So, had my first one ever break on me, about 30 miles out in the middle of no-where, on a saturday, thank god for USAA! $1.03 a month for towing and roadside assistance, didn't pay a dime for the tow. You may be asking why I had it towed back. No one in town had one in stock, so I ordered one from the zone, got it today, got it on. Here's the carnage pics, had to drive it about 2 miles an hour for a half mile to the highway or they wouldn't come get it.







Heres the other issue. I know the 3.0's oil pressure fluctuates with RPM's pretty crazy. However, at low RPM's, i.e.- when the a/c is on at idle, the oil pressure dang near bottoms out. Thats the only running issue it has right now. Other than the oil pressure, the truck runs great, Jonnyboy on here has a 3.4 swapped runner, even he was suprised at how it ran, very peppy, enough that it will light up 31's and chirp second if I'm really getting it. But, what do you guys and gals think about the oil pressure, worry about it, or let it rid?

 

Also, the truck is on synthetic, 10W-30, just did oil and filter on last friday.

 

I think low oil pressure at idle is fine. Take a look in your FSM - I think the spec is something like 4psi! I used to have a 3.0 with like 180k and it always did that. In fact my 22re does that too now that I think about it.

 

I use 5w30 and it fluctuates like that too. but when I first change my oil, its pretty high, near the 2nd line, i'd say.

 

My opinion, your oil pressue is fine.

Mine was running low in town in 100 degree heat, idling in traffic. I put a cheap mechanical gage on it and ran the tube into the cab so that I could drive down the road and see what it was doing. It never got lower than 15 PSI at idle and usually was at 50 PSI at freeway speed. At startup on a cold morning it does get up over 100 PSI, and that is only 5/8 of the way up the factory gage. I started running 5W30 in it, which helped drop the statup pressures to 75 PSI, but still the same pressure at idle and freeway once it was warmed up. If I could reliably find 0W30 I would run that to get the oil moving faster when it is cold.

If you want, go get a cheap mechanical gage at Kragen, hook it up, and find out what your pressures really are.

Mike

 

Yep, as an arizona truck I can tell you when the oil is warm the needle moves all over the place. The only thing that scares me or makes me pay attention is when I don't see it move for 5 minutes, if it's just sat on the low side when I'm on the throttle and doing "stuff" I pay attention.

Usually it only does this when I've been driving around at an angle for awhile and goes back to normal when I'm level.

It's a pretty useless gauge.

 

figured as much. Of three 3.0's I've had in the past, this one has lowest pressure at idle. Also, when ambient temp is 100-105 degrees (usually by 9 a.m.) it still high idles like its cold out till it warms up. Never had one do this either.