88 SE

When I first bought the car (back in December), I noticed regular oil pressures (ie., 30 @ idle and about 60 at around 2.5k RPM).

Now, While traveling at 70mph, in 5th gear, (I think that's around 2.7k RPM) my oil pressure reads around 80. And around idle, it's still around 30.

Is this bad? What could be causing this raise in pressure and how can I fix this?

Oil is at normal level as of Sunday, and it's been doing this for about a week now.

 

Don't worry about it...

-Ted

 

Wasn't It cold In December? Oil took longer to warm up then, as opposed to now. Try monitoring It from now, seeing how temps are getting warmer...

Even with my aftermarket Oil Pressure Gauge, It shows 25psi at Idle and 75psi at 3000rpm and more. Don't despair. The stock gauge Isn't exactly reliable for that matter.

 

the stock gauge is not very accurate..

Hehe, with my new streetport and oil pellet

I get 65psi @ idle 750rpms. I get about 90psi at cruising speeds. If its a cold day, I get around 100psi until it warms up.....

Oil Pressure baby!!!

 

Sweet.

I can stop sweating now. :p

Thx.

 

wtf? I get 30 no matter how fast im going ?????

 

Mine reads around 10 at idle and then 60 when at normal speed.

I think the readings suck.

 

Again, I'd be relucant to rely on the stock Oil Pressure Sender Unit as a source...try replacing It and see what happens.

 

Where do you find an aftermarket sender? Will the aftermarket send make the stock guage more accurate?

I'm having a problem with mine going up and down and seemingly random intervals...I drove to work today with 0 oil pressure...I've checked oil - fine, Not burning anything...not overheating....ugh!

-T

 

no, it's the guage inside the cluster that is bad.. they start to suck over time. this is normal. On my engine with 5k since rebuilt when fully warm i get 60-65 At idle. and close to 90 when cruise at 3k... this is on an aftermarket guage. It's so nice to have oil pressure

My old engine (R.I.P) 208,000 miles at idle only 15-20 lbs. that poor soul. Oh well, she gave me 40,000 miles of good smokey driving!

Markus

 

probably a faulty gauge

SPEAKING OF OIL PRESSURE:

(on the trip to and from ottawa)

ive noticed my pressure reads pretty much EXACTLY HALF of what its suppost to.. im suspicious of the gauge..

as compared to Amur_'s 86 n/a, his gets 8kg/cm^2 while driving in the high rpms, and roughly 2kg/cm^2 during idle or just barely below 2.

mine (86 n/a) gets 4kg/cm^2 while driving up high, and idles around 1kg/cm^2 or (what appears to be) just above 0 at idle..

is there ANY WAY to test the pressure using another method rather than the stock gauge? (something that doesnt take hours to test and costly parts preferably..)

thanks

 

Summit and Jegs have them but if they are like temperature gauges the sensors are calibrated to the gauge and if you don't get one that's calibrated for the same scale it will show different pressures but you won't know what they mean.

 

btw (dont know if the american gauges are different)

but

the canadian gauges max out at 8, beginning from 0.

its all in kg / cm^2 (kilograms per centimeter squared)

 

Your description suggests a jammed or bad E-shaft thermo pelt. You need to fix that ASAP or you will eventually blow your motor.

 

car survived the ottawa trip (6+ hours of driving) with flying colours.. i was just suspicious of the gauge.. um.. uh oh!?

how would i fix this?

 

anything i can check that will back this up? the only thing i have to go by is the gauge..

car ran nicely but the gauge was reading half.. so.. i have no way to double check unless someone can fill me in!

 

yeah, use a second gauge. If an aftermarket gauge also shows half oil pressure then you know for sure that there is an issue.

If it is the E-shaft valve (as I really do suspect and would change with a thermo pellet anyway) you are only staving the rotors for oil... it typically takes a couple of months before the engine fails, but it will fail.

 

if im starving the rotors.. do you mean the rotor at the e-shaft or the apex seals?

should i run premix until i can get something under control? im sure you mean its starving at the e-shaft, so premix wouldnt help much i wouldnt imagine, but im no expert..

if i can use an aftermarket gauge, how do i install it? ill get one, its just ive never installed one before, and im not sure how (spare me the details of installing it into the interior and giving it power from the battery, i just need to know where it gets its reading from and how to hook it up)

 

Sorry, I meant rotor bearings, rotors up to the oil seals, and e-shaft... so pre-mix would not help.

The replacement pellets are on ebay right now for like $12 USD including shipping:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=2414563670

That would be a lot cheaper than using the gauge.

 

can i pick up a pellet at mazda? and if i do, will it be a quality product or "a general purpose one size fits all" like the ad from fc3s.org says..

if fc3s.org has a quality pellet, ill buy from them instead..

and how do i install it?

thanks alot for the link and the words of advice, icemark

 

you can only replace the valve with a new valve from Mazda. But the problem with the vale is that it only allows flow when the engine oil is warm, and can fail (as it sounds like your's has)

Aftermarket is the only way to get a replacement pellet which allows full oil flow 100% of the time regardless of engine oil temp.

Atkins, Mazdatrix, FC3S.org all have the same size pellet and they work fine.

 

ahh ok i see

so the stock setup right now is a VALVE, but id be replacing the valve with a pellet?!

ok cool.. ill look into getting a pellet asap.. if its cheaper then a gauge, then ill just do that

do you have anything i can read (a link) that should show how to install it?

thanks again

 

This is a very easy install and only takes about 20 minutes to do and even less time if you have an electric fan.

** Caution **

Before you begin please read the whole write-up to ensure you don't do any damage to your engines Torrington bearings (needle bearings) in the front of the e-shaft. With the front e-shaft bolt removed, the bearings can drop down and cause a real problem. Use another person or a 2X4 of some sort to depress the clutch pedal down to hold the engine internals in place while you do this. If not then the bearings might drop down onto the e-shaft and when you retighten the front bolt, it will crush them and you will be replacing alot of parts. We are not liable for any damage to your engine by doing this modification. It isn't hard, but you must follow the instructions or risk severe damage.

First step is to remove the stock fan, air box snorkel and shroud. Then with a 19mm socket and a breaker bar, remove the front e-shaft bolt as shown below.



Next remove the bolt, stock oil bypass regulator and spring from the front of the e-shaft. Set the stock pellet aside and clean the threads of the 19m bolt off for re-assembly.




Now place the new oil bypass pellet in place of the old one and place the spring at the end of it. You will notice that the assembly is not much more precise and doesn't just fall off like the stock one did (and as some of our competitors' do) Use some red Loctite on the threads of the bolt, and reinstall into the e-shaft. You should torque it to 80-98 Ft Lbs. Re-install your fan and intake parts and you are all set!

 

woah.. has this been posted before?

thats very descriptive and nice pictures!

*cough* archive *cough*

just one more question: when i remove the bolt, is oil going to dump all over the place? or just leak a tad bit?

just curious to know if i should do it while making an oil change..

 

Hardly any oil at all will drip... maybe a tenth of a teaspoon. No need to do the oil change unless the car is due for one.

And I prefer blue loctite (even though the picture shows red), as Mazda uses blue when they build the engines.

Looking at the pictures you can see the one with the breaker bar... I rest the breaker bar against the cars frame rail, right above the air condition lines you can see in the picture. Then I crank the car for like only a second. Just enough to turn it over, but not even come close to starting. The cranking will break the bolt loose real easy, so you don't need air tools or anything.