Pressure is pressure whether transmitted by oil or air. You may have a bad gague. Can you plumb it into an air pressure source and cycle it with a second gague to verify it?

Trapped air can be a good thing: It can help "cusion" oil pump pulsations which will tend to fatigue the inners of the pressure guage.  The air will not change the guage's ability to read oil pressure, as the air is compressed to that same pressure and will "telegraph" the correct oil pressure into the guage.

Regards,   JLB

55 Ford Crown Victoria Steel Top

never thought of that..? trapped air, never seen fitting instuctions mention doing it, well there you go, i'll look into ..



"Came too close to dying to stop living now!"

When I connect a mechanical oil pressure gauge, I always turn the engine over to get the oil flowing through the line before connecting to the gauge. Could you have air trapped thereby giving you a false reading?

54 Victoria 312;  48 Ford Conv 302, 56 Bird 312
Forever Ford
Midland Park, NJ

Congrats Chuck on rolling again, I know that its been a long project. I never had one quit reading, but I have had cheap ones spring a leak.

Glen Henderson



Freedom is not Free

Letohatchee, AL

I have a rather old mechanical oil pressure gauge in my dash. When I started my new engine I ran it off and on for several days while making adjustments (turns out I had a bad carb). Oil pressure on an external mechanical gauge stayed at 60-80 until warmed up then dropped to around 30lbs. Not bad. Today I connected the gauge in the dash and went for a drive. I immediately noticed the oil pressure reading very low 5-0lbs when stopped. Revving the engine in neutral would bring it up a bit but not over 20. Engine is quiet and running well. Thats why I was wondering if those mechanical gauges ever go bad. I'll hook the other gauge up at the dash tomorrow and see what it reads. I figure using the same line as the current dash gauge should tell me if its in the line. Anyway, it starts and runs and shifts and all that stuff. Just have to seal up a couple exhaust flange leaks and sort out the gauges! MoonShadow Lives! Chuck

Y's guys rule!
Looking for McCullouch VS57 brackets and parts. Also looking for 28 Chrysler series 72 parts. And early Hemi parts.

MoonShadow, 292 w/McCulloch, 28 Chrysler Roadster, 354 Hemi)
Manchester, New Hampshire