I would be nervous, especilly only getting 20 PSI idle with the engine
cold. I suggest the following:

1) Get another gausge just to make sure yours is working properly.
2) Inspect the oil pressure relief valve and spring. Only time I've seen
them cause a problem is after tampering, but hey, you never know!
3) Don't waste you money on oil thickeners.
4) Is the engine full of crud and other nasties inside? Were the heads
recently pulled? What was in the rocker area? The "Black Death" can
clogg the oil pump inlet screen. Unfortuantely in the Water Boxer this
mean tear down.
5) If none of this helps, next decision is which repalcement route do
you choose? All rebuilders except for VW will reqiure a rebuildable
core. If you wait for it to throw a rod, you will get to pay that also.
If you are considering another engine or an upgrade to a used 2.1L,then
I guess you can wait.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
Of Craig Oda's Personal email
Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2002 4:35 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: 20 psi oil pressure on freeway. Worry?

I recently installed a wet oil pressure gauge to find out why my oil
pressure light keeps flashing.

When I first start the engine, 20 psi at idle and 30-50 on the freeway.

After 3 miles of driving, 5 psi or less at idle and 20 psi on the
freeway.

I guess about 40-60 psi on the freeway going about 60mph is nice, but
it's consistently at 20psi.  Driving home on residential streets at
30mph, I get about 15psi reading.

I'm running 20w50 oil with viscosity thickener.

Should I still drive the van around with the family, or is this oil
pressure so low that I should be taking apart the engine?  I cleaned the
oil relief valve/plunger.  Should I stretch that spring out more?

1983.5 Westy with a rebuild about 70K miles ago.

-- Craig

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