titanium92

Well it's in KM's up here in Canada...it has 132K's on it. I don't think it's been dogged on Ive had it for 4 yrs myself and ran perfectly good. That's why I noticed right away about the oil pressure dropping below the middle and then the engine shaking like it's missing. These years I had it the oil pressure always stayed at the same spot...only dropped to about half one time when sitting on a hot day in a line of traffic to get into a park for about an hour.

titanium92

LOL ...I know they shake a bit but mine was like...ummmm missing or something and the idle was going down a bit. As for the aftermarket gauge yes I understand the stock one isn't accuate at all...but it still should show some oil pressure and after these years of driving it you can feel what's right and not.

VigCS

You're in a lot better situation than me. I just bought my car 4 days ago and it has a tick under the hood...and it gets louder when the motor gets warm. Oil pressure drops to the L on normal at a warm idle...it's in the midrange when driving. I fear my bottom end...

Consider yourself lucky...

titanium92

So what exactly causes the low oil pressure....is it the oil pump then or screen? Or have anything to do with timing? And if it is the bottom end what exactly happens that makes the oil pressure drop?

sdmaker

could be any of the above, except timing would have nothing to do with oil pressure. as far as the bottom end goes, as the bearing wear you get bigger clearances. bigger clearances will let more oil pump past the bearings causing a drop in oil pressure.

grabbem88

worn cam bearings is "usually" the enemy on poor oil pressure...ford built these motors loosely.it's not like a race prep motor where the machining on your rods,crank bearings will be tighter unless requested otherwise.

the rest follows how fast your oil viscosity breaks down...cold start up i run 55-60 psi after warm up it drops down to 45-50,and when i run the bejeebish out of it it has dropped to 35psi at idle which is fine...you need for every 1000rpm 10psi of oil pressure.


hope this helps?

titanium92

Thanks for your feedback guys I appreciate it. Well I think of a couple of possiblities from your feedback. Oil pump, bearings on cam shaft and engine bearing being worn, I'm also thinking that when I bought car I didn't know until after I changed oil that he ran synthetic and I just put in 10w40 conventional oil, i put conventional oil the next couple of years as well. This year I put Mobile 1 synthetic 10w30 and the fram synthetic oil filter which has and is larger than stock. So maybe that is causing some of the influctuations. If it is some of the bearings do they all need to be changed and how can you tell if it is them, and if you even can change bearings?

grabbem88

the cam bearings have to be pressed out.......put some lucas additive in it see if it picks up a bit.

Twisted

It doesn't sound like your talking about "low" oil pressure, if the needle was just below the halfway mark. That's still within the "normal" range, isn't it? I'm not being smart...I'm just wondering. Also, a general question: What do people mean when they say that the stock oil pressure guage is not accurate? Does this mean that the reading on the guage has nothing to do with the actual oil pressure? If so, why is the guage there? Again, not being smart...just wondering.

titanium92

The pressure actually dropped down to the Low line on the stock gauge when it was idleing like it was missing. Then goes back up when driving.