cold weather / low oil pressure?

[dizdak]

ok i live in FL and this morning was about the coldest we have had this year, it was about 34 or so maybe a tad less, had ice on things and a real good frost.. it was purty!!! but anyway, don't usually have to drive the truck in cooler weather..
when i fired it up this morning it took it a while to get up to normal oil pressure ( going by the factory guage anyway).. normally it kicks up into the normal range within seconds of firing up... is it normal on the cold morning starts to take it a while?

 

[idiabuse]

I have had the experience in running cold engines with the valve covers off or ones that are easy to see inside the engine when running.
Cold oil will take minutes to get pumped up to the valvetrain, especially the 20W50 stuff.
Our diesels have alot of metal to warm up and the oiling system is a very well laid out one.
In the cold this is the best enviroment to test different brands of lubricant.
The lubricant that operates the best in cold enviroments are in fact synthetic lubes.
The pour point is the lowest temp that the fluid will actually flow.
The lube I like to use has a pour point of -37F
So even in warmer temperatures it will flow better in a cold engine than a lubricant with a pour point of -26F or even higher.

Synthetic lubes flow better in the cold and protect better in the higher temps due to less viscosity break down overall.

Make sure you plug in your truck before starting, makes it run smoother much sooner with less smoke. Most of all the wear will be a whole lot less in your cylinders than sporting glow plugs in a cold engine.


Javier

 

[dizdak]

thanks.. living in central FL it doesn't get much colder than it was this morning and now that i have new GPs in there is started like champ this morning even with a weak starter... but the oil gauge did take a while to get up to where i was comfortable driving it... i let it sit and run for about 5 minutes before i left too just to make sure it was gonna start picking up a little pressure..

 

[idiabuse]

Mine is super slow to start moving, but I just had to replace the gauge with a another used one, Auto Meter style.
It is plumbed in from the turbo oil line that also feeds my bypass filter.
Moves slow but has all the same pressures it had before.

Javier

 

[nitroguy]

I could be wrong, but from what I've been reading, the stock gauge is not of much help on actual pressure. Something about how if the factory sensor location sees anything over 7 (?) psi, it'll shoot the needle up to the middle of the gauge. Any fluctuations (and mine bounces around all over the place!) are simply caused by a poor electrical connection. Perhaps you had some water in yours that when frozen messed with the conductivity?

So, that's my answer. We'll see if anyone much smarter than myself can chime in with the real one. ;-)

 

[icanfixall]

Nitroguy is correct... The factory dash gauges are only a switch that tells you there is at least 7 lbs of pressure. Nothing more than that. Years ago just after I installed my 6 aftermarket Isspro gauges I was noticing the oil pressure gauge telling me I had what looking like low pressure. The mechanical gauge told me I had 55 lbs pressure. So as I drove around town the dash gauge would do all kninds of waving at me. The mechanical gauge was rock steady. Same thing with the coolant temp dash gauge... Really now.. What temp is the coolant when the pointer is on the "M" or the "R".... Its just a simple gauge telling you mostly nothing worth reading... Real gauges for real truck drivers is what I believe in...

 

[nitroguy]

Nitroguy is correct...

Woohoo!

 

[dizdak]

i will be installing some real guages very soon.. been looking at them and where i want to locate them, 1st is a real temp guage, cause the only time my truck seems to reach the "O " or "R" of normal on the temp gauge is when i am towing something.. and i definately want to know i have oil pressure... this morning was just a reminder how much i need the good guages i guess.... thanks guys...

 

['94IDITurbo7.3]

water temp, oil pressure, boost, egt, vac(if you still have vac brakes) fuel pressure if you want.