Oil Pressure Concern

[rphissong]

I recently received my 2023 f150 tremor, that I ordered in June. It was a long 5 month wait to receive it. It has the 402a upgraded option package, with lots if other goodies I added and has the 5.0 V8 which I absolutely love, and love everything about the truck. My only concern I have, is the oil pressure seems a little low to me. I have owned Ford trucks my whole life, and the factory Guages always run right in the mid range. This one runs only about 1/3 of the way. I have asked at the dealership about this, and they tell me it's normal. Any opinions?

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[fordtruckman2003]

Dash is just dummy gauge.
You can try using PID with a scan tool app to see real value.
This works on the 2.7 and 3.5, I'm not sure about the 5.0

https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/threads/pid-experimenting.20273/post-391221

 

[Je1279]

I can tell you that the oil pressure gauge for my 5.0 is always in the middle as you stated. If the scan tool value matches the gauge display and you verified that your oil level is correct, it could also be a faulty sensor and not an actual oil pressure problem.

 

[JExpedition07]

The gauge isn’t tied to anything and doesn’t read psi. If it reads 8 psi at the pressure switch it moves to the middle, below 8 psi it reads 0. No in between. Something is up with your instrument cluster, not the engine.

 

[Snakebitten]

^ This

The gauge is a user interface graphical object only. Not reflective of any sensor driven value whatsoever.
Yes/No value only.

 

[Samson16]

The gauge isn’t tied to anything and doesn’t read psi. If it reads 8 psi at the pressure switch it moves to the middle, below 8 psi it reads 0. No in between. Something is up with your instrument cluster, not the engine.

Great bit of info there. I swapped boost psi for oil pressure this morning, and it drops immediately to zero when running on the HVB, and then snaps to mid range when the engine fires up matching your go/no-go description. I'll switch back to boost psi for the drive home. I'm sure if the oil pressure doesn't come up there will be other red flags lol.

Oil pressure story: Back in high school, my friends' dad let us take his 1972 Porsche 911 Targa from Klein to New Braunfels for spring break. He gave us specific instructions on start-up that we wait until the oil pressure dropped to within a specified range before putting it in gear. He ran heavy weight oil in the air-cooled flat six. I took care of that car like Chuck Yeager and his P51. I still remember the feeling.

 

[Je1279]

@JExpedition07, @Snakebitten Good to know, this is my first vehicle with digital gauges. Is the oil pressure the only on/off type of gauge? Both the engine temp and transmission temp seem to have about four different positions as they warm up.

 

[fordtruckman2003]

Great bit of info there. I swapped boost psi for oil pressure this morning, and it drops immediately to zero when running on the HVB, and then snaps to mid range when the engine fires up matching your go/no-go description. I'll switch back to boost psi for the drive home. I'm sure if the oil pressure doesn't come up there will be other red flags lol.

Oil pressure story: Back in high school, my friends' dad let us take his 1972 Porsche 911 Targa from Klein to New Braunfels for spring break. He gave us specific instructions on start-up that we wait until the oil pressure dropped to within a specified range before putting it in gear. He ran heavy weight oil in the air-cooled flat six. I took care of that car like Chuck Yeager and his P51. I still remember the feeling.

3.5 can use the oil pressure PID if you are curious what the oil pressure is really doing.

@JExpedition07, @Snakebitten Good to know, this is my first vehicle with digital gauges. Is the oil pressure the only on/off type of gauge? Both the engine temp and transmission temp seem to have about four different positions as they warm up.

You can use Forscan to enable numerical values for engine and transmission temperature. Gives you true idea of what is going on because those are also dumb gauges. No option to do that with oil pressure or boost though.

 

[Snakebitten]

@JExpedition07, @Snakebitten Good to know, this is my first vehicle with digital gauges. Is the oil pressure the only on/off type of gauge? Both the engine temp and transmission temp seem to have about four different positions as they warm up.

As Fordtruckman states above, you can enable the numerical values on the instrument cluster and see the actual PID value displayed just below the digital gauge. Then you can witness for yourself the disparity between the two.

 

[fordtruckman2003]

Engine temperature never gets over 199 on mine. Even on hot summer days when it's too hot for MC and I want the AC. The gauge that lies the most is the transmission. Outdoor temperature and running temperature are basically same on that gauge for me.

 

[JExpedition07]

You probably would shit your pants if you saw what the gen 2 EcoBoosts and 5.0 are running for oil pressure at hot idle. I haven’t seen it first hand but I’ve read up some back in my Expedition forum days. They all now have variable displacement oil pumps and some sources say they can dip as low as 11 psi at idle. There was a guy on the Expedition forum who had a long and agonizing fight with Ford over his 2018 Expedition 3.5 EB. It made nasty metal scraping sounds at idle and pounced like the old 5.4’s did when the oil pumps went out. Turned out there was an issue with the solenoid in the variable displacement pump and it was getting 5-6 psi at idle. The engine consumed itself and then Ford tried to void his warranty because he had tuned it. He understantably went to Chevrolet and said goodbye to Ford after a long battle over the engine replacement (he won). But what was concerning was the data he was given by the dealer, who stated 7 psi at idle was acceptable for the gen 2 EcoBoost.

Even the Godzilla is using a solenoid regulated oil pump. The commercial duty (box truck) version is running a cheaper cam. This cam uses a differing hardening process for the lobes. The low oil pressure at idle has been suspected of chewing up the cheaper cam lobes and destroying engines. Ford just discontinued this “economy” version of the 7.3 as well, and now only offers standard output with the better camshaft. The pickups seem to be holding up just fine.

My point here is they are avoiding a lot of customer complaints of low oil pressure that aren’t really an issue. At low demand to boost efficiency they run lower pressures these days. Pressures that are regulated and safe now, but by standards from yesteryear would be indicative of a failing pump on a direct gerator with no solenoid.

 

[F150ATW]

I had 4 trucks with the digital cluster..2 3.5 ecoboost and 2 with the 5.0. All trucks where sitting at the low oil pressure. My 22 expedition it's different, oil pressure sits right at the center..most likely it's the program in the f150 cluster.

 

[Snakebitten]

I monitored oil pressure (with HP Tuners Ngauge) for 4 years on my Gen2 3.5 Ecoboost.

I found it basically behaved identical to both of my Powerboost, except it appears that Ford has lowered the torque request threshold for triggering the high pressure stage on the new trucks.

It's true that my Gen2 would idle, and even cruise (low load/torque request) at the low pressure stage, but on my truck that was 26-34psi.
Note that I ran 0W-40 in that truck, so it's likely that 5-30 would be a few psi less at full operating temps?

This yahoo mentions a few things about oil pressure on the Gen2 Ecoboost as he discusses his "coldstart" technique on his beloved 2018 KingRanch.



I heard that he is SO MIFFED that Ford nixed his ability to pre-oil his Gen3 Ecoboost in the Powerboost. I really hope someday someone figures out a workaround for him so he will quit torturing me. ?

 

[Je1279]

I would like to add the actual temps for those gauges, but I don't think anyone has figured out how to do it on the XLT clusters yet.

 

[Snakebitten]

No, sadly that has not been cracked yet.

You would need to monitor those PIDs with an OBD method.

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