Low pressure all of a sudden

[mijohnst]

Wow, this has turned into a great thread. Loving all the stories but it sure makes the problems I've gone through seem like nothing.

SO...I think I'm fixed. I can't believe it but I *think* it was the oil pressure sensor. I got home from work after leaving the battery unplugged all day and started it up and ran rough for about 2 minutes and died as usual. After that, I couldn't restart it again. Unplugged the battery and pulled out the OPS and replaced it with a new one that came in from Amazon today. This new one is the OEM version that I should have put in the first time when I did it in December! Plugged the battery back up and it started with no problem! I've test starting and stopping it several times and no problem. Also tested the fuel pressure at 1k, 2k and 3k and it held steady at 60psi. I even let it run for 25 minutes and stayed running. All the codes I was getting (P0533, P0641, P1107, P0107) all went away and now no engine light.

I guess the OPS must tell the system to run like shit and turn off if you don't have any oil pressure as a safeguard to stop the engine from blowing up. It makes sense to do so.

I want to thank EVERYONE that jumped in and provided any advice here. Y'all are my heroes and it would have been so much more painful without your help. Please feel free to keep the thread going with some great stories. They really made my day today.

 

[mijohnst]

One more thing to add. I was inspecting my old OPS and I noticed that there was oil inside of the area that connects to the wire. My guess is that it was cracked somewhere inside of it and that allowed oil to get in there causing a short circuit or something. The new OPS has my pressure back at 40psi at idle.

 

[OR VietVet]

Yahhhh for my WAG. It was also a guess about the limp in mode poor performance guess. If it has that capability to run bad and die because the oil pressure is reading like crap, that is new to me.

You could have cracked the old sensor when installing though or it was bad out of the box. Get quality parts.

 

[georgebuhr]

Glad to see you fixed your problem. I just read through this whole thread hoping I would hear you say you dropped the oil pan and checked the oil pickup tube oring. I had a similar problem as you, replaced the oil sensor and it didn’t fix anything. Checked the o ring, and sure enough, it was cracked, which meant I really wasn’t getting any oil pressure. My suggestion to you is if you see the problem come back soon, check the oring.

 

[mijohnst]

Yahhhh for my WAG. It was also a guess about the limp in mode poor performance guess. If it has that capability to run bad and die because the oil pressure is reading like crap, that is new to me.

You could have cracked the old sensor when installing though or it was bad out of the box. Get quality parts.

Ron, you hit the nail on the head in the first post! You don't get any better than that. lol

 

[mijohnst]

Glad to see you fixed your problem. I just read through this whole thread hoping I would hear you say you dropped the oil pan and checked the oil pickup tube oring. I had a similar problem as you, replaced the oil sensor and it didn’t fix anything. Checked the o ring, and sure enough, it was cracked, which meant I really wasn’t getting any oil pressure. My suggestion to you is if you see the problem come back soon, check the oring.

Thanks for the suggestion! I've actually been watching several YouTubes on replacing that o-ring and fuel pump so I'll probably do it as part of my list. I've got several things that I want to do around the engine like the intake gasket and, cover gasket and lifter adjustments. I bought this car as a hobby and I've not been disappointed so far.

By the way, if I haven't said it already, welcome to the forum. Great people with seeming unlimited experiences here. It's been my best resource since starting my project.

 

[clandr1]

Glad you got the problem sorted out!

Just to throw this out there since I didn't see it mentioned in this thread so far:

When my oil pickup tube o-ring went bad, my oil pressure dropped, and there was a noticeable ticking at idle. Just wanted to remind everyone that if you are truly not getting enough oil high enough in your engine, you should be able to hear the problem. Might make the difference between someone replacing the OPS first, or dropping the pan to check the o-ring.

 

[muncie21]

Wow, what an epic and informative thread!