Date: Sun, 13 Oct 2002 16:20:20 -0500
Reply-To: Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Stan Wilder <wilden1@JUNO.COM>
Subject: Re: 20 psi oil pressure on freeway. Worry?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
The oil pressure relief spring/plunger does the following things;
1) At cold start up it relieves pressure on the Oil Cooler (If you got
one), Oil filter and bypasses some of the oil back to the pan at about
37/47 psi. Your oil filter mount also has a pressure relief valve that
protects the filter from extreme high pressures.
2) It does exactly the same thing at high rpms at full operating
temperatures.
3) At full operating temperatures at idle it shouldn't be doing anything
but staying stationary and passing oil to all of your bearings and
through your filter. The surplus volume would still be bypassing back to
your pan.
Before I went into a panic, I'd check to see that you have the right
sender for your gauge and the right sender for your idiot light. I'd
check the electrical connection on both senders and add a ground wire
from the chasis to the engine block. Its not a bad idea to have a
mechanical gauge in the engine compartment (I say that because with a 6
inch tube even a cheap gauge can be accurate and you're not depending on
known to have variables senders.)
Once you've done these things and are sure that your instruments are
right ......... If it is still low on idle.
1) You can idle your engine up slightly, hoping for the best.
2) You can add motor honey like STP or other product to stretch your
remaining engine life miles some.(think you did this)
3) You can keep the vehicle in low stress service and you might get
several more years out of the engine.
4) I don't know all that much about Waser Boxers but I'd think that an
oil cooler might help, but its not going to fix those bearings. It could
delay the rebuild for quite a while though.
If you put those 70K miles on the engine you know the uses its been put
to, if you only put a few thousand of those miles on then I'd suspect
some previous sever service or neglect.
Stan Wilder
83 Air Cooled Westfalia
On Sun, 13 Oct 2002 13:34:56 -0700 Craig Oda's Personal email
<craig@ODA-INC.NET> writes:
> I recently installed a wet oil pressure gauge to find out why my oil
> pressure light keeps flashing.
>
> When I first start the engine, 20 psi at idle and 30-50 on the
> freeway.
>
> After 3 miles of driving, 5 psi or less at idle and 20 psi on the
> freeway.
>
> I guess about 40-60 psi on the freeway going about 60mph is nice,
> but
> it's consistently at 20psi. Driving home on residential streets at
> 30mph, I get about 15psi reading.
>
> I'm running 20w50 oil with viscosity thickener.
>
> Should I still drive the van around with the family, or is this oil
> pressure so low that I should be taking apart the engine? I
> cleaned
> the oil relief valve/plunger. Should I stretch that spring out
> more?
>
> 1983.5 Westy with a rebuild about 70K miles ago.
>
> -- Craig
>
> =====
>
>
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