oil pressure acting funny

Possibilities:

Low on oil Defective oil pump Defective oil pressure guage Defective oil pressure sending unit

How many miles are on the truck? Was/is the engine making any unusual noise?

there are 148,000 miles on it... and no it wasnt makeing funny noises that i could hear... my rpm guage just goes up and down when the pressure is low...then it stops...ill go check my oil right now

well i checked my oil and its fine....

I'd suspect the gauge or sender. You can plumb in a direct reading gauge to confirm the readings.

ok...how am i suposed to do that? :D

attribution

at-trib-bu'-shun

1) the act of including the post to which you are replying, so that people have some idea WTF you're talking about

2) a skill you need to master

no thanks necessary..................

TS

Find a aftermarket oil pressure gauge, remove the sender and plumb the gauge. Start the engine and see what the gauge reads.

To "plumb" the guage is Roy-Speak meaning to install it using tubing and making sure you do it right so it's doesn't leak and squirt oil everywhere.

The "block" refers to the engine block... that big thing under the hood with the fan on the front of it.

The "sender" means the oil pressure sending unit. An electronic attachment to a screw-in thingy on the side or top of the block. Looks sorta like a little spark plug in a place that's hard to get to and where there shouldn't be a spark plug. Could be anywhere, but on your truck I think it's on top of the engine at the rear, almost up against the firewall on the driver's side. Remove the screw-in thingy and use pressure fittings to connect your tubing to the place where you unscrewed the thingy from. Hook the other end of your tubing to the new oil pressure guage. Start truck and read actual oil pressure on the guage.

Of course you could also take the truck to a mechanic somewhere (Not Firestone, Goodyear, Sears or WalMart) and prolly for no more than an hour's labor charge he'd tell you what your actual oil pressure readings were (pressure at idle, at 1500 RPM and at 3000 rpm)

It could be that the oil pump intake screen is clogged. One way of cleaning an old engine out is to drain the oil and replace it with automatic transmission fluid. Let the engine idle for 15 to 20 minutes (don'r drive it) then drain the fluid, change the filter, and put oil back in it. Change the oil and filter again in a couple of days.

Also you may be able to spray some carb cleaner on the intake screan through the oil drain hole.

beekeep

Ok, net nanny. Perhaps you should learn how to follow a thread and you would know what he was talking about.

That it is... right next to the distributor, and a royal PITA to get to. It's an 1/8" NPT threaded fitting. I'd recommend an 1/8"-NPT to 1/4" compression fitting, some 1/4" tubing rated for 100psi, another 1/4" compression to 1/8" NPT fitting on the other end, and an 1/8" coupler to hook to the gauge (which should also be of the 1/8"-NPT variety). In the alternative, if you can get a 1/4" compression to 1/8"-NPT female, that will save you a connection (because the gauge will screw right into the female connector). All of this, including the tubing, is available from any good hardware store, or any plumbing supply place (or the third shelf of my little parts bin in my garage, but that's not of much help here).

Hook everything up, start the engine, loosen the fitting on the gauge end until oil's leaking out (thereby purging most all of the air, for more accurate readings), then tighten again.

Incidentally, this is why I have aftermarket oil and water temp gauges, in addition to several others, in my vehicle. It prevents things like a failed sending unit from causing unnecessary panic.

You forgot the most likely - a stuck open oil pressure regulator. On a lot(well, some anyway) of engines the pump will loose prime when the reg is stuck open on shutdown/startup.

It probably won't dawn on you but your reply was equally lacking in context, take your own advice or learn how to follow a thread.

If your newsreader doesn't store the requisite number of day's replies to follow the thread don't complain here.

well thank you.....my sisters boyfriend said that he has all the tools and everything to do it so it will be done this weekend...and thanks for helping me...i know im a girl but i do know some thing about trucks...like what a block is...im not that dumb, my dad didnt raise a sissy....

Be careful John, Gary is very good at giving out advice and criticism but not so good at receiving it.

Thanks for proving my point once again. You and Maxi are sooooo easy.