Hey Guys

This has been happening for a little while now since I have had the oil pressure unit installed in my EL..... whenever the car is driven hard the oil pressure drops dramatically or so the cluster says.... for example when I drive the car for a few hundred meters with about half or more throttle and pull up again the oil pressure reading drops right down to a reading of 1 or 2 (Worst case which has happened 2 is the orange oil light comes on and beeps) and will stay there until I start to drive off again with normal driving
Currently running some 10W40 in the car and for a motor with well over 200,000km I have bought some 15W40 to try out instead, could oil be the issue itself? Or is there possible something else like a faulty oil pressure sender unit?

Cheers

could be the sender is working correct and you are loosing pressure at idle after a drive, a mechanical gauge will show this, plumb it into the cabin or sit it on the wiper arm secured with a zip tie and a short drive will show any loss in pressure. mechanical gauges are far more accurate than the factory unit. Could be the sender is fouled up and is giving a bad read. did you use stag or similar when installing it? it may be in the unit itself.

I would also suggest 10w- 40 is too light for the motor now, go to a 20w-50 or a 20w-60 or even a 25w.

I would put heavier oil in it myself and put a mechanical gauge on it at the same time.

Thanks for the help dc_todd
I might try that out when I get the chance, already have some 15W40 so ill use that for a few 1000km then swap over to something else thicker.

so what does it mean when the oil pressure is dropping at idle? I understand that pressure will be higher with rpm, but i find i also have this problem. I find however that i dont get the problem until the car is well and truly warm, or getting quite hot, so i assume the oil is getting really thin, hence pressure drop. Am i right? or is there something more complex happening?

It is normal for the pressure to drop, at idle, to 100 - 150 kPa, when the engine is at normal operating temperature. What you said is correct, when the oil heats up, the oil gets thinner in turn reducing oil pressure.

Thanks,

Evan

That's what I also was thinking that perhaps when the engine was warm and the oil was heated that it has thinned out when you give it a bit of a boot down the road.... I highly avoid given the car hard throttle when it's cold and that's when the oil pressure appears to sit mid range on the dial.

If you have a hybrid engined EL, the first lot of bearings Ford used for these engines and the AU1's were s**t and had a particularly short service life.

The crank clearances got quite large too quickly and you would get the issues you are describing at idle.

Tried some Valvoline 15/40W seemed to do a bit better on the engine. Going to also replace the tappets as there are two i think in the middle that like to rattle a bit.