Just an FYI if your oil pressure is bad at startup (archive)

My idiot lite used to stay on for a minimum of 30 seconds, sometimes as long as a minute(!) after startup. But, it had great pressure once it was running. If you tried to rev the thing to get the pressure to build, all I heard was them rods knockin on that crank! NOt good.

I kinda figured that the check valve keeping the oil from draining back to the pan was bad, meaning the pump was dry at startup once it sat. Also figured that a car with 152K could use a new heart to pumo the blood, so I replaced the pump and will be happy to report complete success.

The job took me about 2 hours, and now the light goes out at about the second crank of the engine. Pump with a new sprocket and pan gasket was about 125 bucks including shipping from Greenfield Imported.

Of course, I just discovered that it needs a head gasket, and I also need to get it to start a little easier, but thats another story for another time.

Thought I'd post to inform anyone who may be suffering the same problems..not sure if its a common failure on these. It never happened on my '02's...

Matt

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