1995 chevy c2500 2x4 idle setting

Chidy1776 · August 7, 2014

Hey all. I currently have a problem with my oil pressure dropping when the truck is at a low rpm in drive or park after the oil is warm/hot. We have some ideas on the problem (suggestions are welcome) but what i really want to know is how to set my idle higher.

Currently when i stop for more then a few seconds i put the truck in nuetral and give it gas to keep the rpms up, or put it in first for driving through parking lots. I would like to be able to just put the truck in nuetral as a temporary quality of life improvement until i can get the real problem fixed. My dad knows mechanics well enough but doesnt have a lot of time to help me figure the idle out so if i knew how ahead of time, or where to start would be a huge help.

Im "adult supervised" as im not much of a mechanic myself.

Thank you in advance!

1997SierraSLT · August 8, 2014

that may be perfectly normal. My 97' K1500 5.7L oil pressure reading on the dash at idle hovered around 20 psi. At highway cruising speed it varied from 35-45 psi.

jham0077 · August 8, 2014

On almost 20 yr old vehicles, the oil pressure will be low, unless it's a new motor. That's just part of it. Mine gets around 20 also when hot.

As far as your idle goes, there is a screw under a tamper-proof plug on the throttle body. IT IS TAMPER-PROOF FOR A REASON. The only time it should be messd with is if a cam(usually a big cam) or some other form of modification has been done for performance reasons. If it's idling under 600 rpm then you may have an enigine issue that needs to be addressed. Dirty injectors, low fuel pressure, dirty air filter, TPS. These TBI engines can be a real pain in the a$$ sometimes. I kinda like the low idle(around 700) with my 5 spd.

Chidy1776 · August 8, 2014

Thank you for the info. The oild pressure is dropping to 0 and the light comes on. It has 214k miles and was running factory weight oil until we put (im pretty sure) 20-50, i kniw its very heavy but this helped a lot. Were thinking its the oil pump.

Im told by a family member that the idle is adjusted via a stop on the cable. It looks like a brake cable for a peddle bike that runs next to the throttle body and air filter drivers side. This has a lot of play in it though and hanging the screw didnt seem to affect it.