Oil pressure

[Chrisblazzer89]

Ok my oil pressure is up past 60 all the time but every so often its normal like I mean 30 at idle and then higher when gas is given. But recently it stays at like 60 even at idle. Any ideas?

I also use vavoline sea 50 for oil could that be the reason for the high oil pressure.

Also the last owner says that thier might have bin a high pressure pump installed but hes not sure. Any ideas

 

[diesel4me]

too thick...

Why are you using a straight SAE 50W oil??..unless you have really loose bearings, or no rings left, and its smoking bad,there is no reason to use SAE 50W oil in any chevy motor!..its way too thick for this time of year,your motor,if it starts in this cold,will suffer until oil flows to all the surfaces it needs to lubricate..its best to have oil pump up quickly,and cold 50w is like maple syrup,and can take quite a while to reach the places it needs to be quickly!..

Heavy viscosity oil will always increase oil pressure...if your running a high pressure pump that will increase it two fold,and I've actually seen main bearings FAIL from too much oil pressure--it can carve a groove in the bearing babbit,then the pressure bleeds off and dumps into the crankcase,instead of flowing to all the other bearings..its rare,but does happen..

If your motor doesn't use oil or smoke,I'd run 10W-30 or 10W-40--at the most 20W-50 if temps stay above 20 degrees..thin oil flows thru the motor faster on cold starts,and actually lubricates better than heavy oil can in many cases...can increase gas mileage some too...

I never saw a huge drop in oil pressure going from 20W-50 to 10W-30 in my GM trucks,though at idle the gauge would drop lower than it would with heavier oil...as long as your getting 10 psi or better at idle,and it goes up to 30 psi or more at speed,I'd not worry about oil pressure..I've owned many small blocks that had even less than that,none ever "blew up" on me...

 

[my88texastruck]

Could be a bad guage or sender also. I know on mine every once in a while the guage on the dash will only read 15 psi when I start it -gets worse when its cold - but if I tap the dash it will read normal. I have had to take the dash apart before and clean the contacts where the studs on the gauge slide in because of slight corrosion. If in doubt, connect a mechanical guage to check accuracy of dash guage against.

 

[Chrisblazzer89]

well thats wat i thought was good but thanx I will change the oil w soon wen I do my oil change. UR form ma u know how cold it gets out here wat should u use? the engine never smokes or anything like that it runs top notch like nw i would like to say instant throtle response and everything wen at idle u can bearly hear it runnin if it wearnt for the flowmasters.

so what do iu think i should use?

 

[resurrected_jimmy]

10w-30

 

[rcamacho]

I'm currently running 30W and have historically runn 10w30, 10w40 or 20w50. 50W is generally reserved for old school racing engines with very large bearing clearances and preheaters. Not recommended for street application.

 

[southernspeed]

I was running 5w30 with 160000 miles on the clock and it never used a drop. Instant oil pressure and you know it's getting where it's needed straight away.

 

[Chrisblazzer89]

My truck has 236xxx on it but in sure it was rebulit

 

[4xcrazy]

mine has 249,xxx miles, i only run 20-50w in mine all the time, but here in Phoenix,AZ, it's not too bad, especially in the summer after the extreme heat breaks it down to a 10-40 wt anyways

i have tried running thinner stuff, smokes alittle more and uses alittle more.

But yeah, 50w oil in cold weather climate is killing that thing. You should definately hear a difference when you start it with 10w-30 or even 14w-40.

I had 20/50 in mine when i moved to Flagstaff a few years back, it got down to about 6degrees outside, and trying to start that thing, interesting, the sound it made was sluggish, almost like it was having a hard timw turning over.

Change out the oil, see what the gauge is doing then, if it still does it, change the sending unit.

 

[The Butcher]

Ok my oil pressure is up past 60 all the time but every so often its normal like I mean 30 at idle and then higher when gas is given. But recently it stays at like 60 even at idle. Any ideas?

I am having this exact same problem. Anyone else have some ideas as to what it might be if it's not a bad gauge. Mine was fine for a long time, then a couple of months ago it started to just hover over 60. After the truck warms up it will often drop down to 30, and often at idle after warming up it will go to 30, but when you get on the gas it goes past 60. I changed the oil thinking that might be one of the problems, but that did nothing to solve the situation.

What causes this increased pressure typically? Thanks.

 

[Tabb]

My oil pressure has always been passed 60 in my crate motor that I put in several years ago, I have always run 10w30 and I thought it was probably just the sending unit, well when that got replaced it still was reading past 60 every once in a while it will drop a little at idle. I never thought this could be a problem, thats some good oil pressure as far as I concerned.