hi all, My oil light is coming on at idle. When I give it some gas or while running down the road it turns off. In my modern car the same thing happened and it turned out to be the oil pressure sensor. Think it could be that? I have a set of actual gauges but I just haven't had a chance to put them in. Any ideas?
does it only go off at idle when the oil is hot? if so, replace the oil pressure spring with a white one and observe.
Yeah, the light only comes on when it is warm at idle. Im going to try to install the gauges tomorrow.
this happened on my brothers gs, turned out for some reason his oil was very thin......just needed a bee oil and filter, but it a gauge on and see what's going on
Solid red or faint glow? I think the light comes on at 5 psig or so. It might just be that low once hot.
I put the gauges on and they show 20 to 40 at idle. Must be a bad sensor. I bought a new one and will tee the line to run both. Thank you for the replies.
If that's the case, you can try what Gary suggested and swap out the relief spring to a white one. You can try installing an adjustable relief spring cap from T/A. Or as a test, you can try the quick and dirty method- just shim the spring with a washer or two. You can do that as a test to see if the idle pressure improves. What you don't want is to adjust or shim it too much so the coils of the spring bind In the picture is the T/A adjustable oil pressure regulator. Next to it is the stock cap. The white spring is the 60 lb "Stage 1" spring.
What's the idle rpm?, you can bump it up a touch or put a couple more degrees initial timing, a 150 or so more rpm may get it up to 20
Other issues could be a clogged oil pick up screen, worn timing cover/ oil pump or worst case, excessive bearing clearance
If you truly have 10 psi at hot idle then that is not terrible. Not great for performance but not bad. WOT pressure hot if it would happen to get to 55-60 psi with a stock pump and Stage 1 spring at 5000 rpm would be ok. Any pressure reading with the car not at full operating temperature(driving 15 minutes at least) doesn't really mean much. The factory pressure sensor should be lighting up under 10 psi so it may be slightly sensitive. If you want to add a little protection and bump the pressure up a smidge get some 5-50 or 15-50 in there. Forget the 30 and 40 weight stuff on high mileage stockers if you want to beat on it a bit. Turn the idle speed up a little as suggested. I'd reverse that list, first bearing clearances opening up(What mileage on engine? Modified? Rebuilt?), then the oil pump wearing, then maybe the oil pickup clogging(If the oil pickup is clogging then something is wearing or the mileage is high and then I'd really say the clearances are opening up.) Larry's thread is really the way to go and no matter what get a correctly clearanced thrust plate in there. The oil pump cavity could be worn or the oil filter adapter face could be won. Either way the thrust plate will help oil pressure across the board. Changing the oil pressure relief spring won't help at idle. You have to have enough volume of oil to overcome the pressure relief valve and 95% of BBB's won't do that when hot. With that said any BBB should have at least the white "Stage 1" 60 psi relief spring for insurance at higher rpm. The 400's and 430's did not come from the factory that way. '70 non-Stages did not either I believe. Factory was 40 psi.
what filter are you running, some are very very restrictive. they clean well, but I would rather have some tiny parts in them and have oil than not.
