Oil pressure/rebuild advice

[willfalcon]

Before you drop the pan again- check the pressure with a mechanical gauge. It's possible you have a faulty sensor. Even more possible if it's a cheap store brand, particularly Duralast from AutoZone. Or, it's not the sensor's fault at all and you could have a gunky oil system that may have partially clogged the sensor, making it sense lower than actual pressure.

It was an acdelco “original equipment”. But I wouldn’t put it past myself to have damaged it trying to put it in either. I went the quick route without removing anything else.. now that I’ve done it a couple times I’m sure I could get a fresh one in without banging it around too much.

 

[clandr1]

Say I put a real gauge on and it reads fine... what would I do at that point? Swap out another sensor? Start chasing wires around for a short of some kind?

If the mechanical gauge reads good pressure, my next step would be to replace the sensor.

 

[Mudsport96]

I drilled and tapped the adapter on the side of the oil pan when i had pressure issue on the Silverado. That way i could drive a short distance while holding the gauge out of the window and still watch the dash gauge. When i was done, i just put a. 1/8 inch pipe plug in the hole and took the fitting out of the adapter. You have to be super careful though, its pretty weak aluminum.

 

[Jason in DLH]

Try cleaning the oil pressure sensor filter.

Didn’t read all the comments, so sorry if that’s been discussed already.

 

[willfalcon]

Gonna go to harbor freight to get a gauge today. I'll let yall know what's up.

 

[clandr1]

You can probably rent one from AutoZone for free.

 

[willfalcon]

You can probably rent one from AutoZone for free.

They (or oreilly or advance) don't have it listed as an option on their website but I'll call around to make sure.

 

[Mudsport96]

Also, like just fishing said, could be the bypass sticking. I was still new to the gen 3 engine when i did the oring on the Silverado. And if i would have known about it i would have removed and cleaned it as well. When hot it idles at 20psi and highway speeds its 40ish. But it i romp it to pass or just blow out the cobs it climbs to 80psi. So i know the pump can put out the pressure, but at low speed its either bypassing some or the bearings are worn... and at 400k it could be either or both lol.

 

[JonnyTahoe]

Yeah certainly going to check it with a gauge before I do anything drastic... I'm worried about running it overfilled long enough to get the oil hot to see what happens. I know overfilling is bad, foamy oil, etc. Would letting it idle like that for 30 minutes do any more damage than what's probably already been done?


Indeed it did take hours. Not exactly itching to do it again... I read elsewhere that you have to get it really seated up in there... Somebody said they got the tube shoved in there enough to where it would hold itself up before he bolted it down. That definitely wasn't the case with me... I got it in there but I could still see the o-ring seated there as I held it in place to bolt it back together. It all lined up straight as I did that, so I thought I had it right at the time, but I wonder if I really didn't have it seated right and it's fallen slack and lost the seal since then.

If you got the bolt tight it should be good. My old ring looked ok with no cracks but when the tube fell out onto the garage floor I knew it was loose and probably my oil pressure issue and it was.

 

[willfalcon]

Well. Got a gauge. That thing is a freaking pain to get threaded into the sensor slot. But I put it on there, and ran the engine for probably like an hour and it never dropped below 30. Figured I ought to try to replicate the circumstances where the symptoms show up and whatnot, so I put the sensor back in and went for a drive. Drove about 30 miles, mix of city and highway roads. For the first 25 miles it held great, stayed up around 40, would drop down to 30ish sometimes. I had myself thinking I just had to turn the thing off and back on again to fix it. When I got closer to home it started dropping lower, between 10 and 20 at stops and holding around 20 while driving steadily around 35mph. Never did get low enough to ding at me but it was pretty close. So I pulled back in my driveway and immediately tried to get the gauge back on to see what it said. By the time I got it on (took probably 20 minutes, 4 scrapes and a burnt knuckle) the gauge was showing 30.

I drilled and tapped the adapter on the side of the oil pan when i had pressure issue on the Silverado. That way i could drive a short distance while holding the gauge out of the window and still watch the dash gauge. When i was done, i just put a. 1/8 inch pipe plug in the hole and took the fitting out of the adapter. You have to be super careful though, its pretty weak aluminum.

Something I thought of... do you think I could unscrew the hose from the gauge, screw the actual sensor onto the end of the hose, and plug it in? That way I could drive until I start getting warnings, hop out and unplug the sensor and screw the gauge back onto the hose and check it. I'd be much more comfortable doing something like that than drilling into things haha.