Strange thing I just noticed tonight. I don't usually drive my car very hard, but tonight I decided to full throttle it in 2nd to merge on the highway, and after I settled down to about 1200 RPM in OD cruising, I notice the oil pressure pretty low- lower than it usually is. I have a digital dash, and it was below 200. It's usually above 200- which is halfway up the scale, and up to 3/4 full scale.
When I got home, I sat it the driveway in P and revved the engine slowly, watching the gage. at idle it's about 3/4 on the scale, and at 3500 RPM, it dips down under 200 again. This isn't normal is it? I was thinking about exhaust and headers, should I be saving for a new motor instead?
please help.
Jeff

 

Saving for a new engien would be a little extreme right now. Check to make shure you have plenty of oil in the engine at high rpm your bulk of oil could be in the top of the engien. If your oil is fine you probably just need to replace the oil preasure sending unit. The sending unit will only cost you about $15-$18. After you have eliminated those you might need to be looking at replaceing the oil pump. It is also possiable the oil pump pickup has sliped up and isn't sitting in the pan correctly.

 

200psi? Are you sure this wasn't your coolant temp guage? The oil pressure guage in your car should go from 0 to 60.

 

Who said anything about 200 psi? He's talking about 200 kPa.

 

most likely it's just the oil pressure sending unit, i replaced one on an 87 iroc once, it's just right above the oil filter, it wasn't a digital display, so it might be different.