No oil pressure in the 01

[91lxcoupe]

I'm posting this for my cousin.
His 01 cobra doesn't have any oil pressure in the cold morning (30ish) for about 3 minutes and then it starts fluctuating and then its fine when it warms up completely. No knocking or anything and its fine if its not that cold out. He used Mobil 1 5w20 for a while but recently switched to Motorcraft synthetic blend. Hes always used motorcraft filters BTW. He switched back to Mobil 1 and a new filter and the same thing. I know all about 5.0's but not the mod motors. Could it be the gauge, sending unit? But if it were that, it seems it would do it regardless of temp. outside. It has 60k miles and gets babied EVERYWHERE so its not been beat on at all. Any opinions are welcome.
Thanks

 

[VirtualSVT]

Sounds like its the gauge or sending unit.

Get a real pressure gauge and test it.

 

[wallie40]

Yes get a real gauge. the sending unit it only going to read if you have less than 4 or 5 pSI. It is a dummy switch. The switch is located right next to the oil filter. 30$ from ford.

-pAul

 

[speeddemon2000]

On my 98 GT my guage was bouncing at all times. I took the sending unit out and looked at it and it had bits of metal covering it. Try cleaning the sending unit and putting it back in it may save you $30. Off course in my case though I had just rebuilt the engine after Nitrous took it toll. That's why the bits of metal.

 

[Torch10th]

Same thing happened to my buddy's 95 GT. The car when it was cold would show no oil pressure then it would show pressure when it got warm. He put an autometer guage on it and pressure was fine. The sending unit had gone bad on him.

 

[dvorak]

Had the same problem with my '01 Cobra. Dealer replaced the sending unit - fixed the problem.

 

[COBRA90GT]

Replace the sending unit, it probably went bad. I had to replace mine. It is located right by the oil filter housing, very easy to replace yourself. It's like a $10 part, can do it during your next oil change. It would also be wise to get an aftermarket oil pressure gauge due to the aforementioned posts that describe the factory oil pressure gauge as a "dummy gauge." It is indeed just an open/close switch, doesn't really measure oil PSI at all...


Read my reply in the following thread for the updated part number for the oil pressure switch:

http://www.svtperformance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=216336

 

[91lxcoupe]

Thanks for all the responses guys. I didn't get the email notification about a reply so sorry for the delay. I put a mechanical gauge on it and it was fine so I lucked up and found a sending unit in stock at the local ford dealer and everything is fine.
Thanks again for the help, ya'll were all right.