I installed an autometer oil pressure gauge and immediately jumped on the road to go out of state for work.

Only problem is the gauge reads 31 psi while I'm driving/cruising. It reads 10 at idle.

I was cruising at 60mph= 28psi, cruising at 80mph= 31 psi.

I tapped into the head just to the right of the thermostat housing. I removed the bolt using an allen key as described in another thread and this is the result.

Why is the pressure so low?

 

Mine reads 10-20 psi at idle when FULLY warm (oil temp 180+ deg), 80-90 psi at WOT.

0 psi at idle is not good. Are you sure it's 0?

 

Opps, sorry! It goes up to 20 psi when I start the car and settles back down to 10. I didn't mean to say 0 I thought I typed 10.

 

you probably have the wrong oil supply hole...

 

The pressure is so low because of where you have tapped the sender at. If you had tapped into the oil filter housing it would have read higher.

With that in mind, you should still be reading higher than 0psi at idle...

 

In response to your "oops", I think you're fine....

 

I'm using a mechanical gauge so no sender. I used the hose that came with the gauge.

 

there you go. you got normal readings then..

 

What about 31 psi while driving? Isn't that a little low?

 

+1

I have it in the same spot as you. The pressure should never hit zero and while cruising I'm at 25 psi and with a load on the car it reads about 37 psi.

It's not a bad spot for the gauge if you want higher pressure move it to where the filter is.

The guage actually came in handy last week. All the gauges read normal except my EGT (DLI2 took a crap on me and fouled a coil) car was running real rich EGT didn't get above 400 degrees. But all other oil guages and water temp read normal.

 

Insert "Pressure Source" instead of sender.... it's basically the point at which you tapped for oil pressure.

 

Nope, you're good to go....

 

You will be fine give it a week or two and every time you drive your car it will be in the same spot.

 

I started the car today and it immediately went up to 41 psi at idle.

 

That's because the car was cold and the oil is thicker, making the pressure higher. As it warm up the idle pressure will drop....