Changed the oil yesterday. All went fairly well except for the oil out of the filter that had the consistency of cold maple syrup. NICE! Well… Not so much…
I flushed out the crank case with some fresh oil, installed the drain plug, installed a new filter, and filled it up. Started it up and the oil pressure rose up to around 45psi with a cold engine. Took my kids for a spin and it dropped to around 15 while cruising down the road at probably 2200RPM. Hot idle, stopped in gear is down around 7psi. Hot idle in park is about 10psi.
There are no noises (lifter tap, etc) to warn of the pressure being too low so I currently am going on the assumption that it is ok and that the factory gauge is just not that accurate. Heck, it only has 6 lines on it with only the last one being marked at 60psi. The other lines are 0, 15, 30, and 45… I have a 3 gauge cluster that I have been toying with installing. It came out of my Chevelle and has a mechanical oil pressure, mechanical temperature, and a volt gauge. I could steal the tachometer out of my Chevelle as well.
Since I have another motor, I am not too worried about it. If this one dies, it will just step up the time table on my 90 TBI motor swap which is currently scheduled to start in the spring.