4.3 liter mercruiser- no oil pressure showing at gauge

Loaded Bullet

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Just changed oil in my 1999 4.3 liter mercruiser with Mobile 1 10-30 synthetic and a K&N oil filter. Showed good oil pressure when I warmed up the engine before the oil change and now that I have new oil and filter on and started the engine for initial warmup period it show's no oil pressure at the gauge. Engine sounds fine and oil level is up. Not sure if there may be goop in the sending unit or ?????????. Changed oil in a lot of engines and never had one not return oil pressure to the gauge. Scratching my head. Any ideas?
 

Bondo

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Re: 4.3 liter mercruiser- no oil pressure showing at gauge

Ayuh,... Welcome Aboard,... probably be coincidence...

Ground the sensor wire,+ see if the gauge pegs,...
Plumb in a mechanical gauge,...
 

180shabah

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Re: 4.3 liter mercruiser- no oil pressure showing at gauge

verify with mechanical gauge before you do anything, don't want to risk the engine.
 

Loaded Bullet

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Re: 4.3 liter mercruiser- no oil pressure showing at gauge

Plumbed in mechanical gauge. No pressure. Coincidence that my oil pump takes a dump between an oil change??? Strange. Also tried grounding the wire to the electric gauge and it does not seem to max peg. I suppose this 4.3 has the mechanical oil pump located inside the pan! :( Just my luck.
 

xltier

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Re: 4.3 liter mercruiser- no oil pressure showing at gauge

Plumbed in mechanical gauge. No pressure. Coincidence that my oil pump takes a dump between an oil change??? Strange. Also tried grounding the wire to the electric gauge and it does not seem to max peg. I suppose this 4.3 has the mechanical oil pump located inside the pan! :( Just my luck.

if you have no pressure the valve lifters should be clacking away.
 

180shabah

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Re: 4.3 liter mercruiser- no oil pressure showing at gauge

zero oil pressure = pullin' the engine. pretty common for the pickup tube to drop into the pan.
 

Loaded Bullet

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Re: 4.3 liter mercruiser- no oil pressure showing at gauge

Crazy luck. I actually tried 3 different mechanical gauges and got no pressure from any of them but I noticed nice clean oil on the tip of the threaded part of the gauge when I pulled them out, so I figured I would turn the engine over to see if I actually had any oil at that point, when I did it there was some oil but not a lot until I pulled the cap off of the filler tube. I reinstalled the mechanical gauge and sure enough I have pressure again. Put the sending unit back on and my dash gauge is back to normal also. All I can figure is that by using the siphon type oil change through the dipsitck tube that I created an air lock in the system somewhere. Wow! sure glad I don't need to pull the engine! Thanks for you input and ideas. Sometimes it's good to walk away from the problem for awhile and talk to somebody rather than beating yourself up over it and overthinking. Ice is off the lakes, I'm goin' boatin!!
 

Don S

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Re: 4.3 liter mercruiser- no oil pressure showing at gauge

All I can figure is that by using the siphon type oil change through the dipsitck tube that I created an air lock in the system somewhere.

That shouldn't be possible.
 

achris

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Re: 4.3 liter mercruiser- no oil pressure showing at gauge

.... All I can figure is that by using the siphon type oil change through the dipsitck tube that I created an air lock in the system somewhere. ....

Nope... Crankcase is externally vented... Can't pull a vacuum inside (or anything close to that)... This DOES NOT make sense.

Maybe a bit of crud in the sender hole that got blown out when you ran the engine with nothing in the hole?

Glad you're all fixed. :D:D

Chris.........
 
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