What oil psi and water temp do you see?

GTJAMMER

GTJAMMER

Founding Member
Sep 21, 2000
164
0
0
Kansas
#1
Howdy,
Just bought a 90 LX, worried about the oil pres. and water temp. Just put in new AutoMeter gauges and I'm seeing about 24 psi cold, and 15 psi hot on the oil, and 180 cruisin', and pushin 200 degrees sittin' in traffic. The engine is not stock, but I'm still trying to figure out what all has been done. Could it be a bad oil pump, or just a loose engine, would a cooler thermostat fix the temp??

GTJAMMER
 
#4
GTJAMMER said:
Howdy,
Just bought a 90 LX, worried about the oil pres. and water temp. Just put in new AutoMeter gauges and I'm seeing about 24 psi cold, and 15 psi hot on the oil, and 180 cruisin', and pushin 200 degrees sittin' in traffic. The engine is not stock, but I'm still trying to figure out what all has been done. Could it be a bad oil pump, or just a loose engine, would a cooler thermostat fix the temp??

GTJAMMER
Click to expand...

24 psi cold is pretty low. i see about 60 cold, and 22 HOT at idle, 40 driving when warm to give you a comparison. what weight oil/filter are you using?

lately ive been seeing 195 consistant temps in the heat sitting and then hangs there driving.
 
#6
The temp doesn't sound bad, but I'd be careful - if it had the stock 192F/195F t'stat in it, around 200F in traffic is where it should be. However, the fact that it's hitting 180F cruising tells us it has a 180F t'stat in it. So it's bumping up 20F degrees past the t'stat in traffic. Probably a bad or weak fan clutch. Keep an eye on it - the fan ought to move enough air to keep a car with a 180 t'stat no higher than 180F-185F even in traffic. And NO - putting a lower temp t'stat in it will not solve the problem. A lower temp t'stat will NEVER solve an overheating problem - it will only buy you a bit of time before the overheating occurs. If the radiator can't reject enough heat, or if the fan can't move enough air -- lowering the t'stat temperature doesn't solve either of those problems. In fact, a lower t'stat makes the radiator even LESS efficient, because it reduces the temperature differential between the air passing over it and coolant temp in the radiator. Leave the 180F t'stat in there - focus on whether the radiator and fan are doing the job they should be doing.

I suspect the oil pressure is because the engine is tired - clearances on the bearings have opened up with wear. If that's what it is (measure to know for sure - which of course requires disassembly), installing a high volume pump might increase the pressure and buy you some time. But ultimately, it sounds like it's time for rebuild. Hopefully you saw that coming when you bought it.

A good rule of thumb is 10 psi for each 1000 rpm on the tach. So 15 psi hot AT IDLE could be tolerable ---- but only as long as the pressure is jumping way up when you rev it. Sounds like that is not happening. And it ought to peg the stock pump relief valve at 60 psi when it's cold.

Mine bottom end has 70K miles on it - 16K on the oil pump. Mine sits at 60-65psig cold; hot idle is around 35-40 psig. You can see that you've got some issues that are probably only going to get worse, or do some bigger damage if you don't solve them first. Good luck with it.

You do get extra credit for putting real gauges in the car right up front - good for you! If you really want to see something entertaining get an oil temperature gauge in there - you'd likely be shocked at how warm the 5.0L's run. Once I did, I immediately added a Ford Racing oil cooler to mine. Dropped oil temps from 260-270F down into the 210-230F range. BIG improvement that also makes the radiator work less hard -- provided you mount the cooler out of the airstream of the radiator.
 
#7
I just put in Auto Meter Phantom Water Temp and water temp is always around 180, highest it gets is about 190ish, Oil press is at 50 on cold start up and dips to about 25psi or maybe a tad bit lower but between 20-25. Dont trust your stock guages there way off, my oil press in my stocker was next to nothing had me scared, water temp was about 30 degrees off too!!!
 
#9
Michael Yount said:
How can the stock gauge be 30 degrees off if it's unmarked?
Click to expand...
Michael, I think you are thinking of later model mustangs with a "L" and "H" - foxes have numbers and graduations (which I care not to interpolate, but theoretically can). :D
 
#13
Michael Yount said:
Well just smack me and tell me to shut up. :)
Click to expand...
Never! I can't keep the cars' gauges straight for the vehicles I have sitting in the garage (I seriously had to contemplate if I had numbers on the 88GT's gauges or not. I knew the 94GT only had letters [and those gauges are arguably more useless than the fox gauges!]).

Wow, the Zook is going bye-bye. I imagine you might replace it with something more comfortable (if that was a reason for selling. Or perhaps a hybrid project car instead)?
I am much your junior, but have grown to not enjoy the crotchrockets/sportbikes as much myself (bad ergos).

I think *cough* *hack* a cruiser might be in the cards. I can see myself relaxing again (first bike was a UJM which I converted to a cruiser).

I can say that the future owner of the Zook should be in for a treat - I know that bike was very well taken care of!
 
#15
Stang8URMPRT said:
WTF is a Zook?
Click to expand...
Did you see Back to the Future? Yount took that premise (with the Delorean) and pulled it off with a motorcycle (and it is more environmentally friendly to boot!). He is selling the rights to the project and going to live on an island.
 
#18
Michael Yount said:
...If you really want to see something entertaining get an oil temperature gauge in there - you'd likely be shocked at how warm the 5.0L's run. Once I did, I immediately added a Ford Racing oil cooler to mine. Dropped oil temps from 260-270F down into the 210-230F range.
Click to expand...
I also have a oil temp gauge, I run 190-200 cusin and don't let it get past 250 playin, which only takes about 3 WOT to forth gear runs. I will be installing a HV pump(for pressure) and a 7qt pan this may reduce temp a bit, for more play time.

For the thead here are my vitals

60-65psi cold
51psi hot cusin
25psi Hot idle

180F all the time(Cobra ALuminium Rad, 15%glycol, water wetter)
 
#19
A cooler is a much more effective way to reduce temps - the extra capacity will simply mean it takes a bit longer to reach higher temps. Once there - it will also take longer to cool down - so it works both ways. Get a larger quantity of oil hotter and it holds the heat longer.

Also, if your bearing clearances are adequate - all the higher volume pump accomplishes is take more HP to run and put bigger loads on the dist/cam gear/shaft. Contrary to popular myth, the performance reason for going with a 7 qt. pan is to simply use the extra depth to move the 5 qts. away from the crankshaft to reduce windage losses.

Where do you have your oil temp. sensor mounted?
 
#20
Michael Yount said:
A cooler is a much more effective way to reduce temps - the extra capacity will simply mean it takes a bit longer to reach higher temps. Once there - it will also take longer to cool down - so it works both ways. Get a larger quantity of oil hotter and it holds the heat longer.

Also, if your bearing clearances are adequate - all the higher volume pump accomplishes is take more HP to run and put bigger loads on the dist/cam gear/shaft. Contrary to popular myth, the performance reason for going with a 7 qt. pan is to simply use the extra depth to move the 5 qts. away from the crankshaft to reduce windage losses.

Where do you have your oil temp. sensor mounted?
Click to expand...
A cooler is definetly the way to go, however I still want the HV and pan for two reasons I will be shiftting at 6200 with the new cam(XE274HR) and would like to see more pressure. Second, when I pieced this engine together 3 years ago the rods i got where out of a fresh rebuild. I Had them checked for size and out of round, they were good but on the top of size tolurance. That was 15000 hard driven km's ago. Clearance may now be an issue, so buy a little time till i get a new short block, which is in the plans for next year.

My oil temp probe is in the driver side of the sump, approx 1.5" off the bottom.
 
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