Executive summary:
1995 SW1 has gone through about 5 oil pressure senders. They all started leaking through the electrical connection. The first 4 were from NAPA, then I bought the factory one from a Saturn dealer. That one lasted maybe 500 miles. Car has 194,000 miles. Regular oil changes with Castrol GTX.Okay, this points to high oil pressure. Before tearing off the timing cover and replacing the oil pressure relief valve, I wanted to have a metric to compare. I bought a SunPro electric oil pressure gauge. Installed it today. Gauge has calibrations from 0 to 100, with 50 being dead center. I would have bet that my pressure was going to be around 85.
Good thing I did not bet! Pressure hovers around 50. I saw it jump almost to 60ish with the throttle open, but that's it. It drops to around 35 or so when the engine is hot and idling, which I would expect of a car with this many miles.
Is anyone else running with an oil pressure gauge, and if so, what are the pressures that you see? I have a hard time believing that 50 is too high.
-David