Low oil pressure

[Badfishforty]

Ok, so I had some pinging going on so I changed my spark plugs and wires the. Changed the oil and put some power punch in replace of one qt. of oil. Well I tried to start it and had major misfire going one so I checked all the gaps on plugs. Took some time and lots of thinking and found out I messed up the spark plug wire firing order up too lol. Fix that and she started right up and theirs no more pinging, but…… my oil pressure is on the low side now, always. The needle moves from the “N” in “normal” to as far as the “O” in “normal” on the gauge. Check engine light come off the and on sporadically. What should I do? Redo the oil change and make sure the filter it absolutely saturated and fill? Cuz I thing that’s part of the problem. That and starting it with the misfiring and it not building proper oil pressure.

 

[Fix4Dirt]

Ok, so I had some pinging going on so I changed my spark plugs and wires the. Changed the oil and put some power punch in replace of one qt. of oil. Well I tried to start it and had major misfire going one so I checked all the gaps on plugs. Took some time and lots of thinking and found out I messed up the spark plug wire firing order up too lol. Fix that and she started right up and theirs no more pinging, but…… my oil pressure is on the low side now, always. The needle moves from the “N” in “normal” to as far as the “O” in “normal” on the gauge. Check engine light come off the and on sporadically. What should I do? Redo the oil change and make sure the filter it absolutely saturated and fill? Cuz I thing that’s part of the problem. That and starting it with the misfiring and it not building proper oil pressure.

not sure on the 1g but on the 2g id check the oil pressure switch, contacts on gauge cluster. if its like the 2g there is no fluctuating oil pressure its a switch so its either on or off when its low (under 5 psi iirc?) it will fall to the red, and otherwise its in the middle. that said could be something clogging the pickup tube but since its consistently low, im not sure. this applies mainly to a 2g but could to a 1g if its the same

that said welcome to EF!

 

[Badfishforty]

not sure on the 1g but on the 2g id check the oil pressure switch, contacts on gauge cluster. if its like the 2g there is no fluctuating oil pressure its a switch so its either on or off when its low (under 5 psi iirc?) it will fall to the red, and otherwise its in the middle. that said could be something clogging the pickup tube but since its consistently low, im not sure. this applies mainly to a 2g but could to a 1g if its the same

that said welcome to EF!

Thanks for the welcome!! I feel this membership is gonna be beneficial!

So I just parked and turned ac on full blast and let her idle for like 15 min and oil pressure went up to about 35psi and has been stable for about 30min now while driving on freeway and in town. I think I just needed to sit at idle longer then I’m use to to build pressure. She’s got a hard 220,000 miles on her lol but she’s sounds perfect now. I really need to replace ALL bushing and overhaul soon tho. This is my first major project so I’m going to learn as much as I can.

 

[Fix4Dirt]

Thanks for the welcome!! I feel this membership is gonna be beneficial!

So I just parked and turned ac on full blast and let her idle for like 15 min and oil pressure went up to about 35psi and has been stable for about 30min now while driving on freeway and in town. I think I just needed to sit at idle longer then I’m use to to build pressure. She’s got a hard 220,000 miles on her lol but she’s sounds perfect now. I really need to replace ALL bushing and overhaul soon tho. This is my first major project so I’m going to learn as much as I can.

hmm ok does giving it some revs help? just curious if it fluctuates based on load etc

 

[Badfishforty]

N

hmm ok does giving it some revs help? just curious if it fluctuates based on load etc

nope, revs didn’t do anything notable when the pressure was low

 

[Fix4Dirt]

N

nope, revs didn’t do anything notable when the pressure was low

ok so we have confirmation the pressure is low and its not the cluster reflecting it? you put a pressure tester on? just checking. wonder if soemthing clogging the pickup etc

 

[Badfishforty]

ok so we have confirmation the pressure is low and its not the cluster reflecting it? you put a pressure tester on? just checking. wonder if soemthing clogging the pickup etc

I used the pressure gauge for like 15min but I was on my way to work. After I let it sit for about 15-20min with ac on full blast the pressure finally came up the. I put the pressure tester on and it registered about 35psi at idle

 

[Fix4Dirt]

I used the pressure gauge for like 15min but I was on my way to work. After I let it sit for about 15-20min with ac on full blast the pressure finally came up the. I put the pressure tester on and it registered about 35psi at idle

odd usually as pumps age there would be an issue when hot, not when cold. just t check oil level us full and right weight etc.

 

[Badfishforty]

odd usually as pumps age there would be an issue when hot, not when cold. just t check oil level us full and right weight etc.

Oil level is perfect on dip stick and I did use 5-30 weight cuz I put power punch in and that stuff is thick. I figured it would make it close to 10-30 weight.

 

[Fix4Dirt]

Oil level is perfect on dip stick and I did use 5-30 weight cuz I put power punch in and that stuff is thick. I figured it would make it close to 10-30 weight.

hmmm interesting havent heard of power punch before. i use motorkote which is i think (?) similiar. hmm. have you used it before?

 

[Badfishforty]

hmmm interesting havent heard of power punch before. i use motorkote which is i think (?) similiar. hmm. have you used it before?

Yupp similar I think. It’s a treatment. And I’ve used it before. Tightens things up and does a good job cleaning things out. Works best when you use it replacing one qt. of oil during oil change. Drive around for about 150miles or so. Then flush with new oil change again while adding another bottle of treatment. Sounds excessive but it really cleans things out and makes my vehicle run smoother then just doing an oil change

 

[~X~]

The 1st generation oil pressure gauge is not really a gauge, more like an indicator. Your oil pressure might be fine but the sending unit may be failing. The 1st gen forum has info on this, try doing a search there.

Oil pressure gauge question

I have a 1992 explorer with 52xxx miles and my oil pressure gauge seem to fluctuate a lot, it stays in the normal range but is alway moving back and forth from day to day. Is this normal behavior?

www.explorerforum.com

Oil pressure gauge mod

Anyone whos done the oil pressure gauge mod wanna gimme some info as to where your gauge points @ hot idle and also @ 2000 rpms? Anyone put pressure to the sender and marked psi on the gauge either? Anyways, the mod went good, other than me messing up the gas gauge and making it read...

www.explorerforum.com

 

[Badfishforty]

The 1st generation oil pressure gauge is not really a gauge, more like an indicator. Your oil pressure might be fine but the sending unit may be failing. The 1st gen forum has info on this, try doing a search there.

Oil pressure gauge question

I have a 1992 explorer with 52xxx miles and my oil pressure gauge seem to fluctuate a lot, it stays in the normal range but is alway moving back and forth from day to day. Is this normal behavior?

www.explorerforum.com

Oil pressure gauge mod

Anyone whos done the oil pressure gauge mod wanna gimme some info as to where your gauge points @ hot idle and also @ 2000 rpms? Anyone put pressure to the sender and marked psi on the gauge either? Anyways, the mod went good, other than me messing up the gas gauge and making it read...

www.explorerforum.com

Sweet!! Thanks!!

 

[Mbrooks420]

Technically 5w30 and 10w30 are the same weight.

It’s possible whatever you added to the oil had dislodged something and it clogged it for a bit. Oil pressure should never really take any amount of time to build.

 

[Badfishforty]

That makes sense. Whatever happened it’s seems ok for now. I was thinking about flushing it again to get whatever is in there out. Most likely more gunk

 

[RangerX]

I was getting periodic low oil guage readings for a while before my oil pressure sending switch failed and dumped my oil.
Wouldn’t hurt to replace it now, its a super cheap part and takes 5 minutes and a vise grip to change it out.
Maybe that’s not the problem but...

 

[~X~]

Two out of three sending units I've bought this year have been bad. One leaked as bad as the unit I took out & the other one wouldn't read. The one I have now is all over the place. All from NAPA & were changed in the parking lot.

Good luck.

 

[Badfishforty]

Two out of three sending units I've bought this year have been bad. One leaked as bad as the unit I took out & the other one wouldn't read. The one I have now is all over the place. All from NAPA & were changed in the parking lot.

Good luck.

Thanks! I’ll try to keep that in mind for sure

 

[Josh P]

You can convert the gauge to read actual psi. Change the oil pressure switch to a sending unit and jumper the 20 ohm resistor on the back of the instrument cluster.