vn oil pressure?

[giles.racing]

hi

i have a series 2 vn commodore and i was wondering what oil pressure i should be getting?
the engine has only done 180xxx kms and the oil pressure is at 35-40 when cold then drops as i drive?
in the past few days it has dropped to a low of 18psi?

any ideas whats going on and how i can fix it before my engine seizes or something? please help.

 

[Immortality]

Yeah, that is a bit low, what sort of oil are you using?

The V6's run a fair bit of pressure.

My manual says that you should see,

Max oil pressure 60 psi
minimum oil pressure (@ 1850 rpm) 54 psi (at operating temp)

Idle will be a bit lower, I think I used to see about 30-40 psi on a series 1 VN (which has less oil pressure).

If there is a large drop between cold and hot oil pressure it would indicate that there is wear somewhere, most likely in the bearings.

To increase oil pressure you can fit a ecotec oil pressure relief spring. With one in my VN I was seeing about 50 psi hot idle with a 15W-40 oil.

 

[Immortality]

Another thing to check is that the oil pressure relief is moving freely. To do that you will need to remove the oil filter and the filter extension housing (4 bolts) as the relief spring/plunger is behind the filter extension housing.