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Subject:Re: Oil pressure in 1.9
From:John Bange
Date:Tue, 13 Sep 2005 10:29:41 -0700

> I have an 85 Westy that I overhauled recently. I am wondering what is a 
> decent oil pressure. When I start out cold it is 70-80 psi, but on the
> highway at 3800 RPM's it often falls to 25 or 30 PSI. Is this something
> that I should worry about?? It kinda has me freaked out, given the fact 
> that I overhauled it myself.
> 

What grade of oil are you using? What sort of overhaul did you do? That 
sounds a little low for a fresh rebuild, but not at all bad for just a 
top-end job. Cold oil will always give you higher initial pressure readings. 
At operating temperature, 25-30psi is pretty solidly in the "green" range. 
My old engine, shortly before its non-oil pressure related demise, could 
barely manage 18-20psi at 4000rpm with 20w50 at temperature, and I'd say it 
was doing OK-- maybe inching into "yellow". The oil monitoring system on the 
2.1's sensor for the over 2000rpm range doesn't activate unless pressure is 
under .9bar(13psi), so if you're showing at least 20psi, you're well within 
the range of "safe", at least.