Oil pressure fluctuations, mechanical gauge

[Cheapamanche]

Hello everyone, its been a while. I will be a thorough as I can. Well winter has come upon us so I decided to do an oil change and a few other winter prep things. This time I went with penzoil 10w30 platinum synth with a bottle of zddp for good measure. Wix oil filter. After doing the oil change I started noticing that sender was going bad so I ibstalled a mechanical one. Oil pressure is 60-65 cold and about 40-45 hot. I thought awesone.... at first. Recently I made a trip into town and noticed that I had a lifter tick suddenly and my oil pressure on the mechanical gauge was at about 70. I let it sit for about 45 minutes and it was back to normal. I started boticing this will happen once every 15 trips in the truck now... I do see that the oil leak at the oil filter adapter has started leaking much more significantly than before the oil change and I have a lot more oil build up on top of my valve. Could this be caused by a bad oil filter? I have no blow by when I take the valve cover cap off but I do have a lot of white mist. Thanks guys.

 

1988 Comanche, 4.0, BA 10/5, 160,000 miles

 

 

[Dzimm]

Have you ever run a synthetic oil in it?  Strait synthetic will cause your leaks to be worse due to them being thinner and easier flowing.  

[Cheapamanche]

I was running Valvoline full synth before, same weight. Never had this issue. Not sure if the oil fluctuations have been going on for a while though. I just put the mechanical gauge on this last oil change.

[Cheapamanche]

I swapped out my oil filter just in case the bypass valve had faild and still same issue. Today at idle it was sitting at 70psi on the mechanical gauge.... Again I have no blowby when I take the valve cover cap off but there is some white mist... I will try exchanging the mechanical gauge and see if something is wrong with it. Any other ideas?

[MiNi Beast]

fix your oil leaks, stick to one oil brand and change oil and add some honey, replace stock oil sender and run with your mech one, get an avg and see where that gets you. otherwise I'm thinking new seat job and plan for some routine fresh up on the top end. and with that run a compression test to verify things. on the ring side. any rather dirty plugs? 

[Cheapamanche]

Thanks for your reply. I have not checked my plugs in about 6 month. Thats a great point. I'll check them. I just noticed I have a very slow coolant leak that I have not been able to source yet. Is it possible that I have a head gasket leak that could be causing the oil pressure issue? I have no signs of coolant in my oil.

[MiNi Beast]

perhaps. how does your coolant fluid look? 

[AZJeff]

I agree with MiniBeast. A compression test is something I would do right away.  Another thing you might want to do is send off an oil sample to someone like Blackstone Laboratories to have a chemical analysis for presence of coolant in the oil.

[Cheapamanche]

Well I have more signs of a head gasket failure. My overflow resevour was under pressure about 12 hours after driving it last. I took the cap off and pffff. I still have not had a chance to compression test as I have a 2 week old new baby in my life and I have been so dang busy. I'm so bummed because about a week ago I finally figured out why my truck was so jerky at low speed. I ripped out all the nasty split loom and found some ground shorts that were causing voltage fluctuations! It finally runs so smooth and now this... One day at a time. I'll have to wait until after Christmas to fix it. I have 4 kids that I am buying presents for this year!