I have an 88 SE and i noticed recently that my oil pressure at idle is almost at 0. Is this normal? Also my car has a hard time starting in the cold weather. Im not sure if this is a direct result or not. Please help if you can. I appreciate it. I need to get my car ready for winter cause unfortunatly its the only car i have so it has to be driven and I live in Michigan so it sucks! Also what are some things that i can do to my car to ensure that the car will do fine? Thanks again.

 

i just searched, and all i could come up with is that the oil pressure senders tend to go bad. i went through like 15 threads and found nothing else. i just posted a thread.
yours sounds more like a sender issue to me. mine sounds more like a serious problem... lol

 

Before either of you start freaking out you need to check the oil pressure with a different gauge.
The sending units do wear out and start to give incorrect readings, a mechanical tester- screwed into the sender's location on the block- can tell you what's really going on.

 

what is the oil pressure at 3000 RPM and 5000 RPM?

Oil pressure should be at least 10-15 PSI at idle, but there are other things too look at besides the oil pressure sender.

 

Between 30 & 60 at those rpms. roughly...

 

so about 45???

Then you have a bad E shaft thermo-pellet and not a bad sender or bad ground or anything like that.

Replace the e-shaft thermo pellet with a bypass one from Atkins rotary.

 

So does that basically mean the thermal pellet would be stuck open, so at idle the pressure is not as great as it would with a higher rpm?

Not to thread jack but I have the akins piece already and when starting, oil pressure is showing but after a little while it shows zero all the time. I have tried multiple senders since the motor tested good with a mechanical gauge, the wire has tested good along with the connector on the back of the cluster. Which leads me to the actual guage itself?

 

stuck closed.

When the pellet fails and sticks closed oil flow is down 15 to 20 PSI for everything, as the oil is not sent through the rotors

That sounds more like a leaking O ring on the front cover. Has the engine been rebuilt recently? What did the mechanical gauge say? 15 psi at idle and 60+ at 3000 RPM is what you should be seeing on it. If you are not, then I would be looking at the O ring.

 

Where is this part on the motor, and what does it look like?

 

you would have to take off the front cover to get to it, it's on the front of the eccentric shaft.

 

As in its inside my motor!

 

Just under the front main pulley bolt. The bolt can really be stuck on there and most of the time needs some jerking to get off.

 

hahah I had to.

But yeah it's not too bad to get to just going to have to remove some of the stuff in front of the engine to make it easier, i.e. shroud, pully's, belts etc.

 

Fan and shroud, yes...pulleys and belts, not necessary.

 

could anyone post a pic for me? that would be so helpful. thank you so much

 

Can i use the thermal pellet from atkins for a 93-95? it is the only one showing on their website.