I noticed that the oil pressure gage reading drops to 20 to 25 PSI after I have driven my 66 E-Type for a short period. I rev up the engine and the gage does not move much or any.
At cold start up the gage works prefect. It goes up to max and within 20 to 30 seconds it drops to 40 or 45 PSI. After driving the car for 5 minutes or so and the engine has warmed to about 75F thats when the gage drops to 20 to 25.
Oil level is perfect and engine temp does not go up beyond 75 to 80 F ( no overheating) or unusual engine noise. The issue was repeated a second time with the same results. Does this sound like a Sender issue?
Thanks for your input.
Senders do fail and provide incorrect readings – but I doubt a sender would work well at start-up and then fade as the engine warmed.
Engine wear seems a more likely culprit here. Do you know its history (e.g. how many miles since the last rebuild or if no rebuild, how many miles on the engine)?
The definitive answer would be to check the readings with a mechanical gauge.
You CAN put a mechanical gauge that looks exactly like the electrical unit and wont ever have to question its accuracy. Peace of mind is worth the price.
Oil pressure in an XK engine at temperature should be more than 10psi per 1000 RPM. So yours is OK.
You don’t mention whether the gauge pressure reading has changed from previously.
The electronic gauge sender in the E Type is an unusual beast and accurate replacement senders are not easy to find.
For piece of mind you could install a mechanical gauge in the engine bay. These tend to be more accurate and as long as it reads OK you can ignore your dash gauge.
You can install a mechanical gauge in the dash, but the problem with this that the panel folds down 90 degrees and getting the hose rigged correctly so it doesn’t kink or fall off is annoying.
Has any forum member fitted a mechanical gauge in the engine bay in addition to keeping the standard fitment?
We’ve done a couple. You can either T off from the original sender location or remove an oil gallery plug and work from there.
OP gauges? Ha!
In about a 1 1/2 year period I bought 13 of them. They all failed, and I hate gauges not working. Yes, I’m anal about some things. I finally found a NOS from a young lady whos father died and she was cleaning out his stuff.
I’ve got 4 or 5 years on it now, and, (you ain’t gonna believe this, but) it’s still accurate.
LLoyd
It’s not what you look at that matters. It’s what you see.
Henry David Thoreau
Ooops deleted my own response.
I plan to check the pressure with a mechanical gauge and have it mounted to the engine.
Thanks for the input. Will keep you posted of cause and solution.
I’ll be interested to see some photographs of the gauge set up in the engine bay.
This is probably similar to what most folks have done for a gauge in the engine bay:
I got the gauge at a local auto parts place, and then built a “T” out of components from McMaster-Carr to allow both gauges to co-exist, but there is a much cleaner T piece available not from Merlin Motorsport (or something like that) in the UK. Just search the archives for Merlin and you’ll probably find it.
This one?
Craig
