oil pressure issues

[millertyme4lyfe]

Hi all,

new here, but anyways I have a 99 ranger with a 3.0L ATX 4x2 with 140,XXX miles on it. recently since its been getting cooler here in FL, on cold starts the oil pressure will read nothing for a minute or two until some heats builds in the engine, then it will jump up to normal. I'm using 5w20 oil. I've been told that the oil pickup screen could be gooped up. Im planning on dropping the oil pan and cleaning it. I have 2 questions.

1. Does the oil pickup being gooped up sound about right?

2. What kind of gasket is on the oild pan? a rubber one or silicon on that you have to scrape and reapply

Mike

 

[fourwheelford]

The gasket is a rubber felpro gasket, and it is possible that your sending unit is not working properly, if your motor was running on no oil pressure for a couple minutes it would be making some really bad noise. Also is your truck 2wd or 4wd? This matters because you can't just drop the pan on a 4wd without either taking off the tranny or pulling the motor out. 5w20 is so thin that even on a cold start at 20 degrees F it should have no problem at all and I doubt it gets that cold in FL so I would lean towards the sending unit being faulty. I guess the pick up could be clogged but i would think that you would have noticed other issues prior to this and the colder weather wouldn't really cause those symptoms to just pop up like that if its sludgy now it would have been sludgy before it got cold outside. What brand of oil do you use and do you change it when its time?

 

[millertyme4lyfe]

thanks for the reply... its a 2wd and i used castol gtx on my last change... i usually go 3000-4000 miles between changes. Do you think its worth dropping the pan and checking the screen or just changing the sending unit?

 

[Rearanger]

Do you think its worth dropping the pan and checking the screen or just changing the sending unit?

Hook up a manual gauge to see what the actual pressure is. I doubt pick-up screen if you've kept your oil regularily changed. A clogged screen would also show problems when engine running, not just on start-up.

 

[rangertoy]

^^ X2, mine used to do the samething, it started to worry me because it wouldn't pick up pressure for about 10 minutes. I hooked up a Autometer manual gauge and it has oil pressure on start up.

 

[Big Jim M]

As above! I'd be looking at purchasing a new oil pressure sending unit.
Big JIm

 

[RumpRanger98]

I dont want to steal this post or anything, but I dont want to start a new one because im experiencing the same problem...

99 ford ranger 3.0 4x4 5spd. Its gettin to 25-35degrees F here in the mornings some days now and when I first start the truck up I get the "check gauge" light and my oil pressure gauge shows nothing. once the truck warms up it flips up to normal instantly and check gauge light goes off, and everything is fine. I run castrol gtx startup 5w30 oil.

it seems like the colder it is, the longer it takes to "build up" pressure (according to oil pressure gauge) the engine makes no noise at all during the time it shows no pressure.

I was thinking my cam synchro was to blame but I would also think if that was the case then it would never pick pressure up once that failed.
So Im leaning towards the pressure unit starting to go bad... but seems wierd its only bad when its cold.

thoughts?

 

[Bob Ayers]

I think it's your oil pressure sending unit (switch). It's located behind the head on the passenger's side.

 

[93 4x4]

My gauge was messing up showing very low pressure all the time I changed the sending unit from advanced auto $6.50 and it reads on the A on normal now it was reading on the N before

 

[Camo Ranger]

My truck does a similar thing. On startup the oil pressure gauge will hover about halfway between no pressure and normal. It stays there for a few minutes and then jumps up to normal pressure. The engine isn't making any odd noises or anything so I really haven't worried about it...

 

[Original_Ranger84]

My truck does a similar thing. On startup the oil pressure gauge will hover about halfway between no pressure and normal. It stays there for a few minutes and then jumps up to normal pressure. The engine isn't making any odd noises or anything so I really haven't worried about it...

It probably shouldn't be doing that... You have a dummy gauge which jumps up to the middle regardless of what the pressure is unless it drops lower then what is needed for the engine.