hey guys, i was just wondering if anybody would be willing to help me out. my car is running kinda crappy, and im tired of wondering whats wrong. i REALLY dont want to bring it to the dealer. what i really want is someone who knows about our cars that would be able to help me figure out whats wrong. even if any of you guys know a GOOD shop that knows LT1's!

also seems like i might be losing oil pressure so i kinda want to get this thing scanned pretty quick, im almost affraid to drive it!

i would really appreciate if someone could help me out, or point me in the right direction! thanks!!

 

If you aren't throwing an SES light then a simple scan probably won't pick much up. Losing oil pressure definitely is a dangerous thing if you're ever going below the last tick (not the zero tick) on the guage. If this is the case, save for an electrical glitch that is giving you a misread, you've got mechanical problems....call me and I'll see if I can help you

 

hey thanks for the quick reply! the oil pressure is something that just started tonight. i do have a broken oil sensor in the pan, my low oil light is always on. that wouldnt have anything to do with it would it??

i dont have a SES light on, but i was looking for someone to test the o2 readings, air/fuel, and all that kind of stuff. the car running crappy has nothing to do with the oil pressure, because its been running crappy (the usual hesitation/stumble/loss of power) for a few months now with perfect oil pressure.

what kind of mechanical problems could i be looking at?! i couldnt imagine what would have went wrong all of a sudden.

 

crappy before or after longtubes? did you run your plug wires the same way i did?

 

the car ran SOOOOO good the first 2 days after the longtubes. then started to hesitate and sputter. drove it like that for a few weeks. i had run the wires just like you. but i have just installed an OVC wire set, car still runs crappy. i really think the o2's are shot. and plus i have the #1 slip-in primary leak

but when i really get on it at WOT the car pulls real hard right up to 6300 with no problems! just regular driving the car seems to sputter and hesitate.

i could deal with it running like this, but im pretty worried about the oil pressure now. im not even going to drive it until i have someone or a place to check it out.

 

the oil pressure sending unit has nothing to do w/ the low oil sensor in the pan. It is located up on top of the rear of the block right behind the intake manifold. low oil pressure is caused by 4 things 95% of the time.
1) clogged pump pickup caused by using products w/ PTFE in them, or junk in the oil/ sludge that has come out of the lifter valley
2) broken sleeve on the oil pump drive shaft....the shaft should stay together but in certain instances can come apart completely..this usually causes NO oil pressure
3) a pump that has seen the end of its usable life span
4) dammmmnit, I knew I had a fourth one but there is other stuff too....just hope that it's an electrical problem

 

check out the miles on his car... unless you've done something out of the ordinary with that engine, you *shouldn't* be having a mechanical problem such as pump failure as its nowhere near the end of its service life.

if i had money, i'd put it on electrical... but there is only one way to rule that out, get a real guage and plug it in and discover how far off the idiot guages are... either that or discover how correct they are and worry about a mechanical failure

 

i know my cars mileage is low, but im sure i prolly screwed something up with all the work that i have done. but its weird because the car has run fine for the last few months, even took a 2400 mile roadtrip to CT and back with NO problems!!

i brought the car down to my local mechanic, and they hooked the car up to a gauge. in my mechanics opinion he thinks the car is fine, and it might be electrical. he said the pressure NEVER dropped below 30. now on my gauge in the car, it drops down to "0" and the check gauge light comes on!! so hopefully that sthe problem. but im still affraid to drive it, thinking i might cause more damage.

this sounds very ppossible, but it wouldnt explain why my gauge only drops for a quick second and comes back up fine. im thinking if something was clogged or broken, it would cause low pressure ALL the time.... correct??

LT1Brutus... thanks for all your help so far. what do you think i should do from here?? the shop checked the oil and they said it looked fine, but a little too thin. im going to change in tom.

 

I misread. If it only drops for a second, sounds like your guage is busted. It doesn't take more than a hard jolt to break of some teeth from the gear that spins the needle up. Why it's running bad.......still up in the air. Possibly you have a bad ground which is causing BOTH problems now but wasn't before. these cars can be ground nightmares