oil pressure problem on 94 4 cyl

[donaldd34]

Problem started with oil light flickering, found oil was low, but still between ADD and FULL. Added some oil and brought it up to FULL. Went on my way, and after another 10 minutes the oil pressure light again flickered.

Got home and the next day (cold) screwed in a mechanical gauge and started the engine and the pressure slowly rose up to 15 but stayed there ragardless of RPM, Restarted the engine and now the pressure goes to 20 and then varies with RPM up to 50 at 3000RPM.

Have tried this on 3 different days with engine cold and swapped in a 2nd mechanical gauge. Always the same result.

The engine has always been run on synthetic oil so I would not suspect sludge or varnish.

Has anyone come across this before?

[Eye8Pussies]

oil pump?

[donaldd34]

When the oil pump goes it produces low oil pressure. This seems to be an odd startup oil pressure problem. It could be a sticking oil pressure relief valve, but should not happen given that the engine has always seen synthetic oil.