Low oil pressure and slight over heating issue

[Dbunch9]

I just took my car out on a quick trip to grab food and I noticed on the way back my oil pressure was idling a little low, then noticed my oil was almost at 250 and then my coolant temp was 220. I have a 160 stat and my coolant rarely goes over 180 and my oil usually sits around 205-210. By time I got home my oil pressure looked to be about 18psi and with my high pressure oil pump it usually sits around 30-32psi hot at idle... pretty worried there’s a big issue even though there was no weird noises or anything out of the ordinary other than the high temps and low oil pressure. Anyone have an idea of what might be going on?

[Dbunch9]

Well I went straight to panic mode and now that the car cooled off the oil pressure is back, I just have a coolant issue I need to address. The dip stick on the coolant overflow is covered in white sludge and there’s no coolant on it otherwise

[Vegas Bound]

Originally Posted by Dbunch9

Well I went straight to panic mode and now that the car cooled off the oil pressure is back, I just have a coolant issue I need to address. The dip stick on the coolant overflow is covered in white sludge and there’s no coolant on it otherwise

White sludge like creamy looking? Check your oil dipstick, if it looks the same you have serious issues.

[Dbunch9]

No sludge on the dipstick... but three tiny shavings of metal were on the tip of it. Now I’m worried again. Dipped it a second time still no sludge and no more shavings on it

[Dbunch9]

https://imgur.com/aspPWqz
Here’s a picture, checked the dipstick again and it has more shavings and the oil smells gassy. Gonna change the oil and cut the filter open this week, flush the coolant and put more in. Will check in later this week but if anyone has any ideas of something else I should look for please let me know

[go_go_gadget88]

Shavings in oil...lower oil pressure..hmmm

Is your engine stock or have you been in there for anything? Makes me wonder if you have a bearing somewhere starting to go out somewhere.

[Dbunch9]

76k miles, 25k with gpi heads and ss3 cam. When the car cooled off though, the oil pressure went back to 30+ at idle. Feel like it got so hot it lost its viscosity

[Vegas Bound]

Sounds like you are developing a mixture of coolant and engine oil. You have my condolences.

[go_go_gadget88]

Possibly. Then you need to ask, why did it get so hot that it did that? Esp with the lower tstat. Pic is hard to tell, no water signs in oil??

The shavings would be personally concerning though, but much less so if they were just there once and then not again. Could have been residual from something it picked up coming out of tube? I think your pull/cut filter is a safe bet, and will give you some insight without potentially hurting anything more. You cooled it and ran it again and it was back to 30+. Did you let it heat up again to see if it started dropping as it warmed or if it held?

[Dbunch9]

I’m not so sure there’s coolant in the oil, oil looked brand new. I think maybe there’s a coolant leak and it’s out of coolant so it’s overheating. I didn’t let it run anymore because my coolant temp started climbing so fast and my fans kicked on that I didn’t wanna damage anything. As for the gas smell on the oil, I don’t have a wideband to tell for sure but I wonder if the tune is too rich and is washing out my rings? Maybe my oil is gassy and my bearings aren’t ruined but are on the way to being ruined so there’s little bits of bearing in my oil? The tip of the dipstick reminds me the magnetic plug on our diffs, not big pieces but like those little specs that build up overtime. They really weren’t big. I’m gonna cut up my oil filter this week and see if it shows anything and also try to fix the coolant issue

[Dbunch9]

I opened the radiator cap, no milky oil in the radiator fluid and it looked like there was plenty of coolant in the radiator. Now that the engine oil was down to 150 degrees my idle oil pressure was over 40psi now. I will say tho that when I took the radiator cap off, on top of the coolant looked like a little rainbow film that gas or oil makes on water but the pictures I’ve seen of oil in coolant is milky light brownish color, not a clear rainbowish film on top.

[InFiD3ViL]

Isn't a head gasket a possibility here? I understand these MLS gaskets are very tough, but it's still a possibility.

Still doesn't explain the metal shavings though.

Dbunch, you don't have an ELM27 type OBDII scanner to use with Torque App or anything like an SCT handheld, maybe a friend with HP Tuners? You could at least check your trims to get an idea on fueling.

[Dbunch9]

My friend has hptuners but without a wideband it seems kinda useless at the moment. Maybe this is far fetched but my dip stick can be a pain in the ass to get in and out, could it have scraped on the way out and left a little scraped metal on the end of the dipstick? Still doesnt answer the low oil pressure but the pressure is fine now... can oil pressure really run that low if the oil is 40 degrees higher than usual? What happens when people have a hard track day and oil temps are 275?

[Dbunch9]

I also put new head gaskets on 2 years/25k Miles ago when I put the cam and heads in