How much oil pressure should I be running at 3k on a mild streetport motor? The stock gauge is saying 40-45 psi. I was thinking maybe it should be more like 60. How long to oil pumps last? or could it be the OPR?

 

The stock gauges are notoriously inaccurate. Clean the connector at the sender and make sure the engine is well grounded to the chassis, thats where the culprit is usually. Poor connections will cause a lower than normal reading.

 

Man, that sounds like a dangerous situation! You think Mazda would have taken *extra* precautions in that case, to make sure that you're getting accurate oil pressure. Just think, you're driving along and you think your oil pressure is fine but then poof, an oil seal lets go and you get nothing but blue smoke ...

Jon

 

I think, after Carl's post, that an aftermarket gauge has been added to the list of need to have stuff.

 

You got it backwards Jon. Your actual OP could be fine but your gauge will read low.

Aftermarket isint necessary if you check your gauge against a known good one.

 

Yeah exactly. Although oil in the contact can give you a scare. Couple of times I'm starting to drive and as soon as I went past 3k rpm, the needle pegged out all the way to the right!! Not knowing what it was and thinking all my oil lines were about to burst, I shut down the engine in the middle of the highway and coasted over to the breakdown lane. Only to eventually find out it was the contact. Clean it, accurate reading again. Well, sort of accurate.

 

Yeah when I put my new motor in im not taking any chances and will have aftermarket guages for both oil pressure and water temp, because the gauges are just horrible

 

I cant trust gauges that are older than me.

 

just get an aftermarket gauge, the std ones are no good

 

Another thing that will give you a lower-than-normal reading is changing from 20W50 oil to 10W30. As long as the reading is initially high on start-up of a cold engine you're probably ok. If still in doubt, manually squeeze the oil lines from the engine to the oil cooler with the engine running. They should be firm, like fake ***** in a cold-storage room...

 

Well,

Mine reads right on the second bold dash and then when I hit the gas it boosts to the middle (60PSI I think)