(sorry- long post!)<br /><br />1985 Bayliner with 225 hp OMC outdrive (800 Stringer w/ 5.0L v8-305 chev). Recently acquired this boat, which was represented as having approximately 200 hours. I think the actual hours may be a little bit more than that, but I have no reason to believe they are not in the ballpark. I have run the boat a few times and it performed flawlessly with oil pressure between 20-50 psi.<br /><br />On my most recent outing, I had not run more than 30 minutes, when I noticed the oil pressure had dropped to zero. Im not sure how long I ran it like that before noticing, but do know that the oil pressure looked good when I first started out. I shut the engine down, and checked the oil level- good. I re-started it, and listened for lifter noise or bearing knock- nothing. Suspecting maybe a bad gauge, sending unit, or connection, I revved the engine a bit to see if the needle would move. The needle rose ever so slightly, but still less than 5 psi. I looked under each valve cover (through the oil fill openings) to see if I could tell if there was proper oiling, but due to my lack of experience was unable to make a conclusion. (There did seem to be some oil flow, though.) The engine temp was normal. Still suspecting a problem with the gauge, sending unit, or wiring, but not wanting to really screw things up if wrong, I slowly idled back to the dock and trailered up.<br /><br />I assume the next logical step would be to hook up a mechanical gauge to determine the true pressure, but as I have not yet had time to do that, I thought I would fish this forum for possible scenarios. Anyone care to float a theory for what is going on here? I am hoping like a fool that it is something simple (sending unit, etc
), but the fact that the needle does register a pressure increase (albeit small) with RPM increase, has me worried about the graver possibilities.<br /><br />Thanks!
)