Occasional Oil Pressure Light for 2-3 seconds in my 318. Should I panic?
I daily drive my 72 Swinger with a remanufactured 318 (probably has ~1500 miles on it at this point). I believe the reman motor was obtained through one of the big parts chains. The car starts/runs/pulls great. But every once in a while I get my oil light coming on for a couple seconds -- sometimes on a hard turn freeway entrance, sometimes going straight. I don't baby it, but I don't step on the thing too hard -- its a cool retro driver, not a performance car. I've been a good boy and have changed the oil and filter three times since the motor was put in, with zinc additive each time.
Facts and questions:
I daily drive my 72 Swinger with a remanufactured 318 (probably has ~1500 miles on it at this point). I believe the reman motor was obtained through one of the big parts chains. The car starts/runs/pulls great. But every once in a while I get my oil light coming on for a couple seconds -- sometimes on a hard turn freeway entrance, sometimes going straight. I don't baby it, but I don't step on the thing too hard -- its a cool retro driver, not a performance car. I've been a good boy and have changed the oil and filter three times since the motor was put in, with zinc additive each time.
Facts and questions:
- At my first oil change, I filled to the full line on the dipstick, and I was getting a frequent oil light. Ran it for less than a minute and put another quart in it and it mostly stopped. The old engine was fine at the full-line on the dipstick, so I'm not sure what changed.
- It doesn't happen every time I drive, and it doesn't happen going down the freeway. It's mostly on the streets at < 40mph. Other than the hard-turn-freeway-entrance there is nothing obvious about the conditions when it does happen (its usually on flat road -- we don't have many hills around here). It's not getting more frequent or less frequent.
- The pan is the original (I know because a PO must have long ago tried to jack up the car using the pan and it's slightly convex on the bottom). Is there a chance that the reman engine came with a pickup that doesn't go deep enough into the pan? Is it even a thing that there can be a "wrong pickup" or a "right pickup"? Could a marginally dented (but not leaking) pan cause problems like this?
- Not sure on the age of the oil pressure sender -- could a bad one cause this?
- Wix oil filter -- not sure of the # but it fits and clearly works. Running 10-40 dinosaur Penzoil. Long Beach CA (almost always below 100F and above 50F)
- Not sure its relevant, but the guy who installed the motor accidentally sent the 90-degree oil filter adapter back with the core, so we just used the Mancini Racing plate and it all seems to work fine.