LUVTruck.com

Ok, so I got my mikado running, took it out for the maiden voyage yesterday, its actually running really well. My white truck had a ad crankshaft, so I bought my green one (Mikado) with the intention of parts, mbut it turned out to be in a little better shape. I used the top half from my white one and the bottom half of the green one to make a complete engine.

So my question, are the idot lights acurate. with my 76 Mikado I drove it up to the market and back yesterday, and after it warmed up a bit, with it in gear and idling, I get an oil light. but in neutral or park, or while driving no light. Should I go out and get an actuall oil PSI gauge so I can see what it reads, are those lights acurate at all?

My temp gauge also acts wierd, it will be up in the middle normal range then all a sudden its like it quit working and its back down below cold. what the hell. maybe I will just go get a combo temp/oil psi gauge. what do you guys think?

Thanks

sounds like the ground wire... there is one behind the dash you could check other wise sheck all ground and your plug-in behind the dash it may be loose

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My old but now gone Luv...

Sorry to hijack your thread but what are you doing with your old truck? I'm on a mission to get another luv truck. Ideally a '76 or '77 but wouldn't you know it, just when I've got some money to get one, the market of advertised trucks has dried up.

So is your white truck in pretty good shape with exception of the engine of course? Rust, interior, etc?

Eric Q.

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'75 body with '82 diesel running gear
My build thread.

Sounds like the truck doesn't have enough oil pressure at idle, in gear, and the light comes on.

I think what your asking is at what pressure does the light come on. My '76 manual says the range for the pressure switch is 4.27-7.11 PSI.

You'd have to install a gage to check it's accuracy.
Or pull the sensor and bench test it with a regulator and air.
Or just buy a new sensor.

Is your truck an automatic?

I had/have a similar problem in the '78, and I'm curious what the oil pressure should be? My lamp flickering has improved since I put in a can of Restore, now it only does it after high speed driving, but it's an obvious indicator that the engine is tired.

So the fix is normally what? Rings? What else causes low oil pressure at idle?

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"If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves" - Thomas Edison

Let me take a crack at this using the knowledge gained from reading other previous posts. Please correct me if I'm wrong as I don't want to leave mis-information laying about.

I wouldn't guess rings as much as main bearings. Bad rings would lower your compression but I don't think there's oil under pressure behind them. Sloppy bearings on the other hand would let the oil go past w/o maintaining the oil pressure.

Well, knowledgable ones, have I learned anything from this site?

Eric Q.

P.S. And from what I saw during FullaLuv's experience, the best way to correct a bearing problem is to visit a machine shop...

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'75 body with '82 diesel running gear
My build thread.

Correct.

Too much bearing clearance is the main reason on a high-mileage motor. Not only main and rod bearings, but everything that is oil supplied wears out. It starts to add up as the miles pile on. Even the oil pump wears out a little over time and doesn't pump as much.

Assuming you've changed the oil and oil filter already, you can always bump up to the next oil weight. For example, if your running 10W-40, go to 20W-50.

The rule of thumb for oil pressure is 8-10 PSI for every 1000 RPM. So 1000 RPM would need 8-10 PSI, 2000 RPM would need 16-20 PSI, and so on.

So lets see Ben...so at 9000 rpm I would need what?

Maybe a swift kick in the butt, a cherry picker and a new engine?

(Or I could just paint my truck bright yellow and pretend to be poor.)

Ouch! Funny, but ouch!

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'75 body with '82 diesel running gear
My build thread.