My 74 Spitfire MK 4 has been doing something really wierd with
its oil pressure. When you start it in the morning, the oil
pressure light stays off, even when the car is idling as slowly as
possible. However, after you drive for a while (~1/2 hr),
the light stays on at idle, and you have to rev the engine to
some higher RPM (hereafter referred to as 'R') to get the light to
go out.
Two weeks ago, 'R' was 1000RPM
Four days ago, 'R' was 1500RPM.
Saturday, 'R' was 2000RPM
Yesterday, I changed the filter, thinking it might be clogging.
Then today, 'R' was 2700RPM, and I am afraid to drive home.
The thing to remember is that if you let the car sit
overnight, 'R' is back to under 500RPM. Clearly, hot oil
is less viscous than cold oil, so I would expect the
pressure to be somewhat lower when the oil warms up.
But I don't see how this could account for such a dramatic
change as the oil warms up, or the fact that the problem
has been getting worse every day.
Is my oil pump disintegrating??? Could the pressure sender
be failing in a strange way???
The engine has about 104K miles, and does not burn oil, has
good compression, etc. Also, the rod bearings were replaced
recently.
Doug Braun Intel Corp CAD
408 765-4279
dbraun@scdt.intel.com
or maybe:
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