ok when i bought my car i noticed that the oil pressure gauge reads really low almost 0 at idle but when i get on the gas and start to drive the oil pressure goes up inbetween 30 and 50 what could be wrong? y freind said something about shimming the wax pelet or something like that if that is the problem how do i fix it?

 

The first thing you need to do is check your pressure with a mechanical gauge.
It's not hard to do and will tell you what your real pressure is...at this point your stock sending unit could just be worn out and misreporting.

 

ok well i found the how to on shimming the thing on the excentric shaft probably spelled wrong. ill see if that fixs it.

 

Why have you fixated on the pellet mod so early in the diagnostic phase?

So far you haven't even confirmed that you have low pressure but let's assume for a moment that you do...

What is the condition of the motor as a whole- compression, oil usage, mileage, etc?
There's no point in applying bandaids to an engine that is going to need a teardown/rebuild in the near future anyway.

Sounds to me like you're just in a hurry to do something- your friend mentioned shimming the pellet so you decided to do that- but what's the plan if your pressure is still low, what's your friends second guess?

 

ok so if i figure out that my oil pressure is low then what would be another fix? so im just assuming that it is low and the right up i read says its useless anyways. so i figure ill shim it and if its still low then ill start chasing it down. i dont know much about the miles on the engine according to the guy i bought it from its a fresh motor in it. the odometer reads 122k miles. also the motor leaks real clean. doesnt burn much oil at all.

 

If it really was (is) a "fresh motor" it wouldn't have low oil pressure, capice?

The PO's definition of "fresh" might just be new plugs for all you know- without documentation I'd just assume it's an untouched 122k motor.

I'd recommend you contact an engine builder (Kevin Landers, "RotaryResurrection" here on the forum would be a good first choice, IMO) and ask him what, in his experience, are the most likely causes of low oil pressure and then go from there.

 

so your saying dont even do the shim? ive heard thats most likely cause. so have i read wrong??????

 

Not sure but read this, this, and this.

There are all sorts of things that could be going on....

 

ok so basically i am heading in the right direction by shimming the pelet.

 

Do you have any oil leaks?

When my cooler lines/oil pressure regulator were leaking my pressure read just like that. After replacing them its 30 at idle at 50-60psi while driving around.

 

nope no leaks. i actually havent needed to add any oil since i did my oil change so im assuming she isnt loosing oil anywere.