Recently road in town Christmas parade, in my 63 convert with 390, toward the end of the route oil pressure light started coming on when idle and would go off when put in neutral or moving in forward. Engine was probably a little warmer then usual but not over heating. Never have had this problem before. Today I was gonna change oil to a heavier wt, after jacking up the car, I noticed someone must of used the oil pan to jack up the car and it is actually dented in some. Could this be obstructing the intake of the oil pump? Should I drop oil pan and straighten it out, change oil pressure sending gauge, install aftermarket oil pressure gauges? I will definitely be running a oil pressure test on it, but was wondering if I should worry about the oil pan first?
Oil pressure light
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Depending on how bent it is. If its a deep big bend maybe. first thing i would check is the wire on the sender itself. make sure its on snuggly. ( had the same thing happen on a car i drive, making slow parade lap speeds light started doing the same. was a lose fitting sender wire.) That said tho, a T fitting with a mechanical gauge would NOT be a bad idea. Not for sure what you are/were using for oil weight so cant say one way or the other on that..
Yes the wire from the sending unit is not snug at all. Should I change the whole unit or try to make a better connection? Not sure how to tighten up the connection. Any suggestions for aftermarket gauges? I live in Thibodaux, LA, pretty warm year round (mid 70s today), I just read somewhere that the heavier oils were better for older cars. Gonna try to get a pic of oil pan.
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Dunno which type of connection it is using, Factory stud type connector? If so just gently squeeze the connector with a pair of pliers. What suggestions you wanting? brands ? Dont really understand the question asked. Brand wise its up to you, and how much money you want to spend on a gauge/gauge set if wanting more than one. I generally wont run anything other than 10w40 in anything made before '90. Its just me...
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Yes the mechanical gauges all hook up in the same manner, so that doesnt factor into the cost at all.
Last "set" i bought was the cheapy 3 gauge set from AZ, and worked fine. ( Had them in a 80's model {hate to say this for some ppl get touchy mentioning other brands
} GMC pick up. Had oil pressure water temp and volt gauge. think it was 24.99 then, think they are a little more now. Was the smaller sized ones.
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yes i know, when i bought those I was dubious at the least, but turned out they worked fine.... and looked pretty good too. ( i had the white faced ones) Always seemed correct. What made me put the set in was cluster gauge/lights failure/erratic operation, jumpy readings etc. Pulled all the factory senders out went with those. ran a normal temp of about 185 on avg (180-190) and idle showed about 25 lbs oil pressure that would get into the high 50's at cruise speeds...
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