oil pressure question

[firehawk238]

have a 95 LT1 car and when i brake even remotely hard, my oil pressure is dropping down very low. sometimes even to the point that my check guages light comes on. now im sure most of you are thinking that my oil is low, but its not, it is full. i run mobil 1 gold top in 5w30 just as the car has always ran. could this just be a sending unit issue, oil pump getting weak, plugged filter, or worse??? any input would be greatly appreciated.

thanks in advance,
karl

[KissMyWhtSS]

What's your oil pressure like? As long as you have some, your typically fine.

Are you saying the oil pressure only gets low under hard braking?

[My95Z]

What is your engine doing under the hard braking? Oil pressure is related to rpm, so if your rpm drops to nearly a stall it would make your OP go down too. Only other thing would be if the pickup fell off, but it would do it under hard acceleration too.

[IronOutlaw]

My guess is on the pickup to. Mine fell off last year and it would do just as you are describing. The damn thing fell off again and im too lazy to fix it now. Im just wondering how it fell off when we had it welded to the pump.

[firehawk238]

have yet to see any drop in pressure under hard acceloration. at the time of breaking my rpms are typically around the 1200rpm mark as the engine will not drop to the 750-800rpm idle until barely moving. for those of you who have had pickups fall off have you seen a drop in pressure under WOT? also i have noticed that i can be cruising down the highway at roughly 1900rpms and give it just a little throttle and i see a very slight drop in pressure before it starts to increase. im sure the two are related but are you thinking oil pickup still??? kind of dont see how due to the fact that the car has nearly 120k on that pump and has stayed intact till now, but anything can happen.

[IronOutlaw]

Hook a mechanical gauge up to it first before you go through the trouble of pulling the pan. If it still does it replace the pump and the pickup while you are in there.

My oil pressure does not drop at wot. I think it doesnt because all of the oil goes to the back of the pan and is deep enough for the pump to pick it up. When you stop it all goes to the front of the pan, away from the pump and the engine is starved for oil for a few seconds.

Pickup fall off sbc's and lt1's all the time. They are just pressed into the pump and fall out very easily.
Mine fell off at around 120 thousand miles and now it has 130xxx and fell off again.

[firehawk238]

well i have access to some very nice scoping instruments so i may just drain the oil and stick a scope in the plug hole and take a peek around to see what is going on. thanks for the advice guys i greatly appreciate it.

karl

[JoeliusZ28]

yea, its the pickup tube almost gaurantee it.

[Milk Man]

i somehow got a huge crease (2 in's deep) in my oil pan and it broke my pickup off, end up throwing a rod. didnt crack my pan or anything, just pushed it in.

[Ponch95]

yea, its the pickup tube almost gaurantee it.

Maybe but I had te same issue once and it was a Cam bearing.

[Formula 350]

my car did the same thing and its only got 45k on it. I run the same oil and all I did was change the oil and filter a little sooner than I needed and It has fixed the problem. I guess mobile 1 brakes down fast in our cars or I have no idea it worked for me its worth a try.

[AChotrod]

I have 2 LT1s one is a bone stock vette with 175k and has 25-30 at idle. The other has 32K a cam and welded pick up and is about 60psi maybe a bit less fully warmed. Still trying to decide if thats good or not.

[firehawk238]

well gentlemen i did some troubleshooting and identified the whole problem. well not really troubleshooting, i just stuck a telescoping magnet inside the oil drain whole and was able to pull the pickup over to the hole where i could see it. now i know for certain that it was indeed the pickup and now i have to remedy the problem. im all ears for advice on pulling the oil pan with then engine still in the car??? also have any of you upgraded to aftermarket oil pan, and if so which one is the best??? all feedback is welcome!!!! also trying to decide if i want to go with a standard volume/pressure pump or go with a standard volume/ high pressure pump. all feedback will be greatly appreciated!!!

karl

[JoeliusZ28]

at least upgrade to the white relief spring while you are in there, it is free pressure out of the stock oil pump. Thats what i did to mine and i am very happy with my oil pressure now.

