Low oil pressure issue
Thread Starter
Heel & Toe
Joined: May 2023
Posts: 19
Likes: 2
Low oil pressure issue
I have a stock ls3 in a z51 car and when i drive it’s mildly hard (not pushing the car but a little heavy on throttle) the oil gets up to 240-250 while coolant rarely breaks 220 and my oil pressure drops to 30 psi at almost all times when it is this hot. i plan on putting a cam headers maybe ported heads and in the far future potentially a supercharger and i do plan on tracking the car. what oil pump upgrade should i get and should i upgrade to an external oil cooler and is it worth it getting an upgraded radiator at this point?
Thread Starter
Heel & Toe
Joined: May 2023
Posts: 19
Likes: 2
the temp got that high driving in the canyons but never really going over 4K rpm
Instructor
Joined: Aug 2020
Posts: 217
Likes: 58
From: Sonoma County, CA
Sounds like an issue to me. When I had lower pressure than normal even under load and high oil temp it turned out to be a spun bearing generating that heat and leaking pressure. I would solve this before throwing a blower on imo.
Pro
Joined: Feb 2022
Posts: 635
Likes: 271
From: Hampton, VA
Ah yea, I'd agree you may have an issue. Time to drain oil and send it off for analysis and then cut open the oil filter and have a look.
Thread Starter
Heel & Toe
Joined: May 2023
Posts: 19
Likes: 2
To clarify I’m not only trying to solve this issue but i want to upgrade it to prepare for track use and for more power. I want to know what is the best and or necessary upgrades for the ls3 in relation to oil and potentially trans and diff coolers as well
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Melting Slicks
Joined: Jan 2017
Posts: 2,706
Likes: 897
From: CONCORD CA.
for what it's worth, my stock LS3 ('09 base), when up to temp (coolant @ idle: 195°'ish), the oil pressure drops to about 25 psi. on the freeway it runs around 39 psi. (engine has about 35k miles).
Drifting
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 1,786
Likes: 93
From: Charlotte N.C.
Oil pressure sounds fine if you are using 5w-30 or lower viscosity. Temp sounds a bit high for just cruising and not tracking the car. I never push my car until the temp is at least 200 degrees. Make sure you have free airflow to your oil cooler.