1981 Monte Carlo project

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lilbowtie

Comic Book Super Hero
Jan 7, 2006
3,460
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Canton Mi
Thank you sir. Took it out for a drive last night, my first real road test since ive purchased it. Current problem to address is after everything is hot i have 0 oil pressure reading at idle, but as soon as the RPM goes up at all i get pressure back...


Did you resolve the oil pressure problem?? What do you have @ idle? What does it come up to with some rpm's? How old is this engine?
 

street sweeper

Greasemonkey
Jun 12, 2017
204
264
63
Central Indiana
Did you resolve the oil pressure problem?? What do you have @ idle? What does it come up to with some rpm's? How old is this engine?
So the engine is a fairly fresh build. I’m not exactly sure of the mileage but it’s less than 2 years old and wasn’t driven much.

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So I am getting so pressure. One is warm idle and the other off...
 

street sweeper

Greasemonkey
Jun 12, 2017
204
264
63
Central Indiana
If weather permits, tomorrow I will be patching the floor and adding a reproduction shifter hump /cut out I purchased. Then further cleaning up the floor and painting it. Then installing the carpet I have.

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street sweeper

Greasemonkey
Jun 12, 2017
204
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Central Indiana
At some point the car stopped charging and luckily I noticed before taking the 70 mile round trip to weld the floors up.

But unfortunately it happened right before my work week started so I have no idea what’s the problem since it took all day to charge my battery. Will investigate come Tuesday.
 
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street sweeper

Greasemonkey
Jun 12, 2017
204
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Central Indiana
That's not enough - you need to find the problem, hope its your guage.
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So at warm idle it was making ~24 PSI which better than 0 on my electric gauge.

Also figured out the alternator will keep up with the fan on low but will not with the fan on high. My summit 140 amp should be here this afternoon.
 
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lilbowtie

Comic Book Super Hero
Jan 7, 2006
3,460
3,965
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Canton Mi
Much better - if your previous readings were right you would have had a dead engine. Fan amp draw isn't bad once spinning.
 
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street sweeper

Greasemonkey
Jun 12, 2017
204
264
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Central Indiana
So I let the car sit for a few days since following the alternator swap I was experiencing more problems. It was frustrating to say the least.

Came back to it this morning after discussing the symptoms I saw with a few of my coworkers. My plan was to pull the battery and get it tested to see if it was still considered good by the battery testers at the part store. Well the battery dead flat, like 0.5 v on it. Thought there was no way, tested another battery I had and it read 12.7, so the meter was working and battery was dead. Put it on my charger and after a few minutes it gave me a battery with an X symbol which I assume means it’s no good.

I had wanted to change the battery over to a top post anyways and the spare I had was a top post. So I said screw it and cut the ends off the side post cables and put new top mount clamps on them. I also removed the questionable relay harness I had gotten for my headlights and got the alternator a hair tighter than I had it previously.

With my fan on high and my high beams on the system was sitting at 14.0-14.1 volts. With less load 14.3-14.4v based on my gauge, and meter readings off the battery and the output stud on the alternator. Took it to get gas and saw no drop in voltage, which was the one of the latest symptoms I had experienced, it would be fine at idle, but once it got moving voltage would drop off and either struggle to recover or not at all.

So I’m guessing I had a failing battery and an issue with the relay harness I had installed.

Will monitor battery voltage over the next few days and see if I have a parasitic draw on the system.

Oh and I redid the ground on my oil pressure gauge and it appears to be working correctly.
 

Kratos

Greasemonkey
Nov 7, 2017
205
328
63
Central Pa
so upon doing some research I am hoping that a cheap oil filter is the culprit for my low oil pressure at warm idle. I will be changing the filter Monday. Also got some info from the previous owner and will update the first post with specifics.
Curious to know ... what Oil Filter was on it, and what did you replace it with?
I am having a similar problem in my El Camino, Running pressure is good, idle pressure is reading really low. Thanks In Advance
 

street sweeper

Greasemonkey
Jun 12, 2017
204
264
63
Central Indiana
Curious to know ... what Oil Filter was on it, and what did you replace it with?
I am having a similar problem in my El Camino, Running pressure is good, idle pressure is reading really low. Thanks In Advance
So my issue was my electronic gauge and sender were not properly grounded, but this is the video I watched that gave me the idea.


I ended up going to a wix filter for a 8.1 because it was the comparable part to the AC Delco unit that was on the engine. My clutch linkage and headers prevent me from running larger filters.
 
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