TD 42 oil pressure

Hi all, thanks for the add. I have a 93 Coil cab Patrol with a dealer fitter turbo and owned since new with 135K on the clock and have a bit of a query with the oil pressure. It seems to be running very low on the factory gauge at Idle but quickly sits just under 4 kg/cm2 with a few revs. By low I mean a needle width above zero at operating temp but nearly 3 - 4 cold start up, not really sure how long its been like this as its not driven very much but have had some fluctuating readings from the temp gauge reading low over the years as well. First time I have noticed it that low so thinking its a new problem. Haven't put a remote pressure gauge on it to check yet but just wanted to get some thoughts as I read somewhere they only have like 11psi at idle anyway which is probably below the first mark on the gauge.

Cheers Phil.

The factory gauges can be dodgy mate...usually bad sender unit.
Put a mechanical gauge on it and check that

The minimum hot idle oil pressure is 11.2 (or .4) psi, which is about 0.8 kg/cm2, free rev to 3000rpm at operating temp is a minimum of 43 psi or 3kg/cm3.

Seeing as it doesn't get driven very often give it some basic maintenance. Fresh oil, filters and cut the old filter open for an inspection, fault find the gauge after some basic maitenance as the factory oil pressure gauge isnt as inaccurate as the internet says it is (especially for a 28yr old td that is unlikely to have done a hard days work) If it does end up being the gauge, atleast it has fresh oil.......TD's love fresh oil

Thanks for the advice, yeah mostly short runs too which probably doesn't help. First thing I did was change the oil and filters however made no difference but will source another gauge and check it remotely. Hadn't thought of cutting open the filters either.

Cheers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by katefactor

Thanks for the advice, yeah mostly short runs too which probably doesn't help. First thing I did was change the oil and filters however made no difference but will source another gauge and check it remotely. Hadn't thought of cutting open the filters either.

Cheers

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What oil are you running?
My above post should say 3000rpm too, not 300rpm to clear that shit show up

My VDO gauge shows 70 psi at cold start up reducing to 60 psi at 2300 rpm on highway.
At hot idle close to 30 psi
315 k on clock so only just run in.
To show value of after market gauge,coming home from fishing trip to Rockhampton, noticed oil pressure dropping just a bit now and again in rather hot weather. Got home and had a look and noticed a fair bit of oil under ute and found the rear oil filter was not quite tight enough so must have been sucking a bit of air as well for pressure to vary. Only lost half a litre so all good. Lucky.