Low Oil pressure

[hellraiser_88]

Upon runing a few erands today I noticed my truck was lacking power, and when I looked down at my oil pressure gauge I noticed my oil pressure was below 40 PSI. WAY BELOW, I'm talking about on the big white mark right before the orange "your in deep doo doo marks". the odd thing is that im not leaking oil, i think that I may have a clog in one of my oil cooler lines, the oil pump or crank case. Anyone else think of a cure?

[Sparky2263]

Barring near catastrophic engine damage, I don't know that the 2 are related, unless it's some kind of weird electrical problem.

What I do know is I would be installing a manual oil pressure gauge for test purposes. That would be first.

[mrmidnight]

if you had a clog the pressure would go WAY UP I mean past 80, you may be burning oil, have a small leak somewhere, or the pressure sensor is bad. or it is leaking internally, as well, and you can't see it at all, any smoke?

[hellraiser_88]

Yah I have a feeling that my Engine is about to die on me, I don't see it making it through winter.
I just thought of somthing else could it be a bad camshaft\crankshaft bearing? I havn't seen any smoke come from the engine at all. I checked the level on the dipstick and it was the same as when I checked when I filled up. I looked under and still didin't see and oil drops on the ground, that leaves the last two. I can't go anywhere to determine if there is a internal leak, granted everyone is closed for Labor Day, but I know how to check the oil sensor. I'll try that and holler back.

EDIT* 10:34 A.M. Central Time. Oil pressure sensor check and was ok, pressure still low though.

[mrmidnight]

hmmmm could be a bad pump, what do you think sparky?

[Sparky2263]

Well, low oil pressure with no noise IS indicative of a pump/pickup problem. Rods and mains knock when warmed up if the problem is there and lifters will tick when warmed up if it's a top end oiling problem.

BUT, verifying the sensor is okay is not a substitute for a manual pressure test with a known good gauge.

EDIT: Oil takes 2-3 times as long as the coolant to reach the same temp. Very important to watch oil pressure from dead cold to warm-up.

[Maximus]

Are you hearing any knocks or pings when the oil pressure drops that low.I agree with Sparky hook up a manual gauge and see exactly what the oil pressure is.OEM gauges are not very reliable anyway so i would check to see.

[hellraiser_88]

When I cranked the engine yesterday it staled and I could hear a rod knocking (when it stalled, it didn't knock when it ran) and did the same thing today. I am however, hearing a rattling coming from what sounds like my valvetrain. It's verry noticeable at high RPM's, when the tranny shifts and drops to lower RPMS it goes away untill I hit higher RPMs again. When I shut the engine off I hear a loud shumph like somthing is sealing off like a vacum.

[Blazer69]

my truck runs at 20psi at idle and has ever since i bought it....all my friend's gm trucks do the same and they have v-8's.....might try a thicker oil....i run 10-30 and am switching to 10-40 to help out....it never goes any lower then 20 at acceleration it's around 45-60 area

[F-IT]

my truck runs at 20psi at idle and has ever since i bought it....all my friend's gm trucks do the same and they have v-8's.....might try a thicker oil....i run 10-30 and am switching to 10-40 to help out....it never goes any lower then 20 at acceleration it's around 45-60 areaMines the same too
if the pressure goes below like 12-15ish then you sohuld be worried lol =P

[<-~Jo~->]

^^^^same as above for both of the 350's