[DaveC113]

Originally Posted by the_bulgarian

First of all, thank you everyone for the replies.


Car was imported to Eastern Europe from an auction in the US due to theft and minor underside damage. I bought it from some enthusiast who had 3 Camaros.
I can post the auction link if anyone's interested.
No maintenance records to speak of, it was driven very little in the last 1 year before I bought it.


I check the oil pressure pretty often and it's almost always at 30psi, occasionally climbing close to 40. I'm pretty sure it's not the oil pump, I am going to risk it and drive it tomorrow to confirm.


After that I'm going to take it to another shop that specializes in performance vehicles here, change the oil again and check it. There's no GM dealers.

I think your oil pressure is on the low side already. If a bearing gets worn there's more gap between the part and the bearing which will result in lower oil pressure. Personally, I'd stop driving and tear down the motor, there's no situation in which this is going to get better and if you keep driving you may do additional damage.

[ZLRob]

Originally Posted by DaveC113

I think your oil pressure is on the low side already. If a bearing gets worn there's more gap between the part and the bearing which will result in lower oil pressure. Personally, I'd stop driving and tear down the motor, there's no situation in which this is going to get better and if you keep driving you may do additional damage.

What makes you say he needs to tear the motor down if his oil pressure is at 30 psi during hot idle? That is not low pressure whatsoever. 20 psi is a cause for concern, but not what he is currently at.

[DaveC113]

Originally Posted by ZLRob

What makes you say he needs to tear the motor down if his oil pressure is at 30 psi during hot idle? That is not low pressure whatsoever. 20 psi is a cause for concern, but not what he is currently at.

Mine is just below 40. It has more to do with the metal in the oil though.

[ZLRob]

Originally Posted by DaveC113

Mine is just below 40. It has more to do with the metal in the oil though.

Oh yeah the metal in the oil is definitely super alarming. I see anywhere from 29.7- 31 psi at hot idle with a Katech pump, so he's definitely good with pressure as long as the thing is not internally imploding.

[RobZL1]

Must be something else going on. I've seen new trunnions have VERY small glitter in the first oil change, but nothing the size of what is in the picture (though it is hard to tell the scale of it).

[Tyrolblue67]

Originally Posted by ZLRob

Oh yeah the metal in the oil is definitely super alarming. I see anywhere from 29.7- 31 psi at hot idle with a Katech pump, so he's definitely good with pressure as long as the thing is not internally imploding.

I've seen 29-31 psi at hot idle since day one on my bone stock 2019.
The car only has about 8,400 miles on it.
I am the original owner.
My "understanding" is that usually when a pump goes bad, in the beginning stages of the failure, you'll start seeing sudden drops in pressure to around 20 psi or lower at hot idle. Then psi would spike abnormally high during acceleration.
Tyrolblue67

[arpad_m]

My idle oil pressures are also between 29 and 31-32 psi with a 2019 (part number 12686434, the latest as far as I know) GM LT1/LT4 oil pump. This pressure range is normal.

[nighttowl]

Originally Posted by Tyrolblue67

I've seen 29-31 psi at hot idle since day one on my bone stock 2019.
The car only has about 8,400 miles on it.
I am the original owner.
My "understanding" is that usually when a pump goes bad, in the beginning stages of the failure, you'll start seeing sudden drops in pressure to around 20 psi or lower at hot idle. Then psi would spike abnormally high during acceleration.
Tyrolblue67

This will happen right before it completely fails.
On my car it dropped from 38 to 30, then dropped from 30-20 after a track day.
Stealership and GM engineer said car was good to go, but I did not know they meant good to go to engine heaven.

2k miles later it completely failed, and the engine was full of broken oil pump parts.
It had to come completely apart.
The bearings needed replaced also.

[Tyrolblue67]

Originally Posted by nighttowl

This will happen right before it completely fails.
On my car it dropped from 38 to 30, then dropped from 30-20 after a track day.
Stealership and GM engineer said car was good to go, but I did not know they meant good to go to engine heaven.

2k miles later it completely failed, and the engine was full of broken oil pump parts.
It had to come completely apart.
The bearings needed replaced also.

Wow....38 psi at hot idle is impressive.
Most of the people I talk to with 2017's thru 2020's here in Michigan are seeing around 30 psi +/- 2 psi at hot idle. It seems like 2021's thru 2024's are seeing a bit more, 35-38 psi at hot idle.
They really dropped the ball on this oil pump situation.
I wish they would be more transparent about the root cause and what they did to address it.
Has your car been ok since the fix?
Tyrolblue67

[Z OH 6]

Originally Posted by ZLRob

What makes you say he needs to tear the motor down if his oil pressure is at 30 psi during hot idle? That is not low pressure whatsoever. 20 psi is a cause for concern, but not what he is currently at.

Agreed. 30psi hot at idle is 100% normal. When the oil pump starts to fail, as you stated, it drops to 20psi or so.

[nighttowl]

Originally Posted by Tyrolblue67

Has your car been ok since the fix?
Tyrolblue67

No problems, no worries either.

[ZLRob]

Originally Posted by Tyrolblue67

Wow....38 psi at hot idle is impressive.
Most of the people I talk to with 2017's thru 2020's here in Michigan are seeing around 30 psi +/- 2 psi at hot idle. It seems like 2021's thru 2024's are seeing a bit more, 35-38 psi at hot idle.
They really dropped the ball on this oil pump situation.
I wish they would be more transparent about the root cause and what they did to address it.
Has your car been ok since the fix?
Tyrolblue67

Originally Posted by Z OH 6

Agreed. 30psi hot at idle is 100% normal. When the oil pump starts to fail, as you stated, it drops to 20psi or so.

Yeah mine was starting to go out as I was starting to see it drop into the lower 20's at the time at hot idle. Luckily, at the time when I pulled it all apart, the pump internals were still visually inspecting out okay, so I didn't have to worry about shavings or glitter in the engine block so I still had a clean canvas to work with.

One factor which is not being spoken about here though is the oil viscosity being run. 5-30 oil will reflect different pressure than say 0-40 or 15-50. If you have a KNOWN GOOD oil pump, the pressure will reflect differently at idle. 35- 38 psi is questionable, but a thicker oil will cause a higher pressure readout than thinner. What is ultimately important is oil volume, not pressure. I'll take good volume over higher pressure anyday as the amount of oil passing through the system provides no sense of false security like pressure readouts do but unfortunately there is no quantifiable in dash method of reading/ tracking that.

[Tyrolblue67]

Originally Posted by nighttowl

No problems, no worries either.

Good to hear.👍

[the_bulgarian]

I went on vacation with the Merc, too scared to drive this long distance. Now I'm back and I drove the car gently until it heated up.
Oil pressure is slightly below 30psi, this is with Mobil 1 0w40 ESP x3.




I plan on driving it a bit more and then doing another oil change. If metal again - will start disassembly.