IntegD

According to my autometer oil pressure gauge..when the car really heats up...I seem to get 0 oil pressure at idle. Is it possible that the gauge is faulty? The only thing different to my oiling system is that I have a b16 oil pump(on a gsr motor). Does it not deliver as much pressure as the C1 pump? Upon driving, the car builds oil pressure fine, but just on a warm idle it seems to go to 0. The oil level is on the second dot, and I just rebuilt the motor 1100 miles ago. I dont know how worried I should be, as I hope to make 400whp. I dont want it to blow as soon as I boost the thing.

Bottoz

Could be normal, mine reads about 12 - 14 psi idle. The warmer it gets and longer it idles, the lower the number with 12 being the lowest. Driving pressure is fine...anywhere from 45-70 depending on load and RPM. BTW mine is an Autometer Lunar series.

Bottoz

turboex

pull you oil plug of the black of your head, ls/vtec one and see and comes out. that will tell ya. but anyways i have seen tons of car with good old atuometer oil gauges read zero at idle, i just think there shitty gauges. I tested mine with a new mechanics gauge and an autometer and the autometer said zero and the other read 18psi. Kinda like the old air/fuel gauge. its only really good when you get on the gas

IntegD

So the gauge is a good possibility? I have a friends autometer I could test with...but I am just curious if the pump is keeping up? There shouldn't be that much difference between the b16 and b18 right?

98civicEX

yup, there should be minimal differecne betewen the two.

earl

How's the bottom of your pan look? If it's pushed in, it can close up your oil pick-up and cause low oil pressure.

IntegD

Its never really been dropped or dented as far as I know..I can check and compare to another, but I think its in good shape. If I really do have 0 pressure at idle, how dangerous is this to the motor considering oil is like the lifeblood of a motor? Last thing I want to do is spin a bearing or something because lack of oil pressure...

Bottoz

Ok, if its on the second dot or line, then that should be 12. The first line on mine is a semi-solid line meaning 10, then the second line wold be 12.

Bottoz

earl

If you have zero at idle, something is wrong. If all is ok, you should have about 25 lbs. Could be a bad guage but you have to know for sure. A real zero at idle will hurt your motor big time.

IntegD

Ok..lets say I check the gauge(which I will do ASAP) and it turns out to be a good gauge, which means 0 pressure at idle. What the hell will cause this other than the pump? The only other difference on my motor is that the place on my block where my oil sending unit screws in broke off. I just screwed in a tap and welded around it and put my T for the gauge on that. It really shouldn't affect it. I have about 1200 miles on the motor...getting nervous now. Thanks for the responses thus far.

BorderM3

If the gauge is good, then it could be bottom end problems....bad rod or main bearings

IntegD

Phewwwwww....turned out to be the gauge. Thanks for the help anyway.

synergy004

my bro and i have gone through this.

D16Z6 motor GREDDY turboed. RAn fine till it got really hot. Oil pressure dropped but when driving read fine. We just thought since the oil is at normal operating temp it would thin the oil out or the guage was messed up. We changed the guage and it read the same. This was read on a autometer guage.

now a SOHC ZC motor new turbo set up same car. Still does the same thing. Engine runs perfectly fine.

My old B18A1 i first built. Did the same thing but this time when i revved it no oil pressure. I changed one thing at a time for future info:

1. changed the guage from electrical to mechanical. Still read 0 pressure.
2. changed the head gasket since it looked like it was leaking and dropped the oil pan and cleaned the oil pickup. Still read 0 pressure
3. Checked all lines to see if it was clogged and retapped the feed line. 0 oil pressure.
4. LAst call, took the head back off Changed the OIL CONTROL JET between the head and block. OIL PRESSURE GOOOOOOOD

Now my new motor i have with 427 miles on it. Reads really low sometimes 0 oil pressure at idle or from 0 to 25psi. This is on a Mechanical guage which reads more acurate just for back up i also put in the autometer guage, the sunoco reads much better than the autometer. Bought at a local ORIELLY's Auto store. Can be purchased from AUTOZONE. Sunoco mechanical oil pressure guage. The car runs perfectly fine. Just noticed when the car gets hot oil pressure drops lower, at tstart up reads at 60 psi.

hope some of this can be of some help.

laters