Looking for a quick answer about oil pressure.

[clausoe]

Sorry if this is in the wrong place, but it's kind of an emergency. I am at school now and when I parked the oil pressure guage was on zero. I grounded the wire and it went to max, so either I have no pressure or it is the sending unit. Is there a quick way to check if I have oil pressure or do I have to walk home? I was planning on driving home in a couple of hours so mabe someone has some quick advice.

[Charger_Fan]

I guess for a quick roadside test, you could start the engine & unscrew the sending unit a couple turns, to see if oil streams past the threads.
If you really have zero oil pressure, you should be able to hear lifters clattering & possibly lower end bearings when you rev it a little from idle. If it sounds nice & quiet, chances are that it's ok & the sender has just gone kaput.

[firefighter3931]

I guess for a quick roadside test, you could start the engine & unscrew the sending unit a couple turns, to see if oil streams past the threads.
If you really have zero oil pressure, you should be able to hear lifters clattering & possibly lower end bearings when you rev it a little from idle. If it sounds nice & quiet, chances are that it's ok & the sender has just gone kaput.

Yep, that's a quick and easy way to make sure the top end of the motor is getting oil. Like CF said if there is no oil pressure present then the engine will get real noisy. 


Ron

[myk]

That happened to me a little while ago.  As soon as I heard the clattering I knew that something was wrong.  How much damage is done in a situation like that, considering that I shut the engine off very quickly?

[Chryco Psycho]

generally very l;ittle if any damage , the lifters are at the top of the oiling system & as soon as they make noise the main brgs will still have oil in them

[clausoe]

Thanks guys. I noticed this at the end of the drive to school, there was no bad sounds so I took a chance and drove it home and everything seems fine. The oil pump is relatively new but it's not fun to notice that the most important guage is shouting trouble.