Oil pressure and whats it telling me?

[Reds Eddie]

When the 360 is cruising I get about 40 PSI on the OPG. At idle its 5-10 PSI. No biggie.
But after a.....say....30 mile trip at a constant 65 mph the pressure will drop to below 5 PSI when I come to a stop and the motor sounds as though its laboring a bit. If I shut it off it's a bit cranky when I fire her back up after a few minutes.
I did a top end rebuild a while back. Is the bottom end causing the loss of PSI? What do you guys think.

[montana_highboy]

FE's are notorious for having low oil pressure, 5 psi at hot idle is not uncommon from my experience.

[krewat]

When you did the top-end rebuild, did you check the clearances on the rocker shafts?

All those little rocker arms expanding with the heat can sure be hell on oil pressure, especially without a restrictor in the head oil feed..

Also, you might want to make sure the heads aren't flooding with oil and the pump is sucking air

[NumberDummy]

Ppl complained so much about the FE's oil pressure gauge readings (especially on 1964/66 T-Birds) that Ford came out with the following in 1966 to quell their fears.

C6SZ-9278-A .. Phony Readng Oil Sender (I kid you not!)

[krewat]

Hey Bill, was that part only installed when they had a customer who complained, or was that ever put into real production on vehicles leaving the factory?

Pretty funny.

[NumberDummy]

Originally Posted by krewat

Hey Bill, was that part only installed when they had a customer who complained, or was that ever put into real production on vehicles leaving the factory? Pretty funny.

Customer complaint part.

Ppl would bring their vehicles in to check the oil pressure, and leave happy as a clam with the gauge now reading well past the halfway mark.

They didn't have to wait too long either.

There was no charge, the parts and labor went on the 1863 (warranty RO claim form #), even if the vehicles were out of warranty, which back then was 2 years or 24K miles.

There was no extended powertrain warranties available back then like there are now.

btw, From Model T days until the early 1960's, the warranty was 90 days or 4,000 miles, whichever occured first. That was it.

Whether one bought the 600 buck el cheapo Ford Business Coupe or a 15 grand Lincoln Model KB V12 Convertible Sedan, it made no difference, that was all that was available.

[iggybob44]

Nice solution,and we wonder why Honda and Toyota gain more market share yearly. dont get me wrong maybe the oil pressure readings werent any reason for concern by the vehicle owners,but what a crazy way for the corp. to deal with it! Ive owned 1986 and 1988 Rangers(i was orig. owner on both),and sadly enough both broke down and left me on the side of the road before they had 40K on there Odos. I liked both trucks,the 2.9 FI motors had pretty decent power,they were fairly capable off-road,rode comfortably,but looking back the little Toyotas of the day were probably built to higher standards. As a person with a lot of experience in Fords and there inner workings,NumberDummy,do you think that mid 70's and earlier Fords were built better than those in late 70's thru the 80's?

[Redmanbob]

Originally Posted by iggybob44

Nice solution,and we wonder why Honda and Toyota gain more market share yearly. dont get me wrong maybe the oil pressure readings werent any reason for concern by the vehicle owners,but what a crazy way for the corp. to deal with it! Ive owned 1986 and 1988 Rangers(i was orig. owner on both),and sadly enough both broke down and left me on the side of the road before they had 40K on there Odos. I liked both trucks,the 2.9 FI motors had pretty decent power,they were fairly capable off-road,rode comfortably,but looking back the little Toyotas of the day were probably built to higher standards. As a person with a lot of experience in Fords and there inner workings,NumberDummy,do you think that mid 70's and earlier Fords were built better than those in late 70's thru the 80's?

Your "ranger" was a MAZDA and yes, Toyota is a far superior product to a mazda.

[krewat]

Not to get into a rant, but you don't think Toyota or Honda do ANYTHING to cover up any problems?

Or to change a customer's perception without really fixing the issue?

Was the 5psi too low? No. It just made the customer feel better to see a gauge not register that low.

[NumberDummy]

Originally Posted by Redmanbob

Your "ranger" was a MAZDA and yes, Toyota is a far superior product to a mazda.

The Courier was a Mazda, the Ranger wasn't.

[iggybob44]

Im sure Toyota,Honda,etc have done a few things in a deceptive manner to
cover problems,but im afraid that the US automakers did go through a period where they really didnt care too much about quality control compared to the Japanese companies. the reasons are likely many,the USA was pretty prosperous,we tended to look at cars as disposable after a few short years,assembly line work has got to be tedious!,and when you are/were #1,its easy to get complacent.......I didnt think the Ranger was a Mazda,although if memory serves me well,they used 5 spd. manual tranny's out of both Mazda and Mitsubishi..........Bob

[Redmanbob]

Originally Posted by NumberDummy

The Courier was a Mazda, the Ranger wasn't.

Bill, I owned a 2001 Ranger, it's a MAZDA. Trust me. Badged with a ford logo. Shipped in from good olé tojo' if you just park the two beside one another it's blatantly obvious.

[NumberDummy]

Originally Posted by Redmanbob

Bill, I owned a 2001 Ranger, it's a MAZDA. Trust me. Badged with a ford logo. Shipped in from good olé tojo' if you just park the two beside one another it's blatantly obvious.

Sorry Bob, that's not correct. I've never seen one Ranger that was built anywhere besides the US of A, and I've prolly seen more new Rangers than 98% of the members of FTE.

The Ranger was introduced in March 1982 as a 1983 model. They were assembled in Twin Cities MN (still are), San Jose, CA and prolly other places.

Not one body or chassis part was the same as a Mazda. The only shared parts with the Mazda/Courier were the 2300 engine, 5 speed manual transmissions.

The 2300 (2.3L) engine was engineered/assembled by Ford of Germany (Cologne), the 5 speed manual transmissions were Japanese (Mitsubishi or Toyo Kogyo-Mazda).

I call these the "Axis Powers" models.

The Mazda B2000 is a Ranger, not t'other way around.

[Hypoid]

When I went parts hunting for my "new" '96, the boneyard interchange lists the Mazda 2300 also...BUT, every original part I've removed has "FOMOCO" or "Motorcraft" on it.

Reds Eddie, sounds like your timing may be a little fast. Have you put a tach on the engine to see if there is a corresponding drop between oil pressure and RPMs at idle?

[krewat]

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?