Oil pressure should not be over 5 when idling warm/hot. It's possible the wires are reversed - my 944S had that problem when I bought it, and oil pressure was low at the top end, leading to under-inflation of the cam chain tensioner. Luckily I caught it before it failed.

Oh, thank you for that! Going through the service history, it's had the oil sending unit replaced fairly recently and there is a mysterious, faint sliding metal sound and the cam chain tensioner could be the source if this is the same thing. When you say the wires are reversed, which ones are you talking about? The ones connected directly to the oil sending unit or somewhere else? This is definitely something I want to check out before I drive anywhere.

I knew there was a reason I've resisted taking any long trips in it just yet.

I would test fit a mechanical gauge to be sure your oil pressure is up to specs.

I bought a '68 and replaced the chain, pads, oil housing seal and the front engine service with oem parts for less than a grand including the tools. the car would imploded in another 1000 miles.

Fortunately, this car has had all of that front end service done less than 1,000 miles ago. I've had the cover off and checked all of the physical pieces. They all looked as good as they should, considering most of them were practicay new.

I don't have any experience testing with a mechanical gauge. I might need some instructions. I'm definently checking the wires first and should know fairly quickly if that fixes the problem. Thank you very much for your help!

Was just looking up the instructions for replcing the oil pressure sending unit and there seems to be lot more involved than I thought. Is it possiblle to reach it just to reverse the wires without having to lift the car and dissconnect / remove the power steering pump (way its been acting, I should probably swap that while I'm in there but I don't have the extra $$$ to spring for new one right now)? I saw a forum post somewhere that claimed you just needed to cut the front wheels all the way to the right on a 944 N/A and you should have access but I'm not sure if that's going to be the same situation here.

You can get at the oil sender unit by removing the passenger side front wheel and you may need to remove the fender liner. No need to remove the sender to reverse the wires just carefully peel back the rubber caps and unbolt the wires from the poles.

Good luck

Mark

Thank you for the advice, Mark! Its been raining the past couple of days but I was just getting ready to jack the car and pull the passengers tire to see if that would work so someone else suggesting it gives me more confidence.

Removing the right front wheel actually gives me more room than I would have thought. Getting to the sender unit is much easier than expected - I'd even be comfortable trying to replace the unit this way if needed.

Swapped the wires and the oil pressure gauge shot straight to the top when I started the engine. I also found a diagram elsewhere that had a bit more info on which wire goes where (solid blue wire connects to the post marked WK, the blue/white connects to the G post). As it turns out, the wires were in the right order but swapping them and then swapping them back seems to hve fied the problem. Did a test drive and the pressure gauge settled down. Idling when I got back to the shop, the pressure leveled out at between 3 & 4 with no red light so I'm chalking this one up as a win. I did notice some oil that had gotten around from the front part of the engine - could the malfunctioning sender unit have caused it in some way? It hasn't leaked before.

I also noticecd one of the wires that was supposed to be part of the connector into the power steering pump. I repaired it but didn't notice any change during the test drive.

Thank you to everyone for your help!

Go check out 944online.com for info about the power steering wire. This can cause serious wiring harness damage under certain conditions.