Today was a first for the new motor. It sat for a couple of days and today I was driving it and my oil pressure dropped to zero during idle! It goes up fine when accelerating but when I was stopped it dropped like a brick to zero and then the car would stall. Sometimes my low oil light comes on, but I figured that was because I broke the sensor a while ago. but the level in the car is fine. any ideas??
Could the oil pressure and the car stalling be related?

 

I'd be worried. Don't drive it anymore till you figure it out. I'd drain the oil right away and check it out. If it looks like a gold rush towards the end of the drain, you got issues, and not happy issues either.

Ken R.

 

yeah I guess i'll have to do that now...its never done this before and it seems to run fine just not idle well and drop oil pressure at idle. one thing that kinda got me was that when I first noticed it the gauge didn't slowly drop, it just suddenly dropped to zero out of no where

 

You need to see if the car is stalling for some reason and causing the oil pressure to drop (more likely), or whether the pressure drops and causes the car to stall (less likely).

 

the only thing I can figure is that maybe its fuel related. but the pressure seems to drop before it stalls.

 

ok, so I went against roguedriver's advise and I went and drove the car again. I went the same route I went before(minus stopping to get the emissions checked which it passed! but I did go through a drive through) anyway...The oil pressure seemed fine once again. no problems and was hanging around the 20psi mark on the stock gauge at idle as it always had. No stalling or anything. I did notince one thing as I pulled back in the driveway. I saw two black streaks where it looks like carbon shot out the exhaust...could that have had anything to do with it?? i'm gonna have to to get me a mechanical gauge for this thing.

 

could be the sending unit/pressure switch. maybe it has a dead spot or somethin around where your idle pressure is and when it dips into this, its cutting fuel, and thus the car will die. i am inclined to think this if the pressure is "dropping like a brick".

or it could be something much more serious.

just my two cents canadian worth.