Low Oil Pressure???

[D7N7MASTER]

Having just installed a new VDO oil pres. guage, new VDO oil sender & new RADIO SMACK wiring last weekend, I'm (obviously) now able to monitor oil pressure. Cool. For four years all we had was an oil pres. idiot light... Anyway, now that I can monitor oil pres. I'm a bit - or maybe overly concerned. This morning, cold - oil pres. = 60psi. @ idle. 80psi. peak cold. Coming home from work today I had a high oil temp of 210 f & oil pres. of 40psi. @ 3000rpm's. At idle, oil pres. was 10psi. I have to say it was a hot day but... I stopped at the store for just a few minutes on the way home. When I re-started the car the oil pres. idiot light flashed a couple of times. Woah!!! I haven't noticed that happening in quite some time. Last time I can remember EVER seeing the idiot light do that was on a drive up to Big Bear Mountain, Ca. - in JULY!!!! 100+ temp. day & we had just stopped at the stop sign @ Big Bear Lake Dam. At the time I was thinkin' it's probably close to vapor lock, low idle speed, high altitude = idiot light. REV IT!!!! Off we went. No event.
But I don't know, Your suggestions, experience, and snide remarks -as always - are appreciated. G.

[skline]

Should have not installed a gauge, that way you never would have had a problem. Talk to the guys on the Baja Run II and they will tell you, I disconnected the gauge and now I never run hot or have low oil pressure.

[norustscott]

For piece of mind condsider this... The worlds most respected German auto engineers figured that 4-7psi ( they were not even that accurate with the sending unit) was good enough regardless of RPM. If they were concerned beyond idle they would have had a low and high rpm sensor mechanism.

If this had been a problem ... 100's of thousands of aircooled engines would have have been returned for warranty claims. 10 percent of all VW products would have spun bearings, siezed and left owners on the road side.

This simply did not happen. In fact, you could beat these engines near to death and still keep going. Sure 10 psi for every 1000 rpms is great but wait ... at 950 rpm idle what do you get? less than 10 psi? probably. is the idiot light out of course. However, it does make me second guess the faith I have in the $ 1.50 sending unit...( BTW, It is only an idiot light if you have no idea what it is for or choose to ignore it, considering the expensive alternative the idot light does the job for about $5 dollars)

Scott's view ... Best oil you think you can buy, change it every 3K, good filter and never run low... Dwell set, Timing set, Valves adjusted, All stock sheet metal and seals in place ... and a working
$ 1.50 sending unit

[D7N7MASTER]

You got me with that one... This engine had 30,000 miles on it 4 years ago when we bought the car. We have added another 10,000mi. Through all of the repairs required - ignition & F.I. wiring replacement have been the biggest expense. Not bad for a '73. But still, how 'bout a nice oil pres. booster kit? Couldn't hurt.

[ken180]

Your description sounds about normal to me.

The light problem - may be the the new sender is calibrated a little differently.

I would not worry about it - just use good oil - maybe 20-50 if you are going to be warm weather or doing lots of high speed driving

Ken

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

Sounds like you don't have any oil pressure problem at all. Don't bother with the booster kit, it's a solution looking for a problem in most cases, IMHO.

--DD

[david c.]

I realize this is an old thread and I'll be touching a subject that is very nearly beaten to death, but...

on my long drive from PA to CA last week, I stopped at Danny's Volks Stuff in Amarillo Texas. Danny is an old school VW guru from all indications (worked/raced for/on VW since early 1960's) and he told me that one of the things that he and Gene Berg agreed upon was that running straight Valvoline 40 weight racing oil would drop the oil temps in their cars by about 20 degrees and that neither VW nor he would ever run multi grade oil in one of these engines.

Food for thought.