and I figure if it truly was that low something bad would have happened by now.

 

[tRustyK5]

Try transplanting an OP guage and see if things change...lord knows you must have a few dozen to choose from.

Rene

 

[mountainexplorer]

I guess theres no difference in oil pressure gauges from diesels to gas motors. But I wonder if the sending units are different or if the sending unit could be whats acting up.

 

[tRustyK5]

Well...the diesel OP guages are sposed to be 0-80 psi instead of 0-60 psi. Find one and chuck it in...if the gauge shows the needle in the middle that'd tell you it was a gauge problem and that the oil pressure is ~40 psi. I used this method to confirm i had a guage problem...then went out and bought aftermarket guages I can actually trust. One day i might actually put them in the truck.

Rene