OIL pressure failure!!! UGH!!!!

[HVAC SuperTech]

ok, I thought I had all the little ghosts worked out of my truck. I lost oil pressure, and over the past 4 weeks I have talked to people, gone to shops and tried fixing it myself. I replaced the IPR, and my ICP sensor. It helped tremendously. It ran fine for 3 weeks. Then I lost Oil pressure again! This time it was really bad, truck actually shut down! I parked it, and got a oil pump from the dealer, actually cheaper there than autozone!! before, when i cranked the truck up it would take approx. 5 seconds for the oil pressure to come up on the guage. When I replaced it, it came right up! I drove it and flogged the living crap out of it and it ran better than it ever has! Then the next day, I went to pass someone on the interstate and when I did, the oil pressure fluctuated badly, went from the high setting to about a third of the way up and back. I took my foot out of it and it stopped. ok, glitch? maybe. I tried it again, and the same thing. I parked it for a bit, got back in it. and no problems.
I dunno! I am hooking a guage to it in a bit to see what pressure actually is. Hopefully its just a bad wire or pressure switch. I was told it could be a cracked pickup tube, or a blockage in the pickup tube. Or even a bearing failure! I really hope none of those are it. Anyone else ever run into this and figure it out? I dont have the money for a rebuild or anything close to that. and I am in the truck $10K. Dont think theres much chance of selling it to get out from underneath it. Man, this stinks.....

[SCUFFY828]

sure wish you could get it to me

[HVAC SuperTech]

no doubt man!! God I wish I could find a freakin trailer!!! if I can make sure the oil pressure is good, i may just feakin drive it there, and if I break down, I gots triple A! hehehehe.

[SCUFFY828]

let me know , this one sounds like a good challenge, i love a challenge

[HVAC SuperTech]

alright scott, At cold start up, had 40PSI at idle, at running temp, I had about 15 PSI at idle. At WOT, somewhere around 2500 RPMs, I had 40-45 PSI. I ran it through its paces and it never dropped the guage. I dunno. Maybe just a screwy guage? I am gonna have to drive it tommorow more and see if it flutters again. Maybe changiong the oil and getting a new filter. I cranked down on the filter(remember I told you I couldnt get it to seal?) more to tighten it and it still leaks from around the edges. You think I could put some RTV sealer(a thin layer) on the gasket to keep it sealed better? Maybe we are losing pressure that way?
How full should the resivior be on top of the engine after I drive it? I just wanna check to volume that the pump is pushing to make sure I am getting all I need to my HPOP. I was told my HPOP was still putting out good pressure. But even if it wasnt, a faulty HPOP wouldnt make my base engine pressure go down would it?

[alabamafrog]

The factory oil pressure gauge is not an oil pressure gauge. It is simply a idiot light that looks like a gauge. It has an on/off switch not a sending unit and is set around 9 psi. I installed a real gauge on mine and was surprised at how much the pressure fluctuates depending on temp and driving conditions. 15 psi seems really low to me, my old engine would get down near 18-20 when it was real hot and idling low but my new engine rarely gets below 40 and usually runs near 80. The oil filter should not leak even when just hand tight. Also there should be a spring loaded check valve thingy in the filter housing that I hear can sometimes fall out during an oil change. Also I hear that occasionally on of the J tubes that sprays on the bottom side of the pistons can fall off and land in the pan causing the oil pressure to go down a little. Should be able to see it if it falls out during an oil change or hear it when you bang on the pan if that happened. If it is a J tube or a cracked pickup then the motor has to come out. Not near as hard as it looks. The HPOP reservoir should stay around ¾” from the top. There are lots of disassembled engine pics in my sig link if you want to look through them.

[alabamafrog]

Oh and I hear one way to trouble shoot for a cracked pickup tube is to jack the truck way up in the rear to completely submerge the tube and then run the engine to see if it runs and what the pressures are.

[HVAC SuperTech]

Ok, I will have to try that once it gets warmer. Its like 10-15* here now! brrrrrrrr!!! Thanks Alabama!

[mschn99]

i would definately start with an oil and filter change.....there is always a chance that the filter is causing the problem....

[ns954]

Definetly.Try some fresh Shell Rotella and a new Wix oil filter.