last night when i was cruising around i noticed my oil pressure guage was twitchin real bad....it would go down to less then 15 pounds the shoot up to 45 pounds....so this morning i went to the autozone and got a couple quarts and came home....before i set my IAC this morning i checked my oil and it was over 2 quarts low ......i put um in fired it up shut it down and checked the oil it was perfect....looked at the guage its was at 45 psi at idle which is were its always at untill the other night...


the tech part of this is....what could cause the oil pressure to drop overnight....2 days ago it was at a steady 30-45 psi then last night it was strugglin to get 15 psi....if the seals are leaking that bad thene holy hell.....but it really doesnt puff all that much when i start up....it doesnt leak n e oil nor does it burn it when driving

i dont think its the guage cuz when i put the oil in it was steady at 45psi....i was gonna port my heads so if its the seals that are that bad hell i guess its time to tackle that...

 

The factory gauges are notoriously inaccurate. My oil pressure is pinned to the top of the gauge 90% of the time! Once in a long while it will come down and give me reading in the middle area.

Take your car to someone who has a good gauge and check it with that. I seriously doubt that you really have erratic pressure.

 

When the oil drops down really low, the oil pressure will drop off when the oil pickup tube can't get any oil to push through. I think it usually drops off when the car isn't steady (accelerating or braking.) The oil pressure gauge is not a way to tell how much oil is in your car, but when the oil pressure gauge starts to drop because there's no oil... that's not a good sign. Maybe someone else can explain this better though?

 

i know that an idiot guage isnt the best way..but ive never had a problem with it (flucuating dipping) untill last night.....it was acting very erractic i chacked the oil and discoverd it was really low..i put the iol into it and the uage doesn move and the oil is were it should be on the dipstick...im goin for a drive now so well see whah happens

 

Do you see oil on the ground where you park? It should be obvious if you are leaking in a significant way. I've noticed that certain brands of oil go through my engine a lot quicker than others. And I don't have any real leaks, just the usual drip here and there. My valve guides are a bit worn but I still get around 2000 miles to a quart.

 

nope it doesnt leak a drop

 

basically, the oil gauge is only good for telling you two things: Oil is circulating/oh, ****, no oil! If the oil isnt leaking out of the engine, then your probably burning it or leaking it into the cooling system but usially anti freeze will co-mingle witht the oil. My old engine had a blown head gasket and gradually, the oil would be replaced by coolant and the whole thing would be whipped into something resembling a chocolate milk shake.

 

If it doesn't leak, doesn't burn oil and the refugee oil ain't in the coolant, then we have a mystery.

But most engines will use a quart ever 1500 to 2000 miles. If you neglected to keep an eye on the oil for 3000 or 4000 miles, that would be your answer.

We are all guilty of that at one time or another

 

ill check the overflow tomorrow but i just added water to it about a week ago and i didnt have to get the whip cream

guilty as charged

like i said its only a little puff on startup and ive seen ALOT worse...it doesnt leak any and it doesn burn any when driving or at wot


i took it for a nice 50 miles drive tonite and the idiot guage was never lower then 30 and not higher then 45 (well there was that one time it was at about 60 when i was racing a 67-68 gt500 stang with the cj428) that was fun ....i hung in there damn good if i may say so


the temp got a little hi when we were at a drivethrough but i dont think thats a problem....