oil pressure question

I have a 96 Jimmy with 145,000 miles. Six months ago one of the oil lines from the filter to the radiator came off and the engine of course quit. I changed out the bad line filled it with oil and suprise it started. Since that time it has not used excessive oil or smoked. I noticed two things last weekend. One it has started to use a small amount of water. I need to top off the water about every 250 miles. Second the oil pressure gauge is much lower than it originally was. It used to read between 40 and 60 and now it read between 15 and 40.

So is the engine ready to go or is the oil sending unit bad. and how about the water loss I do not see any leakage? Water temperature is fine.

Thanks for any help.

I hope your mean "coolant" when you say "water". I'll bet the coolant loss problem is completely separate from the oil pressure problem.
To check oil pressure you can use 1/8" npt pipe fittings to Tee in a gauge to check preessure, or just change the sender.

I was losing coolant from my Jimmy after 141000 miles. Could not see the leak at idle. I was leaking out on the road. I finally found the leak in the radiator. The solution in my case was a new radiator.

lower intake manifold ...

do you have antifreeze in the oil? oil in the antifreeze?

in the morning, after the engine has been off for 7 or 8 hours, take off the rad cap ... is the antifreeze up to the top of the rad? it should be.

if you haven't already, replace your rad cap with a Stant brand cap.



I have a 96 Jimmy with 145,000 miles. Six months ago one of the oil lines from the filter to the radiator came off and the engine of course quit. I changed out the bad line filled it with oil and suprise it started. Since that time it has not used excessive oil or smoked. I noticed two things last weekend. One it has started to use a small amount of water. I need to top off the water about every 250 miles. Second the oil pressure gauge is much lower than it originally was. It used to read between 40 and 60 and now it read between 15 and 40.

So is the engine ready to go or is the oil sending unit bad. and how about the water loss I do not see any leakage? Water temperature is fine.

Thanks for any help.

pull the coolant overflow hose off and make sure its not plugged. That will cause coolant to be pushed out your rad cap. Also I had a 96 that got coolant in the oil. Ended up that my intake manifold was leaking.