12secondv6

This weekend I drove about 200-250 miles completely problem free.

Last night I hit the brakes hard and noticed the oil psi guage drop very suddenly down to about 5 psi and the "check guages" light came on. I let off the brake and tapped the gas and the guage went back up to just under 40 psi.

This has never occured before. Car ran completely fine.

I drove a bit more, hit the brakes to test it again and oil psi guae dropped again. This time I hit the gas pedal before it had a chance to go so low. At idle oil psi sits at around 40 psi.

I drove to work and home problem free. While the engine was cold I was seeing about 45 psi - once warm just a bit under 40.

When I give it gas it goes up to 50-55 psi

I went out to test it again and same thing, hard braking and the psi drops.

Hard acceleration - psi does not drop.
Hard left turn - psi does not drop.
Hard right turn - psi does not drop.
Hard braking - psi drops????



I have a 96 Trans Am A4 w/ 113XXX miles
Basic mods - full exhaust, intake, a tune, ignition, mildly ported heads, 1.6 roller rockers, etc.

It's my daily driver. I don't beat the hell out of the car - just a nice daily driver to cruise in. It rarely sees over 4,000 rpm's. It has seen the track maybe 3-4 times for maybe a max of 12 runs?? I've had it for 1.5 years and oil psi has always been fine.

The original owner always ran royal purple oil - I have continued that.



Any idea what is going on? I find it really odd that oil psi would suddenly drop to 5 psi under hard braking?!?!!

Thank you for any help!

ryan00z28camaro

iTrader: (7)

doesnt sound like much to woory about mines done it before but makes no noises or anything

Formula350

iTrader: (3)

Sounds like you're low on oil, from not even reading your post lol

And I stick by that after reading it now.

12secondv6

I should have added this... I did check the oil level and it was fine.

Oil level sensor??

Formula350

iTrader: (3)

Oil level sensor doesn't give your oil pressure. The pressure sensor is (on yours) behind the intake.

Stock oil pan? What's the psi during warm idle in gear? What rpm is your idle set at?

12secondv6

Oh.

Stock oil pan.

PSI in gear when warm is about 39-40 psi

RPM idle..... hmmm, good question - brb

12secondv6

Idles around 800 rpm's... but that is just looking at the crappy stock tach

jays97z28conv

i had that problem after i changed my oil pan gasket
my oil pickup was not pointing straight down

RedLT4Mike

iTrader: (4)

your oil pickup fell off..

It happens a lot. Most guys get em welded on when they do a build.

It happened to my last engine.

yogibear19

iTrader: (2)

I just had the same problem on my 93 LT1. The oil pump pickup fell off.

LS1 SPEED

iTrader: (22)

yep..most likely the issue.

join the club as that's where I sit with my LT1 now and a friends car did this a couple years back

NEVER LIFT and you will be fine

Jditlfm

iTrader: (26)

another vote for the oil tube pickup falling off.

Formula350

iTrader: (3)

Quite a high PSI for warm idle, in my opinion. Leads me to believe an HV pump installed, and if so I'd +1 for the pickup falling off due to improper installation!

We make it a habit of tack welding the pickup on as well.

fergymoto

iTrader: (129)

Like the other guys said it sounds like the pickup fell off. That has happened to me as well, with the first LT1 I had in my truck.

12secondv6

Thanks guys!

So, how quickly must this be taken care of?

I understand that having a pick up tube sitting in the bottom of the pan isn't good.... is this something that needs to be done immediately.... like tomorrow? Or can it wait a bit?

Only reason I am asking is I just had surgery 3 weeks ago and I'm not allowed to do anything for the next 6 weeks.

Formula350

iTrader: (3)

Drive easier than normal and things should be OK, but be careful.

If you have a strong enough magnet you could drag it across the bottom of the pan (put a rag between to eliminate excess noise) and see if you hear the pickup being moved

fergymoto

iTrader: (129)

^You will not hear it moving when it is laying in 4-5qts of oil.

Just stay out of the throttle, try to avoid making the pressure fall. Extended use of your car like this will trash the bearings and the engine will need rebuilt. Get it taken care of ASAP

Formula350

iTrader: (3)

You never know. Well, unless you've tried, then I suppose you would know!

slingshot928

If you buy a canton pan, the pickup bolts into the oil pump housing. I have a mellings select pump with the canton pan/pickup. One word of advice, buy a one piece felpro pan gasket, much easier to use and less chance of leaks. Mine was doing that when i first bought it, drove it around somewhat easy for the rest of the summer and fixed it in the winter. My bro almost **** himself the first time it happened....

Formula350

iTrader: (3)

You talking about the extended reach pickups for the high capacity pans? On that note, he could even do that to what he has, if he ever planned to get a HC pan later on, and then wouldn't have to get a new pump if he didn't want to. Which, since he has to take the pan off, he might as well get a new high volume, high pressure pump Just weld on a bracket/tab to the current pickup and then use the same bolt on spot for it (oil pump bolt).

If you (OP) do plan to get a high volume, keep in mind that they apparently can suck out pans dry.