Thanks for your responses. I had more time to work with the car since *dad* (me) was tasked to fix other things wrong with the car (replaced driver's side window horizontal mounting assembly since the part that slides up and down the vertical giude worked it's way out of the mounting assembly and there was a crack below the hole where the part was fastened to the mounting assembly), put in a stereo with a kit (not too hard to do), replaced the rear bottoming out bumpers above the rear axle.

I drained the battery by working on the car for so long. I jumped it and then let it sit and idle for a good 25-30 minutes. Here's what's happening when I let it sit idle for 25-30 minutes:

1. Oil pressure is at 60 when the car first starts.

2. As the water temperature rises the oil pressure drops. I can now clearly see that.

3. Some coolant came out of the overflow bottle. The temperature gauge at this point indicated 235-240 and the oil pressure was just above 0 (zero).

*If* the gauges are correct then I'm thinking two likely scenerios here:

a. The water pump is not pushing enough coolant.

b. There is an internal engine problem whereby oil is leaking by the bearings. If this is the case then I *think* the engine days are certainly numbered.

Now should Firstone have been able to determine if the water pump is OK? Can a coolant pressure test detect a water pump problem?

There is no coolant in the oil and no oil in the coolant.

Thanks!

 

I replaced the water pump. This brought the cooling temp down to normal range.

I also replaced the oil pressure switch that was replaced 3 weeks ago, fixed oil pressure reading to 60 and only goes down to 40-45 when idle or crusing without acceleration.