Oil Pressure 6.0

gmcleer · September 30, 2017

I was wondering what oil pressures folks are seeing in their newer 6.0s. I see a little north of 20 at hot idle and never anything above 50. Sound about right for a 2017 6.0 with around 12k? My 2014 1500 5.3 had consistently higher pressures.

SierraHD17 · September 30, 2017

Mine is close to 30 hot idle and never really above 50 to 55 psi. When i first got it the thing was dipping towards 20 but an oil change helped.. was a demo and they may have been runnning 0w20 in it. The top end is clipped as these engines have a secondary pressure relief above the oil filter on the pan thst looks like a cheap air compressor psv that opens at around 55 pounds. So yeah you are normal.

SMiller · September 30, 2017

The gauge is no where even close to actual psi, you would need to plug into the OB port to see actual psi and I assure you it is fine.

I do find a quality/larger oil filter will allow higher psi across the board.

newdude · September 30, 2017

Normal.

4wdriver · September 30, 2017

Like smiller says Im sure those gauges arent 100% correct, Ive tested this on my old truck. In general I get the impression the gauges are designed to have us get used to seeing the needles pointing straight up so if there is a problem it will stand out quickly when you see a tipping needle. The gas gauge which is also up there catches my eye often for obvious reasons.

Doug Rosewood · September 30, 2017

Normal

SierraHD17 · September 30, 2017

The guages in a 2017 aren't the same junk as the gmt900 trucks had. I will test mine the next oil change for fun as it's easy with the setup I have but I bet it's reasonably close to what it actually is. If you can even pull the oil pressure off the obd port it's just the factory gauges sending unit so how much more accurate do you honestly expect it to be lol.

Doug Rosewood · September 30, 2017

You need 10 psi per 1k revolutions..

SierraHD17 · September 30, 2017

That age old thumb rule is fine.... but if your LS is making 10 pounds at hot idle you have probably spun a cam bearing or needs rods and mains. Normal is nowhere near that.

SMiller · September 30, 2017

The guages in a 2017 aren't the same junk as the gmt900 trucks had. I will test mine the next oil change for fun as it's easy with the setup I have but I bet it's reasonably close to what it actually is. If you can even pull the oil pressure off the obd port it's just the factory gauges sending unit so how much more accurate do you honestly expect it to be lol.

Not true at all.

Having been around EFIlive I can tell you the oil psi reads down to the tenth.

They call them dummy gauges for a reason.

SierraHD17 · September 30, 2017

Not true at all.

Having been around EFIlive I can tell you the oil psi reads down to the tenth.

They call them dummy gauges for a reason.

Cool story.... off the same factory sending unit the gauge uses. Whooptee doo. If you want a real reading you put a good calibrated gauge on it. It's not hard if you have the oil filter adapter which most people and probably eve dealers don't lol.

4x4Pete · October 1, 2017

The guage is just a reading of what the ecm sees on the sending unit. GM and every other manufacturer rely on the sending units to be accurate enough to alert you of engine lubrication issues. Whether or not it is 100% accurate is irrelevant. Nobody will even notice if the oil pressure is down a couple of psi anyway. Engine lubrication systems have a wide margin of safety built in If the pressure was that crucial there would be way more controls and alarms built in to prevent damage, like limp mode or a reduced rpm system. Anyway I had a 4.3 in an Astro van that had seriously low oil pressure according to the guage, never had an issue with warnings. It had over 200,000 hard miles before the rest of the van gave out. These systems rarely just break for no reason but if they do it is usually caused by some other reason- lack of maintenance, wrong oil used, excessive low oil levels, overheating, etc. A well maintained and cared for vehicle will last an indefinite amount of time.