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Low oil pressure. Bad Oil pump or pickup screen?


Thumper

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This is on a 83' 280zx turbo motor. At idle the oil pressure is at 0. At 2000rpms it goes to 20psi and at 3500 rpms it goes to 30-35psi. This seems to be about 10psi low at all times. I have tried two different autometer mechanical gauges. One is known to work perfectly. I installed a used oil pump 3 weeks ago. I did not have an oil pressure gauge hooked up before this oil pump so I am unsure if this helped or not. The oil pump was on my friend's car for many months and he had no problems. But he also did not have a oil pressure guage hooked up. I used the old gasket from the oil pump when I installed it but there are no visible leaks. I primed the oil pump with oil when installing it. The oil pump is from a turbo engine. I just changed the oil and oil filter. With no difference. I think I have it narrowed down too a bad pickup screen or a worn oil pump spring. What do you guys think? Thanks

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And the answer was... The automatic oil cooler plate. On automatic l28et's the came with a factory oil cooler. Most people remove this plate and put a nipple on so that the oil filter can go like the n/a and manual turbo cars. Since one day I want to run an oil cooler and I didn't have a nipple handy I decided to just block off the two holes where the supply and return line for oil cooler would have gone. Still you must say this should not have caused low oil pressure. But nay oem nissan designed the plate so that half the oil would go staight to the oil filter and the other half to the oil cooler, then oil filter. It was designed this way so that when the oil was cold and thick it would still flow enough around the restrictive oil cooler intill the oil thinned up enough to flow through the oil cooler. So 2 1/2 turbos, one bad lifter (maybe it will bleed back up), and possible engine damage (no smoke at start up or under acceleration yet) later I have found out the problem. Today is fix the problems day for me. Fixed two problems that have been plagueing me for awhile now.:twisted: Enjoy the ride!!!

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