The last couple of months the oil pressure (by the ga.) has been dropping slowly. Last night it was down to around 15 psi at idle once the engine warmed up. It's an 86 IROC with 305 TPI and 1430000 miles. I'd like to confirm the ga. reading (right/wrong?) and want to know if either of the 2 small pipe plugs (one down by the oil filter and the other below the intake manifold at the front of the engine) would be a good place to temporarily attach a mechanical oil pressure ga. to see if I get similar oil pressure readings to the electrical ga. in the dash. Anyone done this before? Do those 2 pipe plugs access an oil passage? Thanks.

 

The oil pressure sender (at least on my 305) is to the drivers side of the distributor. It is easy to get to and attach another pipe threaded line. My sender slowly went bad (no visual indication oil drip) as my guage went from 15 then to 0 in about 1 months time. A new sender costs $15 and is much easier to change than the oil pump,which I replaced first ede said to attach a mechanical test guage

 

Yes, both of them do, and that would be a good way to verify. Or, you could remove the electrical one, and hook it up there. Or, as much trouble as it is to do all that, you could just replace the sender... most likely, if something has failed, it's that, especially if the engine doesn't seem to be in any kind of low oil pressure distress.

 

Thanks. I'm headed down the road to Advance Auto for a sending unit. For $15 I can put it away for one of the other cars if that's not the problem. Have a good one.

 

The store had 40 and 60 psi senders. I figured that the 60 was for high pressure oil pumps- got the 40 and now my guage is allways pegged at 60. Guess you should get the 60 psi for your 60 guage.