Scary Oil Pressure

[joeyta22]

Bump!

Driving around in my car tonight after half an hour or so of freeway driving, i gave it a squirt through first, second and third gear at some lights and continued about another 200m slowly stopping to do a u-turn, when i stopped and waited for the traffic to clear on idle i noticed that my oil pressure gauge (stock one) went all the way down close to zero, so i looked at my pfc controller and the knock reading was around 101.

I quickly turned off the engine and then turned it back on to see if it built up pressure to which it did and then i crawled it into the nearest servo to have a look over the engine... everything seemed to be fine.

It's a 32 gtr with n1 oil pump, built engine ect. but no oil restrictors and stock sump. I always overfill the oil atleast 0.5L and used good quality oil.

This has happened only once before where i did a similar thing, gave it a squirt , came to a stop and had the same symptoms.

The oil pressure always seems to be fine and again was fine on the way back home after i left the servo, sitting on 4 at low revs on the freeway and higher when accelerating, the knock reading didnt go over 32 on the controller either.

Reading through this thread obviously the stock gauge is reknown for playing up but the fact the knock reading went up so high aswell is what concerns me.

This has only happened twice in about 2-3 months of driving (daily and occasionaly giving it some stick).

I know of the oiling problems where all the oil rushes to the head, but i always thought this was only a problem for sustained periods of high rpm and cornering (circuit racing, drifting ect); surely this wouldnt be happening from such a short period of time between the three gears?

Any ideas? Could the oil pump be on its way out?

/life story.

Edited October 13, 2011 by joeyta22

[snozzle]

The knock reading wont tell you if your big end bearings are on their way out, it may, by coincidence, pick up a knock reading from the bottom end if the big end knock occurs to be at the same frequency as detonation but i highly doubt this.

The knock reading your getting is most likely detonation or could even just be interference (false knock). My old powerfc did this alot, my new pfc dj never gets false knock. Never changed knock sensors either.

As said many times in this thread, the only way your going to know your oil pump is on its way out is if you get a decent oil pressure gauge hooked up!!

If you are actually getting detonation, get your car retuned!

[joeyta22]

Cheers for the info, the car was only tuned about a fortnight ago by a very well know tuner and was a safe tune, so i wouldnt think it's detonating. Proper oil pressure gauge is the next thing on the list to get.

On the way to work today on idle (car was at normal operating temp) the gauge showed the oil pressure needle go all the way down to a bees dick above zero, however knock stayed normal 30. But as everyone's said this may not be an accurate reading.

[Brezza]

i've bought a after marktet oil pressure gauge and now i never look at the stock gauge!

the std gauge can read over 8 and the after market one will be at 40psi.

the aftermarket one usually will be around 90-100psi at idle when startup

once the water temp comes up to temp on the std gauge, which will only be 50 degrees on the aftermarket gauge i have for water temp. oil pressure will be around 60-70psi

when the oil is up to temp, somewhere between 50-70 degrees, on idle the pressure is between 25-30psi

this is completely normal according to the manual.

the only thing is oil pressure gets up to 120psi when the oil isnt hot and i'm boosting. (oil will be under 50 degrees)

if anyone is after true readings get aftermarket water & oil temp gauges, and an oil pressure gauge.

even the std water temp gauge is whack! the std gauge sits in the middle when its only at 40 degrees, and will remain in the middle even when water temp gets to 90 degrees! that's a huge variance.

basically if you see the std water temp gauge go over halfway, you've probably warped the head!

[mico]

knock readings go to 100+ bcos of start up. reset it after u start the car.