low oil pressure

[troy3000]

I have had my 93 Grand Am for about 6 weeks, it has the 3300 engine. It just started turning on the oil pressure light. I installed a mechanical aftermarket gauge to see what was going on. It shows 0-5 lbs of pressure at idle cold or hot. It will get to 40 lbs of pressure at 55mph, but it is very slow to react to rpm change. One of the lifters was making noise, but has quieted down. The engine is not making any scary noises right now. The engine had a bent oil pan when I got it, have since had it straightened out (but did not remove it). Engine has about 100k on it. Any insight will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[pokesmot]

low oil pressure and a bent oil pan..

how many miles you got on this engine?

When I did my engine swap I had the same problem. The donor engine I was putting into my car had a bent oil pan, so I replaced it. Once I took off the bent pan I noticed that because the oil pan was bent, it pushed the oil pickup screen and bent the tube where it mates with the tope of the cylinder block.

so, because the oil pickup screen wasnt sealed against the block it killed the oil pressure.

The gauge isnt erratic at all, the value remians fairly constant (doesnt bounce around rapidly?) and slowly when you rev the engine?


if you do decide to remove the oil pan I can give you the steps needed to do it on the car.

[troy3000]

Thanks for the reply. When I got the car it apparently carried good pressure, and it didn't make a sound. After having a water pump installed last week, it started acting up. The oil pressure gauge isn't erratic at all, it moves very slowly when the engine is revved. I have been wondering about the oil pickup - I had a hunch that it may be messed up somewhere. The engine has about 100,000 on it.The car was put in a ditch before I got it - hence the mangled oil pan. I believe it is time to remove the pan from this one, to see whats going on. So any help on the process would be appreciated. ( this will help me decide if I want to tackle it or take it to my friends shop).

[pokesmot]

working on it in a shop would be highly recommended. You will need to remove the harmonic balancer pulley in order to get access to the 3 bolts that hold the oil pan to the engine cover, because they are obstructed by an engine mount.

1) Drain oil

2) Remove plastic timing cover from bell housing (2 bolts IIRC)

3) Remove passenger side wheel, and inner wheel well cover to gain access to the harmonic balancer.

4) using an 18mm wrench release tension on the belt and set aside. (you might need to combine 2 wrenchs to give you the required leverage to remove the belt.)

5) This can be the hard part unless you have a POWERFUL impact gun. remove the 24MM bolt from the center of the harmonic balancer.

6) Remove the harmonic balancer pulley. You will need a special tool for this, I bought one of the generic "power fist" harmonic balancer pulley pullers from crappy tire for $20, and then used some tiny bolts and fender washers that thread into the pulley to remove the pulley. Harmonic Balancer Puller (http://canadiantire.ca/browse/product_detail.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=140847439 6672452&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524442152347&bmUID=1163474808878&assortment=primary&fromSearch=true)

7) With the pulley removed, there is a plastic shroud behind the pulley that can be gently pulled off (you may need to unplug the crank sensor to get it off) Once this plastic cover is removed you will now be able to access the 3 bolts that hold the oil pan to the engine cover. the BEST way to get these out is with a 10 mm gear wrench, it can and will be tedious getting these 3 out, but a gear wrench is the best way to get these 3 out.

8) Using a small screwdriver, unplug the oil level sensor from the front of the oil pan.

9) most of the oil pan bolts are 10mm but some are 11 or 12 IIRC; there are 2 or 3 closest to the flywheel that have a different size head. Remove all oil pan bolts.

*REMEMBER WHERE EACH BOLT COMES FROM! there are 2-3 different sized bolts*

10) carefully remove the oil pan. It can be tricky because of the pickup screen, and you "MIGHT" need to loosen the clamp that holds the 2 lines going to the AC compressor to give you enough room to wiggle the pan off; these lines can be in the way sometimes.


I highly recommend getting the felpro permadry plus oil pan gasket as well. ALOT less hassle installing, and when you replace it you know for sure its not going to leak. I had to do this job twice because I cheaped out the first time on the gasket. The gasket comes with another smaller gasket for the oil pickup screen. CHECK the pickup screen and make sure it sits flat against the top of the engine block. IIRC you will need torx to remove 2 screws that hold it in place.

Reinstalling is the same in reverse; except snug all oil pan bolts by hand then go around in a circular pattern tightening them up about 2x.


Hardest parts about this job:

-Finding bolts long enough with the right thread size that will get the harmonic balancer pulley off.

-Removing the 24mm harmonic balancer bolt (without decent air tools)

-removing the oil pan screws behind the balancer inside the engine mount

-getting the pickup screen to fit in and out of the oil panso that you can install and remove the oil pan (there is a metal baffle on the inside)


Hope this helps,

let me know how it works out for you.

[troy3000]

Sounds like good time!? I think I will take this to the shop. I will post the results when I get it back.

[troy3000]

I got the car back a few days ago. It seems that there is a gasket in between the oil pickup and the engine block. The gasket was partially destroyed. It was pulling air instead of oil. The car now carries 60 lbs of oil pressure at cold idle and 40 lbs at hot idle. Thanks for the insight!

[pokesmot]

Thanks for the update!

Glad to hear you were able to find and solve your problem!