I had more time to work with the car yesterday. I ran the engine for about 30 minutes while I was charging the A/C.

The oil pressure is about 1/2 way up. On mine that would be 60. Just had an oil/filter change.

The coolant is also about 1/2 way up. On mine that would be about 210 or so.

 

That sounds about right.

 

my oil is i teeny tiny bit below the 1/4 mark at idle, but rises to half when the rpms climb. but from reading everyone else's temperatures, mine stays extremely cool. while i'm idling, it goes a bit over the halfway mark, which should be normal. but while i'm driving at least 20 mph, it almost goes down all the way to the bottom of the guage. it's evenly between the numbered mark at the bottom of the guage and the mark right above that. if i had to guess it runs at about 175 degrees F. is there a such thing as running too cool?

 

I finally got a chance to work with the car.

The oil pressure gauge is a 0-60-120 gauge and it reads about 30 after start-up and when driving, it's just above the 0 when idle.

The coolant when driving is 1/2 way when driving after warm-up and rises to 240 when idle.

Car starts up immediately and runs great.

 

^^ This might be an issue... I haven't seen many cars that do that, sitting just above 0 PSI oil pressure when idling. My Z28 was doing that after a heads and cam swap and it was because of the o-ring at the pickup tube needed to be replaced. Maybe some other people could help you out, or help decide if you may have an issue or not, but from my experience in the last few weeks with oil PSI (in a totally different engine, i know i know...but oil psi is one thing you don't want to be low!). It was a pretty simple fix if you've ever had experience in taking off the belts/pulleys/pumps/etc accessories.

My V6 is odd too, as it pretty much just stays around 60-70 PSI at all times, idle, hot, cold, revving, cruising, engine braking....anything is right at the same and the needle only fluctuates a little bit upon engine load. My temp takes forever to get up to hot, so my thermostat is probably stuck open slightly, but I'm not too worried about that; better than it being stuck shut.. After 10 minutes of driving it gets up to the 200* mark and stays there...the gauges aren't all that reliable from what i understand, and are possibly just dummy gauges; as in if the car is still "cold" (from like 30-150 degrees) it will be pretty far left, and then once it gets hot (from 150-240 degrees) it will read in the 210 area to show it is hot, but still relatively normal. Just what I've heard on these cars...maybe some others can help out with those possible myths.

 

Thanks for the input. Just a few days ago my daughter noticed a huge puddle under her car steaming when she was at the ATM. She quickly realized it was a coolant leak and drove right over to the nearest shop just 500 feet away (Firestone). They determined she had a bad heater hose that was piece mealed together and replaced it along with the thermostat and complete coolant flush/refill. They also noticed the low oil pressure at crusing speed and the temp gauge climbed to about 235-240 even after the coolant change. So they hooked up an engine block temperature gauge. The engine block was at about 205 degrees F fully warmed up and running at various RPM's. Since the oil pressure switch was just replaced it is not likely that is the problem with the oil pressure switch itself. Seeing how the engine itself is much cooler than the temperature gauge, they reassured us that all is OK and the problem is likely with the cluster. They indicated the clusters have issues in these cars.

Are they right concerning the cluster?

Thanks.

 

Yeah my friend's 95 has that same problem. Before 98, the wiring for these cars weren't that great lol. And gauge readings were a big time ESTIMATE. My friend's temp gauge completely failed out but his oil gauge is fine. When is the last time the oil was changed, what weight was it, and what about the oil filter?

 

Hi evilkal,

The oil and filter was changed at Speedy Munroe two weeks ago. They use Valvoline oil; what weight and brand name of filter I do not know off hand. But they do service my Mercury 2005 Grand Marquis and 2006 Milan and there has never been an issue.

 

yes, the gauges have been known to be "unreliable" at best. I have never really experienced this kind of problem with either of my Camaros, although my V6 oil PSI rarely goes below 55-60 psi, or over 65-70 psi, according to the gauge. I believe it should fluctuate more than that between idle and wide open throttle, but as long as its reading good pressure and runs well, its not a big enough concern to look into for me. Good luck with the car! Sounds like Firestone took care of you pretty well.

 

Ok I was just wondering. My car idles around 40 PSI and 60-65 under load.... so 30 doesn't sound too outlandish... A little bit low, but I dunno much about why the oil gauge would do that. SOunds like you'll be alright though