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Old 03-17-2022, 01:24 AM
Schurkey Schurkey is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2002
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You can bleed the gauge plumbing, but it does NO DAMN GOOD WHATSOEVER. It is not at all like bleeding a brake system. The brake system has the fluid reservoir ABOVE the master cylinder and plumbing; the engine oil pan is below the oil pressure gauge plumbing.

As soon as you shut off the engine, the pressurized oil in the tubing partially drains back to the engine. The engine oil galleries partially drain back to the pan. The oil galleries are then partially-full of oil, with the rest being air. Over time, those partially-drained oil galleries pump air back into the oil pressure gauge tubing.

There is nothing you can do to prevent air getting back into the oil pressure tubing. You'll be bleeding the air out every two weeks on a "daily driver". (That was me, in 1984...after about the third time, I sat down and figured out what was happening. The primary disadvantage of plastic oil-gauge tubing is that you can see the air bubbles.)

And it DOESN'T MATTER, because that gauge reacts to pressurized air approximately as well as pressurized liquid, except with (very) slightly reduced speed. As said, the air does dampen the gauge movement some.


Last edited by Schurkey; 03-17-2022 at 01:35 AM.
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