1991 F-150 V8 5.0L 302

Truck has 163,000 miles on it.

The oil pressure guage needle reads on the "N" of Normal.... This seems a little low. Is it alright or is that too low?

 

It's not a real guage, it's just a mechanical idiot light.

If you have at least 4-6 psi of pressure, the needle will defelect to somewhere into the normal range.

Steve

 

This is a current topic down in the basement of the forum, come on down...

https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=256714

Adrianspeeder

 

The needle stays in the postion i mentioned earlier no matter how much gas I give it. Is there a way to cleanthe screen. I do have a little knocking when the engine is cold nothing major though.

I think the truck is on its original oil pump which would be 16 years old. Also I noticed the oil filter on it is a little dented up, Like it was put on with channel locks. This have anything to do with it?

Im running 5-30w oil

Thanks guys, plow season is comming up and I need my truck ready to roll!

 

do you plan on keeping the truck for awhile? if so drop the pan and clean the screen,scrub the pan.an oil pump for a 302 isnt that expensive.its some work but better than a snowstorm breakdown.new filter as well.i had a 94 dakota similar problem at 130k cleaned the screen and pan.pressure went right back up

 

Please pat attention: YOU DO NOT HAVE A PRESSURE GUAGE! It is a simple idiot indicator. It doesn't matter what the temperature of the oil is or how much pressure is actually in the system. It will either read no pressure or a "normal" indication.

Do your preventative maintenance and go to work.

 

If you want to make it work for real, ...

 

so I have to lift the motor a little bit to get the pan out....

or is there a trick.

 

im not sure,either that or drop the front end just enough to clear the pan.its a pain but you only have to do it once. but if you get another 50k miles out of her its worth it

 

Just how long has that oil filter been on there?

 

The trick is to lift the engine ~3'. It's a nightmare trying to work over the lip of the pan. Only the I6 pan will come out by just lifting the engine - V8s won't.

 

i had do to a oil pan on my old dakota, thing rusted right thru, huge leak.what a pain in the a$$ took me 6 hours. i had to lift engine and drop front end. i had 2 pump jacks and 5 stands

 

well, I decided that I don't have the time or tools to get the the oil screen Is there another method or fluid I could use to unclog it?

 

I'd confirm that the engines 'actual' oil pressure was really that low first.... If you are relying on the stock gauge, then it could be a bad original OP sensor for one thing....

Should be pretty cheap and easy to replace the sensor first... If you still are getting only "N" pressure, then you might want to rig up a MECHANICAL oil pressure gauge and check that. Actually, that will be the ONLY way to determine what your engines 'real' OP is...

What you are doing now is relying on the info provided from a gauge that is questionable to begin with... I don't know exactly when Ford went with the "Idiot" gauge setups, but it's possible you have one and it's just a bad sensor???

Anyway, that's what I would do before tearing into my engine...

Good luck!

Mitch

 

hes right , the dash gauge is just a estimate on pressure. buy some cheap oil.drain all the old oil out. put 5 quarts oil, 1 quart tranny fluid, drive around for like 100 miles. drain it again. fill it up with quality oil and good filter. tranny fluid is a good detergent it will help clean some if the sludge out. along with that mechanical gauge you should be in bussiness