Drove 85 GSL for th first time today and the oil pressure barely got off 0. The car has other problems, but should I be concerned with this? It is also dripping out of the bottom of the oil cooler when running. Could the two issues be related?

 

A drip wouldn't cause a zero pressure reading. You would need more like Exxon Valdez. I would say it could probably be the gauge. The only way to know is to get a gauge and check the pressure. Haynes manual will tell you what adapter thingy you need to plug into the oil line at the rear end plate. Either you have a bad oil pressure sending unit, bad oil pump, or bad pressure regulator.

 

Will have to do checks tomorrow. I got this car from an impound lot yesterday and dont know a thing about the history of it. It's got clean oil and it will run fine after I get it started. I think I have a possible runner, but have alot more investigating to do. Is the oil pump a big deal to fix? I do have a hanes manual, but have only spent about 1 hour in total looking at the car. I may have only logged on 1km since I got it. It sat for three months without starting. Thats all I know about it.

 

Oil pump is easy. Take the font cover off and its held on by 4 10mm bolts. Its pretty cut and dry.

 

Since you say it is leaky, check for a clean connection at the sender. In many years I have only seen 1 bad oil pump and it was a Racing Beat one 20 years ago. I have seen, however, several bad senders, and have seen bad (oily) connections at the sender. You may also have a stuck (oil pressure) regulator.

 

I just went through this myself. My gauge wouldnt go over 0 most of the time, and all kinds of other scary stuff. Sometimes every now and then it would come up to like 40 at an idle but then drop down when I gave it gas . I tried cleaning the connection and all that, but no change. I finally went to a junk yard and pulled another sender unit and swapped it out. It was just a bad sender. My car has plenty of oil pressure . Also, before I swapped the senders, the old wire was so old and brittle it actually broke off. So I just followed it back into the main harness to where it wasnt brittle anymore, cut it off, stripped it back, and crimped a new piece of wire on. Then, for the other end, I just used a female spade connector crimped on. Workes great with the new sender. I also have a VERY bad oil leak from my oil cooler, and I still have good pressure. Id say gauge or sender, mose likely, sender.

~T.J.

PS - A new sender will run ya about $60. My junk yard one was $2.50 .

EDIT: Heres a picture showing what I meant by the female spade connector and the new wire .

 

Oil cooler O rings are easy,
4 O rings,30 min job

 

Probably should also mention to be very carefull removing sender, as it is very easy to break off at the threads (soft brass). Although space is limited, keep the wrench square on the shaft and try to not put any off center force on it.
Rotormotordriver, is your leak just the connector, or do you have a bad hose?

 

Mines a water/oil cooler. Im not gonna fix it cause Ive already got an air/oil cooler mounted and everything, I just need to get the money to get the lines for it made . Then, I use my new O rings for the different oil filter neck from the 79 instead of that beastly thing on there now .

~T.J.

 

Thanks for the help. Can I get the cooler o-rings at mazda?