saleenpride1986

In my 1990 lx ive had some decent engine work, along with instead of being 5 qts of oil its 6 now. The gauge stays right at the middle line until ive been driving for about 15-20 minutes. Then it drops down a ton then goes up a ton. Is this reliable? I also have 0 leaks and when I have my oil changed all the oil is there so it's not getting burned up at all. Would there be some issue with some wiring or perhaps some type of sensor or is this something a lot of 5.0's have with their gauges? (ive just heard the gauges on them are very faulty as to why i'm not freaking out about it)

Also let's say if i did have a leak or even a lack of oil would it really identify it through my oil gauge since on my other 5.0 when the oil was nearly empty it would still be near the middle and barely move....

87Stallion

The stock guages aren't reliable at all. Get a good autometer guage if you are concerned about it

lx5.0

mine does the same also when im playing around with my car doing burnouts and stuff the needle goes up then if i go back to driving back to normal the needle goes back down to the middle i guess its probably just heat that hits sensor that makes it move like that cause its old probably

FORD TOUGH

Try screwing a mechanical gauge in there and see what it does. Did you mean you put a 6 quart oil pain on the car?

Modular_Madness96

Go with a mechanical just to be safe and after that put a new sending unit on it if you want to retain the factory gauge.

I hope you added a bigger pan and not just an extra qt. of oil.You'll have an oil burner in no time if thats the case.

I personally like/run the canton 7 qt.

FORD TOUGH

Lol that what I was thinking too. I hope he didn't add a extra quart. I know a guy that put a high volume oil pump in his car and he was afraid it was going to suck the pan dry so he runs a extra quart of oil.... what a genius.

saleenpride1986

Yea i have a custom pan in there that handles 6 lol. I'm not THAT brain dead about cars haha. But sadly it happens with other people all the time lol. Thanks for the input I'll order up a nice fancy Mechanical Gauge and test it out!

SonicBlueFiveSlow

I've been looking at the canton 7 qt for my 89 5.0, does it take 7 quarts with a filter change or 8?

Jfsram

One hidden benefit many fail to realize with a deep pan is their ability to make more horsepower.

Crankshafts prefer to spin in air, not oil. With a deep pan your reservoir of oil is further away from the crank as long as you run the same amount of oil.

Too much oil will have the crank splashing through the oil. Major drag as high rpm and it will also whip it to the point where it may have air bubbles. This will wreak havoc with your bearings and oil pressure.

Do you see any bubbles on your oil dipstick? Try dropping a quart and see if you still have that fluctuation.

Your question about the level. Pressure and level have no relation. If you have 6, 5, 4 or 3 litres. It will produce pressure as long as the oil pump pick up is submersed.

saleenpride1986

Well ive got a windage tray 6qt oil custom pan. On the dipstick the oil is clear and no bubbles or black residue or anything. Also what you're saying is that I can technically still just put in 5 qts and I will be fine even though its a 6qt pan?