I just noticed an issue with my oil pressure today when I took my daughter to school. My truck (1976 F250 Highboy Crew Cab) has a rebuilt 360 2bbl, with the 4spd. As far as I can tell it's a completely stock rebuild that was done about 48k miles ago. I found the rebuild tag on the side of the block which says it had a .60 overbore, I can't quite read the rest of the tag.

I've put almost 3k miles on the truck since I've had it. I've changed the oil, filters... done all the basic stuff to make it reliable. I'm new to the FE Ford motors... learning everyday.

Up until today I have always had solid oil pressure showing on the stock gauge. Showing well about half of the normal range at idle and it would maintain that pressure and show higher when I would bring the RPM's up. Allways had good pressure showing.

Today I noticed it had normal pressure upon start up and idle, but once I started getting up to speed the oil pressure gauge was dropping pretty quickly. It would rest down at the low end of the normal range, and would quickly go back to the middle upon stopping (idling). Once I got the truck home I checked to make sure the wire for the oil pressure sender was tight and checked the oil level (was changed less than 600 miles ago with 10w-40). Everything was normal... so I ran the RPM up alittle in neutral and watched the oil gauge drop down between the "L" and the low end of the normal range. The truck has always seeped some oil, but it doesn't burn any as far as I can tell.

I'm not sure what do to with it at this point... I am playing russian roulette next time I take the truck to town, is it going to make it??

Thinking I may have to replace the oil pump??

What commonly fails in these motors that would cause my issue besides the oil pump??

Anybody have some experience or ideas?

Thanks,

Joe

 

Sounds to me more like a problem with the sending unit. I'd try that before changing an oil pump.

 

The best thing to do is to install a mechanical gauge. The stock gauge doesn't really do a whole bunch, if anything I would say it's reading low. Cold start should have the needle buried on HI and read about halfway or slightly less once it is warmed up at idle.

At this point no need to worry about pumps or sending units until you verify what pressure the engine is putting out.

Josh