Date:         Sat, 1 Jun 1996 14:14:39 -0400
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         BusBoys@aol.com
Subject:      Re: 71 Poptop Oil PSI question!

Stock OEM oil pressure switches are generally designed to come on at idle
(900 to 1000 RPM) at about 2 to 5 PSI (which I think is too low), while the
VDO Dual Sender variety comes on about 7 to 10 PSI.
My 1600 in my 67 Deluxe runs at about 12 to 15 PSI at idle and about 35 to 40
PSI at highway speeds (60-65 MPH) with a temperature of 180 to 190. Engine
has about 12K on it.  Sounds like the sender is OK based on your figures
provided.

Why so low of oil pressure on such a low mileage (7K) engine?  It's usually
caused by too much clearance in the crank and cam bearing shells or an
inadequate pump.  Did you re-use the old pump in the rebuild?  If so, did you
get rid of the grooves that wear in from the pump gears by replacing the
cover so that it is perfectly flat against the gears?  How about when
reassembling the pump back into the case - did you use too much gasket goop
between the pump and cover, thus causing the cover to stand too far away from
the oil pump gears?   I learned the hard way that the cover gasket is THIN
for a reason and that is to allow the cover to be as close to the pump gears
to allow maximum generation of the oil pressure.  Just a thin coat of
Gasgacinch (NOT Permatex) is all that's needed to help the THIN cover gasket
to do it's job.  A lot of overzealous rebuilders can ruin an otherwise good
rebuild if they don't install the pump correctly.

My .0002 cents worth :-)

Jim / BusBoys@aol.com