Originally this was the first car I ever bought. I bought it back in 1999 and It was great.
I was single and I had the car I always wanted.
Then I got married, left the car in my parents care in Florida while I moved to Michigan with my new Wife.
Well the car was used sparingly over the years and a couple of years ago I ended up getting a divorce and it was pretty devastating.

One of the things that saved me was the idea that If I could fix the car that brought me so much joy back when I was just a kid, then maybe there was hope for me too.

not to lay the sob story on you guys, but I want people to see what the car means to me.

Well I bought a new transmission for it, Edelbrock intake manifold. Holley carburetor, I chromed out the valve covers etc.. I Replaced gaskets, filters, new battery, new alternator, Starter, tuned it up and painted it, new interior, sound system. Everything was great. Then came the oil pressure problem. So I had it checked out and the oil pump was bad, So I had that replaced along with the pan, this new high volume oil pump was amazing.

I also put in a manual oil gauge because the stock ones didn't work. So when I started the car it would show 60 PSI and when it reached operating temp it would stay around 20 PSI or so.

Well I had to go away for a while, about 8 months and when I came back to my car it shows about 20 PSI and then quickly to 0.

There is no knocking or anything, the engine sounds good. It has oil, it's clean. However the car stalls and the gauge is very inaccurate when moving.

The choke that had to be put on with the Holley carb also gives me trouble.
It seems like it's either high rev or stalling out on me.

My dad and everyone tell me "sell it" you'll never get it running or "right" but I love the car and I think it's close to being okay.
I just am limited with money and what I can do.

Any help or idea's will be appreciated.

the car is a 1986 Camaro with a 350 small block.
Their is a little slack in the engine and for some reason their is a little gas that sits on the intake...not sure how that happened.

Anyone recognize any of these issues?
Thanks for the advice.

 

This is basically a repeat of your other oil pressure thread, with a little soap opera added!
I would try another gauge so you know what you can and can't trust. If you really had 0 oil pressure, your engine would be clacking and clanging.
Then rebuild and tune the carb, it sounds like it's leaking and could use some attention.

 

I put in a new manual gauge. On idle it keeps around 18-20 psi or so, When in gear it drops to 15 psi or so.
Their isn't a clanking or anything knocking.
The Carb is less then a year old and I don't think it need's a rebuild.
The car seems to backload a bit and depending on certain things, it can sputter and bog down a bit.


The Engine has less then 150k miles on it.
I had a shop check out the barons and they said that they were fine.

Sometimes I get the feeling that that car would take me anywhere gauges be damned, other times I am just too worried about the car to even go around the block.

My pop's says it's probably the seals and I am going to need a new engine.
I really cant afford all of that......

Sorry for the whole "soap opera" I just figured I'd go into a bit more detail about why it's important and get a few more idea's going.

 

Are there any obvious signs that I might actually need a new engine?

 

Blue smoke out the tailpipe = engine burning oil and you would notice the level going down on your dipstick.
White smoke out the tailpipe = a blown head or intake gasket.
Oil residue splooging out all over from the air filter vent tube, valve cover breather, or through your PCV valve = badly worn rings.
A bad knocking, clanging, clicking, clacking, rapping, popping and (rarely) hippity-hopping!
And I'd hafta see a pic of your ex, but after looking at your car, it's possible you may have gotten the better end of the deal!!!
Btw, what weight oil are you using? You can go with a thicker viscosity oil to bump the oil pressure.

 

Droping of oil pressure is a normal part of engine wear. 15 PSI at idle is getting pretty low. I would step up to a 20W50 oil and make sure you have a good filter. A rule of thumb is you need 10 PSI per 1000 RPMS or more or the motor will damage itself. I have a 1996 Tahoe with 174K on it and it will drop to 20 PSI at idle hot. I am not worried about it. I will most likely step up to 20w50 this summer and I will not run it over 5000 RPMs.

If you are not skilled with the carbs you can just buy a Holley Avenger bolt it on and go. They come factory tuned and will get within 90% of the way of what you would get from a pro. I got a 670 off ebay a few years back and paid like $230 with eletric choke. I tweaked it a little but it ran nice right out of the box.

 

I'm not losing any oil, I would lose a bit of oil up top when I first put on the chrome covers, I think maybe they weren't on tight enough.
So I redid them.

There is no smoke or any noise coming from the Engine.
When I took the car to my mechanic they tested the oil gauge and say it's off by almost 10, so if it's showing 15 it is really 23-24-25 somewhere around there.

I will try the 20 W 50 as well.

As for RPM's it is hard saying where I'm at, the gauges that are stock are worthless, I need to get new ones. The only ones that work are the speedometer and the gas. RPM gauge is broken. It's why I put in a manual oil gauge in the first place.

 

The oil pressure sensors for your year and V6 and V8 are diff, make sure you have the right one. Until you get the RPM’s to stop bouncing the oil gage is secondary. Camaro69 is so right that would be one dinked up sounding engine with 0 oil pressure, you would have no doubt!!. So as far as the RPM’s vacuum line all where they belong, any even a little lose? Also do you here and vacuum sounds at all sucking or blowing, because of the fuel on the intake pay close attention to the intake gasket area?

Once you make sure all the vacuum lines are right, does the RPM variance stop? Is the timing set with out the distributor advance active? Then disconnect the advance for the distributor after the vacuum line check and timing, does it stop? If it does first check all components which activate the advance them the replaceable items inside the distributor.

Fuel sitting on the intake; are you nuts, :-)! Apparently you have never seen an engine fire, the first time I have seen or smelled fuel in an engine compartment; it’s parked till fixed! But anyways it could be a lose fuel line or your carb gasket didn’t seat right or a internal carb gasket is not right.

 

Okay here is an update.
Cleaned up the Carb. It looks like it might have just flooded a bit from my friend trying to start it and not knowing how the heck to use a choke.

So we cleaned it up and no issues with that anymore.
I took it to a shop and they did a compression test and the compression is fine, no metal in the oil pan. Everything looks clean.

Now my gauge while hooked up proved to be on average 8 psi below where the shop's manual gauge was showing.

My idle was at 20 on my gauge but on there's it was like 28 psi.

Again now when I start my car when it's cold it shows 65 psi and operating temp it can show as low as 16 psi, which today I found out ends up being about 24 psi on the shops equipment.

They were comfortable with all the readings.

I'm going to check the lines and everything to get the other gauges working properly again.

HOWEVER, I noticed a noise from my transmission and so I checked it at operating temp and the tranny fluid was really low. This transmission is less then 2 years old and has less then 200 miles on it.

 

That's the intake to head gasket area, if it is on the underside of the intake and all the other tests don't help, pulling the itake is the next step.