Oil Pressure
 

89 5.0L -- when driving it is in the middle, but i notice after its hot it goes down to the L of normal. I do have an oil leak... might be a rear main. I don't think the dropping is normal.. even though its still on the word "NORMAL"

Switch to a mechanical guage. I never trusted those factory guages. My autometer guages are far better then the factory ones the car came with. They also make me feel a little better when I need to know what is going on with the engine. This is just my opinion :biggrin:

That's fine, what grade of oil you using? I personally don't like mechanical oil guages, yes more accurate, I just don't want a hot oil feed line running in to my interior, just in case.

Stock gauges always low. I had a 2.3 Stang and it would read almost 0 on the factor gauge. I put an after market gauge on it and it read 45 psi at idle.

It has 5w30 in it now... i am changing out ot 10W30... most likely MaxLife

5w30 is too thin, what's your kms? I run 10w40 in my 5.0, you could even safely run 20w50 if your pressure is really bothering you.

5w30/10w30 are the stock weights for the 302HO. You should be just fine running 10w30, if you need to run molasses (20w50) to get your oil pressure "normal", your bearings are fubar.

First off, don't trust the stock gauge, they are inherently innacurate, get a nice Autometer mechanical, plumb it with copper tubing (not the plastic crap that comes with the gauge) and you are good to go, and then you will have an ACCURATE baseline from which to draw a conclusion. Until then, by using the stock gauge, you are doing nothing more than guessing.

never heard of anybody having a problem with the nylon tubing supplied with the mechanical gauge.

i was told by the autometer rep not to use the nylon pipe, i used the copper tubing for one year, switched to the braided line, the gauge is now very accurate (fluctuates pressure even at idle) compared to the copper line that showed pressure, but was slow to respond.

Well now you have; my nylon line split behind the gauge and filled my heater box (and subsequently, my carpet) with over a litre of oil.