So my oil pressure gauge reads 60psi key ON engine not running. If I unplug the sender, gauge moves immediately to zero. I cold cranked the motor a few times to build up the oil pressure before I fire it up for the first time. After about a minute of cranking, it jumped suddenly and pegged the gauge. The sender is new, but my instinct tells me the pressure is good in the motor, but the sender is acting weird. Or this normal FD behaviour?

 

FD oil pressure senders are crap. They often get fouled with oil from leaky oil filter pedestals, but they usually fail low, not high. Try cleaning the connection. If that doesn't work, you probably need to replace it. Think I saw somebody selling a new one for like $70.

 

Yeah, thats whats weird. The sender is new (OEM). The oil is new the oil filter is new and the pedestal I flushed clean. Going to assume the oil pressure is good, fire it up for the first time and see what happens. If it continues to read high, pull it out, clean the connection and oil inlet side and see what happens. Strange. Keep you guys posted.

 

Anyone searching this forum many years from now who finds this thread trying to fix their problem:

Check the plug from the engine harness to the car harness behind the heater core. If you have a bad/loose connection, you get these symptoms. Fix the harness and problem goes away.