low oil pressure

[TimT]

My 78 silverado has a new 350 in it. the oil pressure guage reads 30 when i am driving it, but the pressure drops to 8 when I am idleing.

Is something wrong or is this normal?

[racedvl]

Rule of thumb, 10psi to every 1000RPM. If it still makes ya nervos, get an after market guage and see what it says. I don't trust factory guages to be real accurate.

[TimT]

thanks...i feel a little better

my guage is not stock ....it is a dakota digital dash

[Desert Rat]

I have a motor that runs sweet when hot drops to around 8 but when cruising down freeway its 30 or so,i wouldnt worry about it.unless it starts knocking,smoking,burning oil.

[jimss420]

i consider that to be very low, i rebuilt my motor and it have 77k on it now with a clevite high volume (not high pressure) oil pump on my 350, i have the factory gauges, in the morning, the gauge shows a little over 60 psi and when hot at idle its at between 45-50 psi, never lower then 40 ever, even doing 100 mph on a 110 degree day up a hill with the a/c on, it wont go below 40 psi once i stop. A friend of mine had that same low pressure you have and it was because the the relief valve on the side of the pump was stuck open from a wire the was in the oil pan when he wire wheeed before he put it on his new motor, and dropped the pan and just put in a a new pump since they are cheap and didnt have any problems after that.

[TimT]

thanks for your input....but ....i took the truck in and found it to have a faulty sending unit.


but thanks anyway