Oil Pressure Question

[Lacoste]

I am driving a 1992 Grand AM GT with the H.O. DOHC and after I made it in to Toronto yesterday my temperature gage was reading 250 and my oil pressure was pretty much down to 0. When I hit the QEW and the 403 the temperature was down and the oil pressure was back up....should the oil pressure be that low when the engine is that warm....I have found that the oil pressure is usually low on my car...

[tenspeed]

Zero pounds pressure is pretty low. I don't think the pressure should be that low ever but your gauge may not be all that accurate. I would use a thicker oil (20W-50) to keep the pressure up. The engine is worn and it may not be worth it to do a rebuild.

[Brad97GS]

Hook up a mechanical gauge to get an accurate reading, but be careful driving it around with near zero oil pressure! Quads tend to drop to around 20 psi at warm idle and should rise up to about 40 psi at highway speeds while warm. 250 degrees is also waaay too hot - you'll blow a head gasket if that continues. It may be related to the oil pressure being low, but get that checked out anyway. The engine fan should be on at that temperature...

[Lacoste]

Sorry...the temperature was just below 105

[Brad97GS]

Oh, okay, that's not quite so hot then. My old GA crept up to that temp in city traffic a lot (220 F). It actually helped me to turn the A/C on (when it worked) because the engine fan stayed on all the time then, keeping the engine a lot cooler. I would say that you still need to hook up the car to a mechanical gauge just to get a clear idea what your oil pressure really is. Better to be safe...