What to expect from oil pressure movement...

[rook]

My oil gauge is moving around a bit more than usual. I’ve had some other problems, and can’t be too sure if I’m not just paying more attention to it now or what. I previously blew a gasket in the oil filter adapted and lost all oil pressure, and upgraded to Tahoe 120MPH gauges.

Seems like I’m getting more pressure than normal on cold starts, a consistent 65-70 on startup until warm, and then between 40-60 when it’s warmed up. It’ll drop to 40 at idle, then peg to 60 once I get moving until I have to stop at a light.

What am I looking at here? I read in another post somewhere about someone looking toward a rebuilt because his oil pressure is doing the same thing. Is my pump just tired and needing to be replaced? Is it going to be as fun as I think it’ll be to fix this now?

 

[98_k1500]

So many oil pressure questions lately... This is perfectly normal. Its supposed to go up as the rpm increases. Oil pump is pumping oil thru the same passages, and its turning faster. Gauges in these trucks are not known to be the most accurate, and newer trucks run "dummy gauges" that just stand straight up if it has more than 8 psi. Most folks these days don't know oil pressure actually fluctuates.

 

[rook]

I knew it fluctuates, it just seems much more drastic for some reason.


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[98_k1500]

Could just be the different cluster.

 

[sgtpoliteness]

That sounds really good to me.


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[tunedbytuna]

I have a 98 with the 5.0 in it. My oil pressure has varied as you described when cold and after warmed up as well as at idle vs. driving. I've got 168K on the motor, and the pressure has been in same ranges from the day I bought it with about 60K on it. I think you are just paying more attention to it. The variances are normal in my opinion. You are probably just getting more accurate readings now.

 

[highperf4x4]

Here's a baseline for ya. You need 10lbs for every 1000rpms. If you're above 10lbs at idle and above 40lbs at 4000rpm don't worry about it. Oh, and run good oil.

 

[rook]

Ok, good info. I can calm out a bit now and get back on track with the fun stuff I want to do-


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[highperf4x4]

[emoji106]

 

[poncho62]

If you want to find out how accurate the gauge is, put a manual gauge on it and compare.....

I bet your gauge in the new cluster is just calibrated differently