Oil pressure

[hercman]

Ok I have a 98 1500 with the 5.7L The truck has 91,000 miles on it. I have a question about the oil pressure. Today I checked the oil and it was a quart and a half low. So I added oil. Afterwords I noticed my oil pressure guage (stock guage) was jumping up and down erratically ( needle seemed to hang up and would stick pressure would drop to about 30 then spike to 50 rev it up to about 2500 then idle it off pressure would drop to 30-40 stick then jump to 50. The needle wasn't moving smoothly. At the time I couldn't see any smoke in the exhaust. Is there a way to verify the oil pressure reading? I am concerned because when I got home and had the wife rev the engine it looks to be burning oil and my oil pressure guage would drop to 0 for a few seconds then back upto about 50. Oil level is fine. I still have to pull the plugs to see what cylinder/cylinders is the culprit. I'm hoping I just need new valve seals. Any one expierence this or have any suggestions. I'm sorry if my post is hard to understand.

[mcreyaufmiller]

Could be your oil pump gone bad. I have never heard of oil pressure changing that much. Could also be your sending switch gone bad. You could buy a cheap gauge at a parts store and hook it up in place to see if it is the gauge.

[hercman]

I wonder if I could use my multi meter to compare sender voltage to guage reading. Any one know if that would be possible? I did find out I can hook a direct reading guage to the oil pressure sending unit. That way I can verify if I do have good pressure or not. I'd still like to know if I can use a multi meter to test my guage though.

[hercman]

I wonder if I could use my multi meter to compare sender voltage to guage reading.  Any one know if that would be possible?  I did find out I can hook a direct reading guage to the oil pressure sending unit.  That way I can verify if I do have good pressure or not.  I'd still like to know if I can use a multi meter to test my guage though.

 

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Ok so where is the oil pressure sending unit? My book says it's above the oil filter. But there is no wires around there. Only the oil lines to the oil cooler. By the way my plugs are fine no sign of burning oil. Maybe what I thought was smoke was heavy steam. Checked the coolant no oil in there and no coolant in the oil pan. So no problems that way. No leaks of any kind. Now where could 1 1/2 quarts go in one month?