Re: New available motor oil

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2014/8/18 10:06:05

I couldn't agree more with JW. If the sending unit is accurate and the OP light is on at anything more than a warm idle, you potentially have a serious problem and any further driving is bound to do damage. And the only way to know what's going on is to install a quality mechanical gauge - fiddling with different viscosity oils and additives is just folly. Most senders for OP warning lights trigger in the range of 7-10 psi.

Checking the oil pump relief valve (if you haven't done it already) is a good idea - a broken or severely weakened spring might explain everything. Otherwise, drop the pan and start checking bearing clearances.

PS - one other occasionally found reason for low oil pressure on the L8s is a badly worn oil pump cover plate, or too thick a gasket, or both. Simple to remove the cover plate and if it has a wear pattern from the gears then have it surfaced flat and smooth - what the wear pattern allows is for oil to short-circuit between the outlet and inlet and not continue to the oil galleys - ditto for too thick a gasket. Ross has covered this gasket thickness many times on these pages - THINK THIN, like notebook paper. Sorry if you've already been down this road, I haven't followed this thread fully.