Oil sending unit or gauge or worse?

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woodwiz

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When I start the 383 the oil pressure gauge creeps up to 20+psi and once real warm more like 35+. Went for a drive today nothing over 50 in town. Looked down at the oil pressure gauge and noticed several times that the gauge read 20psi or less. Got back and pulled in to shut her down and it was back at 30psi. What do any of you guys think might be going on?
Hoping for the best!
 
Is the oil line to the gauge ever been drained. If not then would suggest to take it loose at the gauge and run the motor till you see clean oil coming out at the gauge. If the line and all is new and the gauge then could be something else. Use a big pan to drain the oil at the gauge. LOL.
 
When you start the car you should get a higher oil pressure. As it warms up and the oil gets a little thinner it will drop a little and the even lower at idle
 
hey Russ i'll do you one better,I'm going to use the spare tire for any extra oil i need for road trips...Hope and pray we don't get a flat..LOL!!
But all kidding aside i have a full crankcase of oil and i changed the sending unit today and fired her up and she went to 50psi and as she warmed and came off fast idle she hovered at 45psi...Much better!
 
Have no gauge but idiot light on this car. Tried to take out the sending unit and it broke off trying to take it out. Lucky that the housing was off the car and had to drill it out and tap it. That was something I was not looking forward to. Did get the heater pipes out with out a problem. Those are the items I have had twist off before on other car's. They where just rotted out so bad. Would brake off at the treads. Put new stainless steel fitting's in. JB blaster on the fitting and heat gun. May have to soak it several times. Good luck buddy. These old car's that parts have been locked in for so many years are not easy to remove.
 
Lucky the sender didn’t leak. I had one go bad on way back from D C in ‘70 Fury years ago. Middle of nite. Stoped every 50 miles to add cheap oil. Car was rustproofed when I got back to Columbus, OH!:steering::beep:
 
woodwiz said:
When I start the 383 the oil pressure gauge creeps up to 20+psi and once real warm more like 35+. Went for a drive today nothing over 50 in town. Looked down at the oil pressure gauge and noticed several times that the gauge read 20psi or less. Got back and pulled in to shut her down and it was back at 30psi. What do any of you guys think might be going on?
Hoping for the best!
Click to expand...
Screw a manual gage into the tap on the back of the block. use the flexible line to tape the gage to the hood and repeat the drive. If the pressure is good gthen the most likely culprit is the sending unit. OR get a Tee and run both so you can compare.
 
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