I always forget until the first 90 degree day here in VT that the 18RC in my 74 likes to blink the oil pressure light when shes been run a while. Never come full on but you can see the little devil going on and off. Basically the motor is old and too much oil is flown. So the question is what is the stock switch PSI and does anyone know of a switch with a lower PSI that i can switch out the stock one with? Thanks!
Most stock senders won't trigger a lite until dangerously low,around 5-10 psi! That's why on most of my rides I run a true pressure gauge,no idiot lights!! My engine (not stock) runs @ 75 psi & idles @ 30psi!
I know this post is a little old. However, Boonies here is a story about relying on a dumby light. I concur with toy-holic and have the same numbers and set up on my little truck. The story: I bought this beautiful 92 MR2 from an estate sell and the car had sat for 6+ years so the littl 2.0 turbo engine was dried up. I had Toyota rebuild the engine and refurbish the turbo and head, the lower end was good to go. Picked up the car and it ran and sounded ok but after the engine reached operating temp the engine sounded like a sewing machine. Drove it right back to the dealer and the damn service manager said its normal and I was to drive it for 500 miles to break in the valve train. That was the biggest bunch of Horse sh@! I ever heard and told him I would if he put it in writing that if anything broke Toyota would replace with new parts. So they did. About 350 miles into it I couldn't stand the noise and knowing what the hell was happenning to the engine. I had no oil light or any other symptoms other than a lack of power and the noise. Brought it in and told them to put it on a rack and pull the oil plug with a rag to catch the metal. Sure enough nothing but chunks coming out! The mechanic and I decided to put the plug back in, lower it, put a direct reading gage on the oil system and started it. It was runing 10PSI at 2000 rpm and about 4 at idle. Interestingly, the oils PSI light by spec comes on between 2 and 4 PSI or some silly thing like that. Soooooo, the good news is they had to replace the head and turbo at there cost with bran new toyota parts! This was over 10 years ago and I had to sell that little gem as I had two kids and a car seat wont even fit in the front seat! If your light is flickering, I would assume on the safe side and figure out what PSI that engine is creating because if not, the results could be an entire engine rebuild. Oil is the life blood of that engine, which I am sure you know... Hope it is fixed by now, but post and let us know! Cheers!!!!
