at idle my cars oil pressure is about 10psi..just barley above the red "danger mark"...but when i give it throttle it rises, about in order of the tack. i put 20/50 gastrol gtx in it today, and a ac delco 454 filter and it holds about 15-20psi at idle now.

should i start using 10/40? or what?

thanks for your time,
steve

IS A 160 DEGREE HYPERTECH THRMO. WORTH PUTTING IN?

 

how many miles are on the engine, and have you verified this pressure with a mechanical gauge?

 

my z has 85,500 miles on it as of today!

 

Yeah I was worried too when I found out my oil pressure was low in my 94' Caprice (15psi at idle when warm), so I hooked up a mechanical gauge and that only confirmed that it was low (only when warmed up). Did a search on the net and found out that most that have an LT1 have low oil pressure. Went to the library and found out the oil pressure spec is 18psi @ 2000 rpm. This made me feel a LOT better. I got the car at 89,000mi, it now has 114,000mi and runs like a champ with the same amount of oil pressure it had the day I bought it with plenty of WOT's, I mean like I beat the hell out of this engine. 5w-30 winter, 10w-30 summer. The LT1 oil passages are just designed differently than a Gen I motor. And for a stock configuration, this pressure rating is perfectly acceptable. But now my 383 is going to have 70psi anyway.

 

that spec is good to follow. generally, you want about 10psi per 1,000 rpm. if its way off the mark because of bearings, it will be off all the way across the board.