fox rvr

I have a question regarding my oil PSI in my car. It is an 02 with 18K miles. The car typically operates under cruising conditions at 40 PSi, however, when I am at a light and the car is at operating temp, the oil PSI drops as low as 22 PSI. I am not used to seeing any car with oil psi that low. I wonder if the car was designed this way because it is a high revving V-8 and they want to increase the main bearing tolerances in order to feed the engine more oil under high revs? Normally, new cars have anywhere from 40-60 when there are new and mine does not even reach 50 unless it is really cold when I first start it, or I am standing on the accelerator? I am the second owner, so I wonder if the previous owner just pounded the hell out of it and compromised the integrity of the main bearings.

Also, even though I am the second owner the car should be under warranty up to 36k mi., correct? If the car should normally have more oil psi than this, is it possible I may have a faulty eng. Is this a candidate for a new eng from GM?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Evil-Twin

Your oil pressure is typical... the top end of your LS1 will run with as little as 6 to 8 lbs of pressure.. many people will tell you they have 30 psi all the time.. as their low oil pressure level... just like people will tell you they put in a 178 thermostat and their coolant temp never gets over 180.... there are many opinions here... many wanna be's and many cyber master mechanics...the forum is fun and very informative... but your have to choose who to believe... welcome to the forum... BTW I am a retired Sr. GM Engineer... the C5 was my last project... I hope this will ease your mind..

runamuk

Welcome to the forum :seeya , I don't have my service manual in front of me but if I remember correctly 22 psi at idle is more than adequate, I believe the low limit of pressure is somewhere around 10 psi

fox rvr

Thank you for the informative response. I really appreciate your feedback. I was just a little nervous becuase when I compared it to other cars I noted dramatically lower levels of PSI. About the coolant temp, does the LS1 have the same reverse flow head design as the LT1 and northstar engines. It is normal to get reading of 220 degrees, correct?

carpe dm

Welcome to the Forum and the crazy world of C5s. Your pressures are typical for this engine; good to keep an eye on the gauges though. Have a great holiday season. :) :thumbs:

LS1JAY

22#'s is fairly normal for a A4 with the stock thermostat. My '98 would drop to 20-25#'s in traffic. My '99 sits around 40#'s and has never dropped below 37#'s even in traffic but that is with a 160* thermostat, Before that it would drop to about 30#'s in traffic. My temps stay around 178* cruising but will go up in traffic to over 190*. Fans are set via LS1 edit. I also run Amsoil 10W-30 which is much thicker than Mobil1.

EWill3rd

Here are the factory specs.

Oil Pressure - Minimum-Hot
Metric units:
41 kPa at 1,000 engine RPM

124 kPa at 2,000 engine RPM

165 kPa at 4,000 engine RPM

English Units:
6 psig at 1,000 engine RPM

18 psig at 2,000 engine RPM

24 psig at 4,000 engine RPM


Looks like you are okay.
It's all up to the spring behind the oil pressure regulator valve, the pump, and the bearing clearances from there.


EWill