Irocdriver89

I have normal oil pressure on start up about thirty psi and the longer i let the car idel the lower the oil pressure gets. when it is in the mechanical guage it confirms that the reading is right. anyways it bleeds all the way off to 0 or half a pound of pressure. how can i be sure that it is not just the oil pump giving out the problem just started happening all of a sudden. plenty of power and no knocking. last two weeks the car got 21 miles two the gallon.


any help is much appricated. they said I could try a pump but it might not work any suggestions!

seawolf06

Do you have an oil cooler? That gets clogged easily and can cause that problem.

Are you having problems with the car dying or not idling after it warms up?

What weight oil are you using?

Irocdriver89

I am not sure if my car has an oil cooler, and only sometimes the car will die while at idol. The idel only mess up sometimes and it's normally when the car has warmed up and is HOT! I was running 10w-30. Now i'm running 20w-50 and the car has much less issues until it gets warm then it will kinda idel weird until i start driving then everything is fine. plenty of power no knocking or ticking nothing just low oil pressure after warm up.

JmalibuSS

How many miles does the engine have on it? If you start the car cold and only let it idle up to running temp and the pressure still drops off the oil temp should not be an issue at idle. You may have other mechanical issues. It is kinda odd that it happened all at of a sudden though.

Irocdriver89

134,000 miles and thats what i was thinking why all of a sudden. Now it happen about a month or so ago but i have other cars so i'm just getting around to dealing with it. but even now the car runs great, but it does better a at night when it's cold.


Question where is the factory oil cooler on a 97 camaro i was searching and saw that it might be clogged!

seawolf06

It's right above the oil filter. It will have two coolant hoses running to it. If it's there, remove it asap. Of course, then you have have to look at what it's clogged with. If it's metal, then you may have another problem as well.

Irocdriver89

where do the lines from the oil cooler run to i do not remeber!

JP95ZM6

While an external oil cooler is probably more reliable, I prefer not to route oil outside the engine, and like the factory cooler for that reason, as well as for faster oil warmup.

The stock 95+ oil cooler can be inspected and cleaned, contrary to what I have seen written here. Some will not agree with the value of doing so, but I wanted to keep mine for the new motor so I inspected and cleaned it thoroughly. I plan to repeat this at every coolant change.

I removed it from the engine by removing the center bolt/tube that the filter spins onto (coolant must be drained). There was no metal or other solid blockage in mine (80some thousand) but I could see minimal sludge residue, and I wanted it spotless for reinstall. You can see the very fine fins on both the inlet and out sides where the oil passage is. I soaked the whole thing in 50/50 hot water and simple green ultra, or whatever the gallon jug from Home Depot is, for a day to loosen up the sludge. Than rinsed with hot water both directions with more SG sprayed in, and then with a stronger blast from the hose. It was very clean looking at that point. Air dried with compressed, then baked for a little while on the grill to thoroughly dry. Checked by flushing with brake cleaner, which came out clean. Looks good as new.

Oh, and even though it looks like you can unbolt the core with the fins and pull it out, you can't. It's glued in or pressed real tight.

Irocdriver89

First i want to say thanks for taking the time to right the article.

But that bought about another question you said i need to drain the oil or the coolant before i clean the oil cooler up. also if i were to remove the unit what would i need to replace it with! an as i think about it, i had the valve cover off not to long ago. cleaning around the edges and some did get into the motor! and that might be whats stuck in the oil cooler way. Thanks i will be working on this for sure this week!

tnmotown

Mine did the same thing. When it was cold and at first start up it was around 30ish PSI. Once i drove around the oil pressure slowly dropped. About an hour later once everything was warm this is what it looked like.....


Come to find out my main bearings were shot (had 200K on motor)
It seem to always drive fine. Knocked just a tad bit at first start up. I think this was all caused because i was doing donuts in a parking lot and sucked the pan dry. oh well, it was an excuse to drop my 383 in!

Good luck with yours and hope its nothing major.

seawolf06

Main bearings are another possibility. Check the oil and filter for any metal, especially copper colored metal.

96z28t56

I think 97 Lt1's weren't avalible with an oil cooler. I belive they dropped the option in 95. Look on your options sheet in your glove box and see it the code : KC4 If you have a rebuilt motor, then it may be possible.

Wild1

Mine's a 95 and it has an oil cooler... but that may be because it is a 1LE.

seawolf06

My 95 has one as well. The easiest way to check is to look above the oil filter, or if you have two coolant hoses running under your driver's side headers, then you probably have an oil cooler.

Irocdriver89

no knocking during start up or at anytime! car runs great and i started it yesterday so start up is actually 40psi and it held pretty strong i did not wait for it to bleed all the way off! anyone with a 97 camaro know for sure they have an oil pump!