NA oil pressure gauge

Ajay · Postby **Ajay** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 6:19 pm

hey guys..

just spent the afternoon replacing my oil and cleaning the air filter etc. after i put it all back together i noticed that my oil pressure gauge sits at about 3/4 and when i accelerate (put my foot right down) it goes all the way to the end (red part)

im not much of a engine person.. but just wanted to check it was normal.. if i remember correctly before it sat about half way and climbed up to about 3/4 when i put my foot down

Kind Regards
Ajay

Fatty · Postby **Fatty** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 6:26 pm

did you replace your oil with the same stuff as before, or something a bit thinner or thicker? it will change depending on oil temp, too.

Juffa · Postby **Juffa** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 6:29 pm

Not so unusual for new oil and when it is cold. Once warmed up it should drop to around 2k at idle.

Ajay · Postby **Ajay** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 8:07 pm

i used 20 -50 oil..

im going for a big drive up the blue mountains tonight so ill see how it goes..

green_comet · Postby **green_comet** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 12:12 pm

20w 50 Seems a bit thick to me..

SuperMazdaKart · Postby **SuperMazdaKart** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 2:14 pm

yeh..

at least 10w40 or 10w50.

adamjp · Postby **adamjp** » Sat Jul 28, 2007 3:05 pm

20w 50 Seems a bit thick to me

Why?

Look at the sticker under the bonnet of your car.....the one on my NA6 says for operating temperatures above -10 deg C you should run 20W50.

Look at what the oil companies recommend (again B6 engine)
Shell 15W50
Mobil 10W40, 15W40, 20W50 or 5W50
Valvoline 15W40 or 20W50
Penrite 15W60
Castrol 10W40 or 15W40

I run Penrite HPR10 (10W60) in winter, and it gets below 0 for 4 months of the year at my place.

The B6 and BP engines that we have in our cars were not built with ultra tight tolerances like the current crop of engines, but we tend to drive them hard. For these reasons an oil with a higher viscosity rating is valuable as it means that it will continue to lubricate under high temperatures.

This fad of running ultra-light oils in otherwise stock MX5 engines is a bit silly, and terribly expensive. You gain nothing, and in summer risk a substantial engine failure due to oil losing it's lubricating properties.