Oil Pressure Gauge Finally Working, 3S-GTE Oil Pressure Options

[Fastbird]

Tuner Toys adapter came in today. Just got it hooked up after the wife came home from work with the car. Now my question.....

What's oil pressure supposed to be at for the 3S???? Right now it's at 10-20 PSI at idle and at 1500 RPM's it's come up to around 40 PSI, and on a free rev up to about 3500-4000 RPM the pressure comes up to about 58 PSI. The load (if you want to call an idle rev that) pressure responds for what I consider to be fine (approx 10 PSI per 1K rpm), but I'm left wondering if the idle pressure is low at all. Eighteen PSI at idle to me just isn't the best.

Which leads me to this question: Obviously the oil pressure sending unit is on the head. But where on the head does it actually take the pressure reading from?? Is it a open area on the head with oil flowing around it or is it actually in an oil passage?

Thanks guys.

[Dr_Tweak]

Glad you got it going. Sounds like your oil pressure readings are right on. You're running dino 10W30 in it right now, and I recommend dino oil with a shorter timeframe in between changes over using synthetic and waiting two or three times as long to change it like they say you can.

-Doc

[Bitter]

Glad you got it going. Sounds like your oil pressure readings are right on. You're running dino 10W30 in it right now, and I recommend dino oil with a shorter timeframe in between changes over using synthetic and waiting two or three times as long to change it like they say you can.

-Doc

what about syn with 3-4K intervals? i would worry about the oil getting cooked in the turbo or in any engine hotspots. even my dumpy 7afe gets syn or syn blend, right now im going on 4 or 5K with 7.5K mobil blend, it'll get changed before it gets too cold, then i can ride on one change over winter without having to worry.

[Dr_Tweak]

Glad you got it going. Sounds like your oil pressure readings are right on. You're running dino 10W30 in it right now, and I recommend dino oil with a shorter timeframe in between changes over using synthetic and waiting two or three times as long to change it like they say you can.

-Doc

what about syn with 3-4K intervals? i would worry about the oil getting cooked in the turbo or in any engine hotspots. even my dumpy 7afe gets syn or syn blend, right now im going on 4 or 5K with 7.5K mobil blend, it'll get changed before it gets too cold, then i can ride on one change over winter without having to worry.

The turbo is water-cooled, so there's no issue with oil coking. While we could write an entire thread on the choice of oil, Toyota recommends 10W30 dino oil with a 3k miles change interval under "severe" conditions, and it works perfectly for well beyond 200,000 miles when it's kept up with.

That said, everyone thinks that they're an expert on oil because of something they read on the internet, or something their uncle's best friend's fiance's nephew told them, and there's no end to very strong opinions on the subject. My father-in-law, for example, will use NOTHING but Amsoil sythetic in his cars with a 10k mile change interval, and he'll go on for hours about why it's the best if you let him. Make your choice, but in the end, most choices have the same end result.

-Doc

[alltracman78]

The turbo is water-cooled, so there's no issue with oil coking. While we could write an entire thread on the choice of oil, Toyota recommends 10W30 dino oil with a 3k miles change interval under "severe" conditions, and it works perfectly for well beyond 200,000 miles when it's kept up with.

Even though it's water cooled it still CAN coke. Highly unlikely, but still possible. Just good to be aware of.

Toyota actually recommends 2500 mile changes for REGULAR conditions for the 3SGTE. Not 3000 miiles for severe conditions. This is with regular oil, not synth.
I run Mobil 1 synth, but I still change every 3k or so. It's nice to have a larger window for changes.

And for the record, the previous owner didnt' run synth. My engine now has 165xxx. Still runs like a charm.
I have replaced all the seals, but the bearings and rings are still the original ones.

[Bitter]

And for the record, the previous owner didnt' run synth. My engine now has 165xxx. Still runs like a charm.
I have replaced all the seals, but the bearings and rings are still the original ones.

i switched to synthetic and my valve seals have gotten alot less leaky, for me synthetic had positive benefits. really tho, if your engine oil is only being held in by deposits of gunk you've got bigger problems then worrying about synthetic vs regular

[Fastbird]

i switched to synthetic and my valve seals have gotten alot less leaky, for me synthetic had positive benefits. really tho, if your engine oil is only being held in by deposits of gunk you've got bigger problems then worrying about synthetic vs regular

I'd double check that. Synthetic oil is inherently thinner than dino oil which is why 90% of the time when you take a higher mileage motor which hasn't been run on synthetic and swap to the man-made stuff, you'll end up with leaks. The synthetic can find it's way past points that wouldn't have leaked with the dino oil. Viscosity aside, a 10W-30 synthetic is going to be thinner than a 10W-30 dino.

As for your valve seals being less leaky after the synthetic swap, did you put any thought towards the possibility of oil drainback being improved with the synthetic to the point that it doesn't gang up on the valve seals?

This post has been edited by Fastbird: Aug 12, 2006 - 9:18 AM