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Oil Pressure on 87 W150

1K views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  Gen1dak 
#1 ·
Anybody ever have an issue of the oils pressure slowly or eventually dropping to zero after the truck has been ran awhile?? Idk if it would be a faulty gauge sender maybe bad oil cap just don't know any help would be appreciated 1987 W150 138xxx miles
 
#2 ·
Two instances.
Once, with a really bad oil leak. Once the oil level got low enough the pressure tanked.
Second, when the oil is either due for change, or it's really hot (warm weather and hard running or just a hot engine. And decent deceleration or cornering would drop the pressure to zero til the g's were eliminated.
It is possible your pressure relief spring has broken. However, if you're running 10W30, maybe even 10W40, if the engine is well-worn, the large clearances with hot oil might conspire with an old oil pump to drop the pressure. What oil are you using? Does the pressure drop and stay dropped, or does it come back up at higher engine speeds? How long does it run before this happens?
 
#3 ·
Right now I'm running 5w30 in it and it will happen when running for about 20 minutes or more it will slowly drop to zero but then after driving awhile I may come back up but not to the half way mark it should be if this makes any sense
 
#4 ·
Yeah, I would definitely go to a heavier oil. At least 10W40 in the cold, 20W50 in the summer. If the oil is fairly fresh, just dump in some motor honey, be it a bottle of STP oil treatment, or some other thickener, so as to not waste your current oil. If STP, try one. Two may be needed. Naturally, if you're due for an oil change, definitely bump it up. You're not going to see good pressure with the thin oil unless you're running a hi-volume pump. If you're concerned about cold weather oil performance and engine protection with heavier oil, just let it warm up a couple minutes before moving out. That'll give the cylinders (and oil) time to warm up before any serious loads are encountered.
 
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