93 4.3L Oil Pressure Issues...

[LordFinesse]

Hey all, been a while since i posted on here which is good, haven't had any issues... Until now. 2 days ago i was waiting at a stop light and i saw a check gauges light pop up, look at the oil pressure and its at zero, aw crap i thought, 2 seconds later its fine, the engine was running just fine the whole time, no studdering or anything. Went to get gas, checked the oil level, its good. Anyways i just got back from a 400mi drive to San Diego and didn't have any problems until i got home and im noticing the oil pressure is a bit low especially when shifting from 2nd to 3rd and 3rd to 4th (its a 4L60E btw). It did for one second hit zero till i revved it ad back up it went, whole time the engine sounded fine and didn't do anything weird. Any ideas what could be causing this?

 

[98_k1500]

My s10 does this bad. Every time its idling at a light when warm it falls to 0. No strange noises or anything. I assume its the sending unit.

 

[LordFinesse]

yeah after a little research in the last 5min im thinking thats what it could be

 

[df2x4]

All these questions about low oil pressure lately make me really glad my 4.3L truck has always been on the high end of the gauge. I actually replaced the sending unit once because I thought it was reading too high, with a load on it after a cold start I've seen it hit 75-78lbs. Idles warmed up right around 35-40.

 

[drice72]

Needing an oil change will also cause the gauge to read low pressure. Mine did that when i first bought it. I thought I had a bad sensor/pump. I pulled the dipstick and basically saw thin black liquid that was God only knows how far past its useful life. Changed oil and filter and everything was normal.
Fast forward through a transmission rebuild and a tune up and several oil changes later. I noticed that I was using a little bit of oil. Nothing major, just kept an eye on it and made sure it was topped off. This past weekend I made a trip of a couple hundred miles. I get in my truck yesterday to go to work and the gauge is bouncing up and down. Lights coming on the whole bit. I was a quart and a half low. Turns out I have a blown rear seal.

So make sure you have good oil, and make sure you have enough oil before you go testing sensors.

Yeah, I'll be pulling that trans...again this weekend.

 

[LordFinesse]

Checked the oil today and its good, gauge was bouncing again today. Ordered a new Delco fuel sending unit, gets here tomorrow should have it set up by tomorrow night I'll post after i swap it out

 

[98_k1500]

^ you mean oil pressure sending unit??

 

[LordFinesse]

*oil pressure sending unit, haha oops,

 

[LordFinesse]

Well, i replaced the oil pressure sending unit last Friday, everything seems to be working good, im keeping an eye on my oil level as it was about half a quart low, when the issue arose it was just fine, i sure hope im not burning oil but time will tell, all is well now though.