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I have a 95 ford that I have let set for 3 months since I have a company truck with my new job. I cranked it up and it run fine till I drove it down the road and it lost oil pressure. I turned it off and after setting 10 min. I cranked and the oil pressure came up and I drove it home and changed the oil. After I cranked, the oil pressure stayed up and then went down!!!! What did setting do to the truck??? Is there a fix??? I put a pint of Marvel mystery oil in it!!!!
And also look at the connector for the sending unit. I had a similar problem with my 92 and it turned out the push on connector was loose. Scared the crap out of me since I spent almost $3k on a new motor.
I vote for the oil pick up clogged. If not that the pump. It might also be lower bearings are shot which means rebuild or crate motor. When the oil heats up and thins out the presure drops off. Mine did the oil presure dance as well and I replaced the motor. First and foremost, check with a mechanical gauge like quicklook2 said. It will answer alot of questions about the condition of your motor.
definately check with mechanical gauge, mine goes from 50 cold to 20 hot and the "dummy" gauge never moves during that time. my gauge was doing what yours is and it ended up being the pickup screen almost completely clogged, $20 for good one piece oil pan gasket, $15 for pickup screen, and i went ahead since i was that far bought the pump too, $40.
yeah I would check the pressure with a mechanical gauge first, also which engine is it? I replaced my sender and sometimes when I look at my gauge it'll be pegged all the way over on high. We have 87 van w/ 351w and replaced the pickup screen 10 yrs ago but I don't think they replaced the pump while they was in there and now it's doing the same thing, but the van sits a lot and only has 75k miles. If you have to drop the pan replace both the pickup and the pump and also put a new pan gasket on for good measure.
You don't have to check the oil pressure with a mechanical guage if you don't want to. It will verify that there is a low pressure situation as opposed to maybe a bad lifter or something else. Rule out all the simple stuff before you resort to major surgery. Maybe putting the mechanical guage on is a waste of time but it is only a 5 minute waste of time compared to the full day of wrenching that it will take you to replace the oil pump only to find it is another problem. All that aside, IMHO it's probably the pick-up/pump.
My 89 f250 had a gauge problem......it would read near 0, slam the door real hard and it would read 1/4-1/2 up. It would do the same if I banged the dash.
Remove the wire on the pressure sensor and touch it to ground. The pressure meter should read all the way high, if not the gauge is defective.
jcatellaw, I misunderstood the ticking.....I thought the gauge was ticking......Sorry.
You definitely need to find the source of the loss of flow. Oil filter, pickup screen or pump. Don't run the engine anymore til you find the source.