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At least it's clean and won't be easily seen. If your roads are as crummy and dirty as ours, it will be coated with crap and no longer shiny in short order.

My thoughts exactly, Howard. Plus my five year old thinks it's "pretty", ha!

Couple of quick questions. Did I lose an o-ring that's supposed to go in the oil pickup tube, where the pick up itself slides in?

Also, do you guys use anything on the pan gasket to hold it in place during installation? RTV? Copper spray gasket maker? Grease? Vasolene?

I don't believe there is any O ring -- just the floating part that slides into the bracket and tube. As I recall it is a close fit but free to easily move. There is a cotter key or pin that holds the two pieces together. There have been some reports that the part the cotter pin rides against to keep the assy from coming apart has been found worn so check and verify things will not pull apart when the cotter pin is in place. I don't remember the exact details of the assy.

Before you install the pan and gasket, make sure the bolt holes have not deformed so they are at a height different from the spaces between. Use a straightedge down the length of the pan and tap any holes that are high back down. Those deformed holes are a constant source of leaks because they prevent the gasket from sealing in the low spots.

Owen_Dyneto mentioned a good method he uses on the valve cover gaskets and I think that might be good on the pan as well. His method is to use gasket cement or some such on the cover (or in this case, pan) side to hold the gasket but coat the engine side of gasket with light grease. That way the cover or pan can be easily removed if needed and gasket will probably be reusable.

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This is a bit shadetree, but I was working on an '88 BMW that someone had left the fuel pump out and the tank open to the elements for a year, there was literally an inch of varnish in the bottom of the tank, and no commonly available replacement. The radiator shop wanted $400 to boil the tank.

After removing the tank, I bought a gallon of B12 Chemtool from the auto parts store, and a toilet brush. I told my wife (it was her car) that everytime she left for work and came home, just take the brush, stick it in the fuel pump hole, and in the filler tank hole, and scrub it for a minute as well as she could.

Everytime I went to work, I did the same, and also lifted the tank side to side to slosh the cleaner back and forth (it was a baffled tank)

After a week of this, I poured it off into an oil catch, and looked inside the tank to see my reflection in the bottom of it.

I don't remember precisely how I did the lines to the engine, but I seem to remember pouring some of the cleaner in the engine side, letting it sit and blowing it through with air (while the tank was off). After putting it back together it ran beautifully for 3 or 4 years until we got rid of it.

Well, I got it all back together and started her up. Knocked like crazy, zero oil pressure. I lowered the pump and squirted some oil in it. With its prime back, oil pressure shot up to ~20 psi. A little rev, up to about 30. Man was I happy. Then I drove it. Within a few miles it's back down to nothin.

I'm depressed.

Ok, now I'm cautiously hopeful. After sitting in the driveway for a few hours I pulled the car in the garage. It still showed no oil pressure. Then about an hour later in found my mechanical gauge and hooked it up. I had a solid 20 psi at idle. No I don't know if the car's gauge is intermittent, or if it is in fact heat related. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to drive it again...

The mechanical gauge is a step in the right direction. It could well be the electrical gauge or sender failing when it gets warm and should be ruled out. The sender works basically the same as the gas sender with the pressure working a diaphragm which changes the response of a bimetal heater and element setup. It could have issues. Since it is the bimetal type, not something cheap or easily substituted with any modern sender so not something you want to change unless absolutely necessary. Like others, I have decided to run a permanent mechanical gauge in the 47 just as a second opinion option and have mounted mine in an out of the way mostly unseen spot in the engine cmpt.

A question might be was the engine running OK before the oil change that seemed to start the trouble? If so was there any problems? Maybe the old oil was 50 weight or some such. Since it does seem to be heat related now am wondering if the new oil is starting thin and then thinning out too much for a worn component that hasn't been found yet. Cam bearings and the pump itself can't totally be ruled out.

If the mechanical gauge proves the pressure is falling, one thing that might be worth a short term try is some snake oil. I remember the old honey like consistency STP we as teenagers used to pour almost by the quart in old engines to keep them going. O_D might have a better take on it but there is probably a modern equivalent for worn engines that would get you buy for a while.

Lend an ear?
Does it make any more noise when the oil pressure goes down?
If yes, probably not pumping and need to shut off ASAP.
If no, probably in the measurement system. I think there's a tap for the oil filter on the block. Could verify/check oil pressure there mechanically.

Now that the family is finally moved and getting settled in, I figured I'd update the thread.

I'm happy to report the car made the move under its own power. I was able to drive the car just a bit before getting it in the garage at the new house. When cool, I get about 30 psi at idle. I find it odd that even during relatively hard acceleration, the most I ever saw was about 32 psi. It seems almost as if the relief valve is set to 30 psi. Should I consider replacing or shimming the spring? For what it's worth, the car has less than 59k miles.

Once warm, oil pressure does drop significantly - about 6-10 psi at idle. This is with a quart of Lucas "Oil Stablizer". I think I'll try two quarts of Lucas in the next oil change. I've had pretty good luck with the stuff in other vehicles.

I definitely want to add a mechanical oil pressure gauge, probably under the dash. And possibly pick up a new sender. Kanter lists p/n 4.0622 for $39, which isn't too bad. I just hate to throw parts at the car. Is there a way to verify that it is, in fact, the sending unit, and not the wiring or the gauge itself?

Am glad the move is over and you didn't have to tow or haul the car. Always a stressful time during moves even when things all go right.

On the oil pump, you could check the relief valve to make sure it is free and see what kind of shims, if any, might be present. At only 60K it seems odd there would be that much wear causing low pressure but if it was actually 160K then surely a possibility. With all the crud you found in the pan it seems like it would have taken more than 60K to accumulate that much sludge.

IMO, the mechanical gauge should be done first before buying another sender -- unless you just want to have a spare sender on hand.

Another test that might be interesting would be to duplicate the resistor values found in the gas sender work done on this thread at PAChttp://www.packardclub.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2302 just to see if the oil gauge works in a similar manner. While different from yours, the 51-6 gauges do all work the same and need the same values. The use of a spare gas sender was how temp and oil gauges were tested on those years. Logically the 48-50 oil, temp and gas would need different values than later gauges but each work the same way -- but I don't know for fact that they do. Being as they were bimetal heater senders the principle of operation is a bit different than the 51-6. The fact the other poster was able to use a standard resistance sender is interesting in itself. I haven't seen any followup posts to the contrary so assume his standard aftermarket sender is still working.

If you want to try the test and have a Radio Shack locally that still sells the 1watt resistors, you might pick up four 10 ohm 1w resistors and connect them individually and in series to get the combinations the other poster used. Toward the middle of that thread, using the other posters final values it would seem around 40 ohms would give a low pressure reading and 10 ohms would give a high pressure.

Actually, I just remembered that I may have some 48 gauges -- temp for sure but not sure if there is an oil -- If you don't want to try on yours, I will pick up some resistors next week and see what happens..