Oil Pressure ?'s 1996 3.0 MerCru

[dwoodard170]

Hi guys. I am new to this forum and looking forward to "hanging out" here and learning for you all.

On my boat the oil pressure gauge has been fairly strange ever since getting the boat a few summers ago. Sometimes it bounces around erratically other times it shows in the normal range. Lately the oil pressure is showing consistently low on the gauge.

How can I test this and what are the odds that my oil pressure is really a problem? The engine runs great with no problems and does not burn any oil at all. Also on the gauge, there are no markings to indicate what is the acceptable pressures so what should I be looking for? Thanks for your help!

Danny

 

[98Shabah]

Re: Oil Pressure ?'s 1996 3.0 MerCru

I had flaky gauges for a little while, turned out to be a bad ground.. There was only one ground wire that fed the entire gauge cluster, and it jumped from gauge to gauge with an aluminum crimp connector at each gauge terminal.. Moisture + aluminum + copper wire = white chalky corrosion at each crimp connectors.

I'd always heard the rule of thumb on oil pressure was 10lbs per 1,000rpm. I'm sure there are a lot of opinions on this.

 

[JimS123]

Re: Oil Pressure ?'s 1996 3.0 MerCru

The 3.0 should run nominally 40 psi. A little lower (few psi) at idle and a little higher at WOT.

 

[dwoodard170]

Re: Oil Pressure ?'s 1996 3.0 MerCru

Thanks guys. I will look into the bad connection idea. Is it possible for the oil pump to go bad? (Of course, I assume...) If it is going bad, how could I test it to see what is wrong? Thanks again!

 

[zbnutcase]

Re: Oil Pressure ?'s 1996 3.0 MerCru

Screw a mechanical pressure gauge into the block and run it.