oil pressure prob.

i got an issue folks. as my car comes to temp, my oil pressure drops. i am baffled. i am probably overlooking the simplest thing. engine is a 1641, dual weber 40 idf's, mild cam, headers and deep sump. nothing exotic. sender checks out, pump checks out etc. i even went to a 20w oil to see if that helps bbut no dice. HELP!!!! thanks

it drops from what to what? How much oil pressure drop do you have?

Julio; it's perfectly normal for the oil pressure to drop as the motor warms up; it's just a matter of quantity, as Steve says. Please get back to us after you find out.

The original T1 specified straight SAE 30W oil --- if you want heavier the numbers go up. 20W is light weight oil (heavy for synthetic, I guess). It thining out when hot is normal. You need temperature readings to tell if it is overheating too much.

Julio:

Don't know what you had in there before, but 20wt oil is too thin for an aircooled engine and would make your oil pressure drop right there.

I'm assuming that you folks in El Paso are in the middle of the heat wave that hasn't found its way to New England yet (will we EVER get to Summer????????) If it's getting up over 75 F on a regular basis (and especially if it's getting up into the "Summer 90's+"), I would do an oil change and put in 20W-50 wt. or even a straight-grade 50 wt. detergent oil. That, alone, should boost your pressure quite a bit over the 20wt. you've been trying (and make it run a bit cooler to boot).

There are only a few things that can affect the oil pressure in a VW engine:

1. Excessive clearances on the bearings of the crankshaft or cam due to lots of miles and wear (80,000+ miles on a 1,600 cc engine)

2. Oil too thin or engine operating temperature too high (200 is nice, 220 is getting hot and 230+ you should pull over and let it cool off)

3. Oil Pressure Relief Valve worn or contaminated - these are not adjustable and, to tell the truth, I've never seen an internal one screw up, but if it got some crud in it it might cause a loss of oil pressure, but that would be a pretty constant, very low pressure level, and that's NOT what you seem to have, so I would rule that one out.

Occasionally, I've seen the oil pressure sender (bottom left of the generator mount) spring a leak and cause the pressure to drop, but at the same time it sprays oil all over everything - pretty dramatic and can't be missed.

Anyway, run thicker oil and report back.......

Gordon
One of the "Speedstah Guys" from Rhode Island

thanks for the advice. my opil pressure reads average 180. i will try the heavier (sludge maybe? lol) oil. i have checked the sender and even the gage to make sure. the pressure drops to almost nothing at idle. scares the heebee-jeebes out of me. either way i will change out to the 30wt this weekend and try it out. thanks. i'll keep ya posted.

Julio wrote: "my opil pressure reads average 180"

You mean oil temperature, right?

Hey, come to think of it, what are you using for an oil pressure gauge and how do you know how accurate it is?

gn

oops, yeah oil temp....mind fart!! i have the VDO gage set with the recommended vdo temp and pressure sender. it has worked flawless. this just started ocurring recently. maybe within the last month or so. i did do an oil change but i used the same i have been using.

Julio; try 30 W or even 40W. The factory VW manual recommends 40W for warmer temperatures.

If this pressure gauge has just recently started reporting low pressure at idle and nothing else has changed, I would suspect the oil pressure sender as being bad (or getting there).

i'll check those out. gonna do the cheap try first. oil change. then go from there. i didnt know we had another "boricua" in the group. cool. soy de luquillo!! thanks again for the tips. goes to prove you never stop learning!!

Actually Julio; there's also JJr; who lives close to me and we do a lot of wrenching on our cars; he also has a nice totally original (including paint)'73 914, an original Manx we'll be working on shortly and his beloved CMC 356.

I visited San Antonio last year and I loved it; Texas seems like a very cool place to live!

always good to make connections. i am out here in the rear end (or is it the nose?) of texas a.k.a. hell paso!! only 2 other spedsters i know of here. a silver one owned by oscar and a black one which has seen better days. there's an older guy who has about 13 original 356 coupes. all ready for restorations. some have seen good days, others just need some tlc. he has my number if he ever decides to sell off one of those coupes (wife likes coupes). hopefully he'll call. well, i went out and got me some 30w oil. gonna do the change out tomoorw and see what happens. keep you guys posted. thanks for the advice.

30 wt. won't change a thing......re-read my first post up above.

50 wt. is what should be in there if it's 65 degrees F or higher outside temp.

back to store......