Oil pressure....issue?

[SkylineNXS]

Hey guess, just bought my truck about 2 weeks ago, its a 87 R10 short step with 350 tbi and 700r4, i was wondering what my oil pressure should be at, at medium throttle or hard throttle its only getting up to around 30 psi. In my 72 any time u would give it throttle it would jump up to 60, im just ownderin if this is normal or not, thanks...

BRAD

[gezn2]

Originally Posted by SkylineNXS

Hey guess, just bought my truck about 2 weeks ago, its a 87 R10 short step with 350 tbi and 700r4, i was wondering what my oil pressure should be at, at medium throttle or hard throttle its only getting up to around 30 psi. In my 72 any time u would give it throttle it would jump up to 60, im just ownderin if this is normal or not, thanks...

BRAD

For a 20 year old engine with high miles, it's fairly normal
The Craigslist 350 I stuck in my '76 doesn't go much above 35 psi on a warm engine and sits around 12 psi or so idling in gear, it was described as having around 120,000 miles on it, but it's running sweet and the vacuum gage isn't indicating that anything I need to worry about is going on
The rule-of-thumb for smallblocks is if you've got around 10 psi per 1000 RPM you're still golden, YMMV but I once had a truly crappy 305 that had *Zero* indicated oil pressure idling in gear, I put around 20,000 more miles on it and it was *still* running when it went to the crusher

[Square84]

Between The Oil Pump And The Pump Shaft Is A Nylon Bushing When It Breaks It Will Read Low Oil Pressure Replace The Shaft With One For A High Volume Pump. It Does Not Use A Bushing Its All Metal.

[89 crew]

The amount of pressure depends on the oil pump, and the wear on the engine. There are 30 lb pumps for 350's, so it is possible the your engine is in good shape inside with a 30 lb low volume pump. or you could have significant wear and have a 60 lb high volume pump that can't keep up. If there isn't any unusual noises, oil consumption, or leaking, and the gauge is right. I would say you just have a week pump. Replace the pump, and pick up tube with a high volume and it should come right on up. Also I highly recommend a product called Energy release. It is an oil additive, I have had excellent results with it and improved mileage.

[SkylineNXS]

Yea there hasnt been anything wrong with it or anything like that, it was just a little confusing. Thanks for all ur input, nad i have actually been looking into gas and oil additives and keep seeing advertisments for ZMAX, has anyone tried this stuff? Its supposed to be for both gas and oil...

BRAD

[piecesparts]

Try checking the oil pressure with a manual pressure gauge, before you write off the dash readout. That way you truly know what you have for lube. Maybe your sending unit or dash unit is loosing capacity.