Oil pressire

[Cockneyreject]

Hi all oil pressure seems to go up and down,but never to red,close but not in red,as dials are unreliable,is there an easy way to check? Oil levels are fine,not owned car long,v6 Essex,
Thankymuchly.

[Mr B]

Hi mate,

First thing I would do if you haven't already is change the oil, Valvoline 20/50 racing is my preferred choice and a Motorcraft oil filter, bought a 3 litre ghia year's ago and the previous owner had been running 5/30 oil in her - bad idea, miles to thin for a V6 Essex

Wayne

[Cockneyreject]

Yup will be doing oil this weekend,I genarally used to use a good 15/40 or a 20/50.amd change regularly,car seems happy may just be gauge but does annoy me.
Thanks for reply tho.

[Mr B]

Just out of curiosity when the engine is cold where does the gauge needle sit and does it change radically when the engine warms up, as a pointer, on my cars the needle sits at 3 quarters or slightly above when cold and just over half way when fully warmed up at idle (standard oil pump)

Wayne

[3 Litre Power]

Valvloline VR1 is great for the 3.0 Essex, modern specs ( API SM and ACEA A3/B4 ) and it has 1300 parts per million of ZDDP which is great to prevent wear in old flat tappet camshaft engines such as the Essex.

The High Temperature High Shear viscosity is 5.0 which is great, this translates to better oil pressure than most mineeral 20W-50 oils.
Do not use ultra cheap brands such as : Halfords, Wilko, Comma Classic...

My 3.0 Essex has over 100k miles and with the VR1 it sits at 1/4 of the way up at hot idle and never goes into the red zone even in the scorching summer heat we have where i live.

[Mr B]

Totally agree with the above, I've been using Valvoline for year's and the Essex engine certainly seems to approve of it

Wayne

[3 Litre Power]

And ofcourse oil pressure fluctuates with :
Engine RPM
Engine oil temperature, oil thins at it gets hotter and pressure drops.