As far as the oil pan goes.... good luck buddy. Of all the things Ive done on my car that is the one thing that had me swearing like a sailor for a good 3-4 hours. There was a bunch of stuff i had to get out of the way, like the oil cooler. I also had to have the engine AND transmission completely dismounted and rammed up into the cowl to the point the cars weight was on the cowl. ... and even then it still wouldnt come out, had to loosen the k-member. If you have an auto its a little less of a nightmare ive heard.

Honestly if i had to do it again im not sure if i would do it in car or just drop the engine. Sometimes more work is less.

[My95Z]

Is your car an A4 or M6? M6 makes it really hard to get the pan out with trans in, but either way you'll need to unbolt the motor mounts and lift the engine up a few inches.

For the oil pump if you had good pressure just stick with a stock one, lots of people will tell you lots of things about how bad the HV pumps are, but very few actually have had problems with them. I'd still stay stock if it has good pressure, maybe a HP spring on a new stock volume pump.

[firehawk238]

ive got a 6 speed and quite frankly ive had that tranny in and so many times my buddy and me can do it under an hour total! i plan to drop the tranny, pull the flywheel and all. so what is the difference in a melling HP oil pump and this white spring modification you speak of??? also do either of you have an aftermarket pan, and if so which one did you go??? also are you happy with it??

karl

[My95Z]

With the trans out the only problem you'll have is the damn studs for the windage tray, they kinda get hung up on the pan.

As for the pan I still have a stocker, most people run canton's for aftermarket, but unless you road race you don't really need an aftermarket pan and they are kinda expensive.

The white spring is prob the same thing as the Melling HP pump, both are just stock pumps with a higher pressure relief spring.

[firehawk238]

well im steadily working my way over to the road racing setup so i may go ahead and splurge for a canton. many people have leak issues with them???

[My95Z]

I don't really know. I would suspect some of the problems are from people over torquing the gasket, but you should prob wait till someone with one chimes in. Seems some are good, some have problems, but its like that with everything I guess.

[IronOutlaw]

If you go with a deeper pan you might as well get an hv oil pump imo.

[JoeliusZ28]

If you go with a deeper pan you might as well get an hv oil pump imo.
agreed

[fun_with_lt1]

What about low oil pressure at idle. I have a 94 camaro with about 128k on it and cold the pressure is around 40psi, when it warms up it drops to about 18-19psi. Could it be worn barrings or the pump itself? And where would I find this white spring you speak of?

[95greenZ]

The oil pickup fell off mine too. Anyway for future reference for somebody an easy was to tell if the pickup has come off is drain the oil and take a rubber mallet and tap on the pan you'll hear it.

[My95Z]

What about low oil pressure at idle. I have a 94 camaro with about 128k on it and cold the pressure is around 40psi, when it warms up it drops to about 18-19psi. Could it be worn barrings or the pump itself? And where would I find this white spring you speak of?

That doesn't sound that low to me for that mileage especially if running 5W-30. You could switch to 10W-40 if you want to boost the pressure, but that doesn't sound too bad to me. Normally if the pressure at idle is very low its the cam bearings being warn out.

[fun_with_lt1]

That is with 10W-40. So basically you think it will be ok for 1 season?

[95greenZ]

Yeah sounds about normal for an high mileage LT1, exactly what mine used to be.

[firehawk238]

well to find my problem i didnt tap on it with a rubber mallot, i stuck an extendable magnet up inside the drain hole and pulled the pickup over to it where i could shine a light up in there and see it with my own two eyes. dont think ive ever been so irritated with my car. but on a lighter note it gave me an excuse to order the canton pan/pickup, melling high pressure pump, and the BMR torque arm relocation bracket and driveshaft safetly loop that im going to install when i put in my strange S60 that is on the way. should make for an interesting driver after all that.