yah, it's 600-650 in gear (i think the stock target idle when fully wamred up is 600 actually). In park it should be about 800. If your idle is actually dropping to 400 i would expect the car to act like it's about to die when you put it in drive.

 

So I took my car in to the dealership(was my only option).They brought it in poped the hood took a look at it and walked off for about 30 to 45 min then came back looked at it for about another 15 min then called me in to tell me that the oil pressure was in the normal range. I asked them how long they let it run for and the tech said a few min I told them that it had to be running for a while like 15 min or so to see the pressure drop (told them that in the begining) so the tech looks at her for another 10 min then calls me back in tells me that my air intake elbow was ripped (wich I knew but thought it was sealing) and that it was letting unmetered air in causing the car to run rich causeing fuel to get in my oil and that they needed to change the oil and add a additive to it. Great! So I think I am just payin for them to change the oil and additive. I finnaly get ready to pay (after 3 hrs of beeing there) I get the bill for $110 I am like wooooe wait a min you didnt tell me that I was beeing charged for you to just look at it. They were like "well the techs have to be paid for there time." I am like for stareing at my car for a half an hour and to tell me that my ripped rubber intake is all that was causing this all. I was a little upset just makes me feel stupid for paying someone to tell me something so simple. $75 labor JESUS !!!! oh well I guess I know what I need to do now. they wanted me to buy a stock replacement elbow for $ 149.95 NO THANKS Just thought I would follow up on this

 

I so need to go to school to work on cars thatway I can charge $75 labor to just diagnose problems !!!!!

 

That's absolutely ridiculous. You can talk to the service manager, sometimes if you catch them in the right mood they will mail a partial refund check to your house.

Situations like this made me learn to work on my own car.

 

the thing is I have been screwed by this dealership soo many times !!! BUT dumd a$$ me keeps going back. Its allways something diferent with them so I think well I'm not having them do that so the wont screw me here. I dont think I have left that place happy once. Yeah the guy that came to talk to me when I was asking why they charged me to look at my car was the service manager. Normaly I try to do all my own work except when I cant figure out whats wrong and beein that its winter I cant work out side .

 

It seems like their diagnosis skills need a little(or a lot of) work, but they're right. The tech is taking his or her time to check it out. Typically a shop will charge an hour just to look at a car, and then anything else is on top of that. I agree that it's rediculous, but that's the only way they can make money. Even though they may charge $100 an hour, it takes an incredible amount of money to run a service department. Even if you left your gas cap off and set the SES light you're going to get charged. It sucks. That's why I learned to work on my own cars and went to college for 4 years. I guess I look at it this way. Would a person expect to have spyware taken off of their computer for free(or really cheap) becuase it's easy? I feel your pain though man. I heard that out on the West Coast many shops are charging $125+ an hour for labor! That's crazy, but if you can't do it yourself, what other options do you have?

 

I hear where you are comming from Izzyz28 I guess when I think of labor I think of actuall work on my car. Part removal , part installation things like that. I thought they made all their money from parts and waranties , well yeah labor too . I know I know I just hate to give money away to have someone just look at it and do nothing. Oh well lol Also if they were going to charge me for looking at it I wish they would have told me before hand so I was at least expecting it

 

So, did the shop actually hook up a guage to check the oil pressure after they changed the oil? Sounds like to me, you paid $110 and didn't get anything accomplished you wanted. To give you an idea, LT1's generally run 20ish psi warm idle

40-45 warm cruise
45+ at WOT
45-50 cold idle

which should be right around 650. I'd suggest replacing your oil pressure sensor. These things can go bad pretty easily and the guage doesn't always just wobble when bad. They can read low or high and not be bad. But they are pretty accurate when working correctly.

Jason

 

this is just about how my car runs (76k) btu my idle generally after driving fro an hour or so on a hot day get unusually low, id say about 10-15 ish

the other psi at cold idle, WOT , and warm cruise are fine , but at warm idle its kinda low,
any problem here ?

 

What kind of oil are you using? A light oil like a 5w30 can really break down alot depending on the brand. I would consider LT1's because of reverse cooling to be pretty hard on oil on extended drives, especially if it sees alot of high rpm driving. Does your car idle really low after a long drive?

Jason

 

Mobile one 5w-30 no the idle stays at a nice 650

 

The oil I have been using is what ever the manual says I guess. I just go somewhere to have it done they put penzoil I dont know what weight. My dealer put gm goodwrench oil what ever that is in it and some cleaning addative. So far it did the trick pressure stays above at the 1/4 mark at idle now and goes up with the rpms to 50 on up so I am happy that was all it was. Didn't realize that my pcm was dumping soo much fuel in her. Guess it's time for that ceramic coated trickflow elbow I have had my eye on

 

I'd like to add my two cents too the bearing clearance, oil viscosity, and oil pressure equation.

Two days ago I started my rebuilt 350 (comp 305, Keith Black HU pistons, ported heads, headers, new stock pump and white spring) and had 'low' oil pressure, around 40 psi cold idle, and just under 20 hot idle, hanging around 18 psi, but dropping lower if the idle dipped at all. The hot psi was under 40, maybe around 35, even if I revved to 3500 rpm or so. I had added standard 5-30 Havoline

Amyway, after reading this thread, and a couple of others, I got some 20-50 Valvoline 'Racing' oil. It is also a non-synthetic oil. After changing the oil, the oil pressure is improved.

It is about 45 cold idle and a solid 25 warm, even at the lowest idle speed (around 800). Any rpm over 1000, and the pressure jumps to 30 plus. The pressure is solid at the middle line (40 psi) when I'm running over 2500 and raises to 45 psi whenever I rev to 3000 to 3500 (I'm still trying to observe some kind of break in).

Oh yeah, my bearing clearances (according too the machine shop) are .002 to .0025. Thanks too the guys who said to try a thicker oil. BTW, this is my second go around as the first set of bearing self destruced during a track event while I was running 10-30 weight....

Jim

 

Mobil 1 oils are barely thick enough to be designated at their levels. That 5w30 is really very close to a 20wt oil. Mobil 1 0W40 would be a better choice. That or Castrol German Syntec 0W30 are both about the best oils you can use for LT1's and LS1's. They're both pretty "loose" than most modern engines and like an oil that's near 40weight.

Jason

 

My car has 154k miles and I run Mobil 1 10-30 and My oil pressure is as follows

60psi cold startup
25-30 hot at idle
50-60 above 3500rpms


I have run mobil 15-50 in the summer and have only seen slight increases in pressure after warmed.