Oil Pressure problems
Thread Starter
|
Freshman User
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 34
Likes: 0
Oil Pressure problems
I have a 77 250 highboy with 351M. It seems to be having oil pressure problems. I've been noticing that when it's cold and oil is obviously thicker the pressure is normal maybe a little higher and as it warms up it continues to drop. It gets down almost to the low end of the gauge but not quite all the way. Now yesterday it went really low and was starting to show signs of a loss of power. I parked it last night and got in to drive to work this morning and the gauge was almost pegged to the high side and stayed high the 20 mile trip to work. Any ideas what could be causing the problem?
Posting Guru
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 1,729
Likes: 2
What kind of power loss were you noticing? What grade of oil? How many miles are on the engine? Ever have the bearings replaced? The 351m/400 was known for premature bearing wear (more clearance less oil pressure) due to oiling problems. I'd put a mechanical gauge on and see what the actual pressure is.
Thread Starter
|
Freshman User
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 34
Likes: 0
The power loss was minimal but noticable just a little more sluggish than normal and it's usually a pretty peppy truck. She's my daily driver and it's 20 something miles one way. Oil's just napa 10w40. I do have monitoring problems though because i think the dipstick tube has either been broke off or the dipstick is not for this truck because I've had to mark on the dipstick when I did an oil change to get a actual full reading. As far as the bearings I don't know only had her for 18 months, and the milage is unknown the Odometer is not functioning correctly but I'm guessing the truck has 160 something... or just 60 something who knows .?.
Last edited by Plummer_62; Jan 10, 2007 at 01:20 PM. Reason: addition
New User
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 0
Likes: 24
You have 2 things possibly going on here.
People forget that oil pressure SU's have a TINY orifice in them.
Plus Ford Gauges aren't always accurate with what actual
Getting a tiny bit of carbon,sludge or gasket material stuck in the orifice wil cause low readings.
The ICVR grounding out on the cluster can cause HIGH (Pinned) gauge readings
My suggestion.
Replace the Oil pressure sending unit
The only other thing to cause low oil pressure shown on the gauge is the engine bearings are wearing out
People forget that oil pressure SU's have a TINY orifice in them.
Plus Ford Gauges aren't always accurate with what actual
Getting a tiny bit of carbon,sludge or gasket material stuck in the orifice wil cause low readings.
The ICVR grounding out on the cluster can cause HIGH (Pinned) gauge readings
My suggestion.
Replace the Oil pressure sending unit
The only other thing to cause low oil pressure shown on the gauge is the engine bearings are wearing out
