ever since i have installed my 350, my oil pressure gauge has been weird. when i would start the car it would go to full pressure, then as the car got warm, it would drop. tonight i noticed that when i start the car, it goes to full pressusre, then at a stop light, the neddle dropped down to the normal position. i was like,,ok its working fine...then i go and hit the gas and then it SHOT up back to full pressure. like it was reallly really fast. normaly it would slowly increase, but not too much. IS my guage bad?? how hard will it be to instal a new one?

 

rebuilt engine = tight bearing clearances = high oil pressure

hook up a mechanical pressure guage to check whether your dash guage is accurate. if readings are not consistent between the two guages, try replacing the pressure sender first (is cheap, and fails more frequently than the dashboard guage does).

if you think the readings are still too high, keep a close eye on the oil filter. a sticky pressure relief valve will often cause the oil filter to bulge or blow off the block completely.

 

i think it must be the sending unit. it aterted to act "normal" for a little bit lastnight, but then it started to act up when it got warm.

 

Check the connection at your sending unit. An open circuit (which could be caused by a loose connection) will cause the gage to instantly peg at the high position. If the connection is ok, then replace the sending unit. It could also be in the gage or the instrument cluster printed circuit board, but the most likely cause is a loose connection or faulty sending unit.

 

i checkd the connection... it seemed good. im gonna replace it today. ill let you know what happens.

 

Please forgive my ignorance, but could someone tell me exactly where the oil pressure sending unit is? My GTA has a similar poblem (oil pressure gauge either pegging it's needle for no good reason or fluctuating quite a bit) but I'm not sure where the sending unit is to check it.

 

its back by the distributor. its a big black thing in the drivers side right next to the distributor. its attached to a ???brass???? fitting, then there is a electrical plug that goes to it. I changed that today,,, dman thing cost me 50 bucks!! but hey, it fixed the problem!:lala: