popo8

Nah... I live in Reading Pennsylvania (near philly) I have never had the bottoming out problem with the gauge on hard stops, but I have had it if I pull out and the revs are to low (6 speed) Oh well, maybe someday someone will be able to help. For now I just run my heavy weight oil (10-50 plus lucas stabilizer)

AXEMAN

I am having the same problem. I'm going to go with a heavier oil to see what happens. I plan to do a cam swap pretty soon so I may check that out about the tube coming off. This place has always been a wealth of info.

madcat

Yeah I've tried using a heavier oild also but didn't help at all. Plus this last week I changed my Oil Sending unit, that didn't help my problem with my oil press. gauge hitting the bottom when I come to a stop, but it did help with my over all Oil Pressure. Now my oil pressure while I'm driving stays a little over the halfmarker. I've been told by a couple of mechanics around here that I just need to rebuild my engine. Once I get the money for that job I'll repost to let ya know if it helped.

Matts1994Z28

Mine idles at about 60psi when cold and 15-20psi when hot...i cruise right at 40psi. i dont know if this normal or not but im doing a cam swap soon and im going with a GM high performance oil pump made for lt1's so i will let yall know how it goes...if anyone wants to look at this pump its at gm parts direct...here the discription...


12555884 - Oil Pump
Production high-pressure Z-28/LT-1 oil pump with 1.20" gears. Will produce 60-70 psi oil pressure.
Technical Notes: Does not include screen


its 60 bucks too!!

Bow94z

how hard are these to change? does the oil pan need to be dropped? Im guessing it's near the Oil pump?

01Z

I should let Rob answer you as that's who you are asking but I just changed mine and gained 15lbs at idle. He's helped me a dozen times without knowing it. Anyway, it's a twenty minute job if you have the 1 1/16" deep socket specifically made for the sensor. The sensor is on the driver's side intake manifold below the fuel pressure regulator. Shoebox has a perfect picture on his site: http://shbox.com/1/oil_pressure_sensor.jpg

My tools; sensor socket from Autozone $5

As Shoebox has said, be sure to use pipe dope (not teflon tape) on the threads. I think we're looking at 1/8" npt and can almost be tightened enough by hand so be very careful removing and installing.

BUBBA

assuming aruendo, that one considers that 10 psi per 1K rpm would be acceptable, then an A-4 idling at 800 (reading 1000 on the tach) would require about 8 PSI and an M-6 idling at 950 (reading about 1200 on the tach) would read about 9.5 psi at idle.

So if you are reading excessively low based on this particular analyses then perhaps a little heavier dino oil, e.g, 10W-40 would bring in more into line since well-worn engine will not show as much pressure with a thinner oil.

What was the question again...

Oh yeh...it might be the sensors....

1racerdude

Bubba
Thats 25/30 at idle and THEN 10PSI per thousand RPM's.
The GM book says it can get to 10PSI at idle before any warranty work is done.

That's TO LOW for me.

I would try a STRAIGHT 30W and not the multi vis also.

ShowStopper540

my camaro is a 1996 and it idles at around 40 or 50 PSI when its cold and once she warms up, she hits back at around 15-20, my friend has a 1995 TA which acts the exact same way, we're both pretty rough on the cars seeing as we bought them to go fast and do our little burnouts, but we maintain them regularly and they're both at about 140k and running strong, not long ago i just installed a cam, lifters, pushrods and rocker arms and im still running about the same oil psi, like everyone is saying, as long as your engine is being maintained, and you yourself arnt too rough on it, i wouldnt be too concerned about it until i hear bad things

Bow94z

haha im the same way with my car, 140k Runs greats all fluids get changed regularly, and i dont bounce off the limter like a idiot, oil looks fine, just the guage is a little weird while crusin around, which leads me to believe its the sensor. car makes no noises

Bow94z

So is there a part # and price on this oil pressure sensor?

jonota

I have this EXACT problem on the new car I just bought. Cold the oil pressure is normal for a cold LT1 (same as my vert), when warmed up idle and driving is completely normal, but occassionally (not every time) the oil pressure gauge will just bottom out for 1-3 seconds and then pop right back up after a hard stop of after letting off the throttle after a run (engine tries to die as well due to a idle problem).
I'm thinking/hoping/praying I can just replace the oil pressure sensor and that will be that. I also want to wrap/coat my headers to keep some of that heat out of the engine bay (she's HOT HOT HOT after playing).
If replacing the sensor doesn't do it, I'd like to replace the oil pump. The previous owner(s) were pushing what I assume to be a stock short block to 6500 with 9psi of boost. It still runs smooth (especially considering it's current condition) and strong. Are there any good write ups on doing this? Do I need to take the engine completely out or can I do it from underneath with the oil pan removed?

Jonota

01Z

Don't know what the OEM part number is or its price. That can be determined by giving a GM parts department a call. NAPA, Autozone and Advance all carry the replacement sensor and all charge about $20.

Nateious

Hello all, I'm new to the forums, I just recently bought a 95 Camaro with the Lt4 Conversion and a few other mods, I have all the documentation but I haven't had time to look through it all yet. Anyway I didn't want to open a new thread when this one deals with the same problem I'm having.

I noticed a week ago, when my area was having a heat wave (temps about 95-100 deg), that my oil pressure was rather low, the check gauges light came on when i was sitting at a stop light. Anyway since then we've had temps in the mid to high 80s and its been low after I drive but not enough to make the check gauges light come on. Same issues as popo8, the gauge is about half way when I first start the car and as it warms up the pressure drops. At worst (except durning that heat wave) I was looking at the gauge and it was right above the red line at idle but it goes up to ~20 psi during moderate acceleration (2000 rpm) I remember reading someone said it should be about 10psi per 1000 rpm but i noticed it didn't quite make it to about 30 when i was at 3000 rpm more like 22-25ish. I haven't noticed any noises and I know the oil pump is new, it was put in during the lt4 conversion (15,000 miles ago) The guy I bought it off said it normally runs about that low and I should be fine, I haven't heard any knocking but I did notice at one of the points when it was rather low the sound seemed to change ever so slightly. Anyway my question is if it knocks is it going to make an obvious noise or is there like a half-way state that is not quite knocking but enough to notice a difference? Are there any other signs I should be looking for?

If i've got time I'm going to try to get the oil sending unit changed this weekend. Oh yeah its got 10W-30 synthetic oil in it and its gone about 500 miles on this oil. It's also been on nothing but synthetic oil since the conversion.

One last question, what weight oil should I use for the next change, whats a good summer weight and a good winter weight?

Thanks for any input.

anaik

You should be starting a new thread with this. Make a signature with info about your car, will make it easier to answer any questions you have. Here's a site with a lot of oil info. Welcome.

http://bobistheoilguy.com/