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proper oil pressure reading in non-turbo 240? 200 1980

posted by  drj434343 on  Mon Jan 31 10:09 CST 2005
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last visit: Thu Oct 24 09:46 CST 2013
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I recently added an oil pressure gauge from a turbo 240 to my non-turbo 1980 245, swapping out the sender from the same car. When I had it installed and working, for several weeks the gauge would read between 4.5-5 bars, while driving at speed, idling, and even after the engine had turned off. I know it wasn't pegging out, and the gauge would move small amounts while driving, leading me to believe it wasn't stuck or broken. But recently, during a long road trip, I noticed that now while driving, at speed it reads about 3.7-4, when idling 3-4, and when I turn the engine off it reads a 1-2. Although the later conditions seem more normal for an oil pressure reading, I'm still nervous because it did change so drastically from the begining. Can anyone tell me what a normal reading is? Should I be worried?

Jason








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    proper oil pressure reading in non-turbo 240? 200 1980

    posted by  Volvodad on  Mon Jan 31 17:19 CST 2005
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    last visit: Thu Oct 23 16:18 CST 2014
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    The needle should drop quickly to zero when the key is switched off. If not, you may have either wired it in some funky fashion or the gauge is bad.

    The gauge only gets electric power when the ignition is on (assuming you have wired it according to Volvo's original layout). The factory wiring diagrams show the gauge gets power from Fuse 13 to terminal "+" on a Blue/Red wire, is grounded via a Black wire to Terminal "-" and is connected to the sender via a Green wire to Terminal "G". This should make the needle drop to zero immediately the ignition is cut, regardless of what the sender may be doing (stuck, shorted, still seeing some residual pressure, whatever).

    If you have a good multimeter, you can disconnect the Green wire at the sender and check the sender's resistance at that terminal (to ground) with the oil hot, and by varying the RPM's. If resistance varies with RPM (I believe it should go DOWN as RPM/oil pressure rises), the sender may be OK.

    Oil (10W30) pressures in a healthy B21/23/230 should be something like this: 5 bars with cold oil at anything over about 2000RPM; 2 to 3 bars at hot idle 800RPM; 3.5 to 4 bars at full hot temperature and highway speeds (2500-3000RPM). I'm taking these numbers from my mechanical VDO gauge which I checked against a quality industrial unit.
    --
    Bob (son's 81-244GL B21F, dtr's 83-244DL B23F, 'my' 94-944 B230FD; plus grocery-getter Dodge minivan, hobbycar 77 MGB, and numerous old motorcycles)








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    proper oil pressure reading in non-turbo 240? 200 1980

    posted by  stoney on  Mon Jan 31 15:02 CST 2005
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    last visit: Wed Oct 22 17:48 CST 2014
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    The sender is probably bad or the inlet clogged with sludge.

    Try removing the sender and cleaning the small hole in flat end of the threaded portion using a light solvent (WD 40 or Kerosene) and see if that returns the reading to normal levels.

    I have seen a false oil pressure reading due to a clogged sender cause someone to drop out of a rally, as they thought they had lost the oil pump. A quick check with a conventional oil pressure gauge proved it was the sender.

    You can replace the sender with a VDO (OEM maker) from egauges. The 5 bar gauge translates to 0-80 psi (1 bar is 14.5 PSI as I recall).







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