Bit concerned about the oil pressure on my 5PW engined Vortx...

At hot idle it sits very low (about 5psi) which I've read is normal but when at higher revs it never seems to go much above 20 or 30 and doesn't seem to climb much with revs after initially getting up to that level. I've done 6000 miles like this including trackdays so does this seem like an issue with the gauge rather than a genuine reading? From what I've googled, if it's really that low I get the impression the engine should have popped by now!

Get it checked with a proper gauge would be first thing to try.

But as you say,it would have knackered the engine if it was as low as the gauge says

Don't have another gauge to try unfortunately.

I just took it out for a short spin and watched the gauge closely. When it's cold the pressure rises and falls with revs as you'd expect, at about 10psi/1000rpm, so it does go higher than I thought. When it's hot though it only climbs to 20 psi or so then never goes any higher at any revs. The fact that it's temperature (or viscosity?) dependent makes me think it's not a gauge issue. Is it possible the PRV is opening prematurely or something?

[Edited on 6/5/17 by T0MMY]

What oil viscosity are you using? Is it 5w30?

5w40 fully synth motorcycle oil.

Just had a look at where the gauge connects to the engine. Could be onto something here...it's leaking Seems highly likely to be the cause of the problem, i.e. can hold a bit of pressure when the oil is thick then as it warms up it leaks more and the pressure drops.

Well had 2 attempts at trying to stop the leak and haven't quite succeeded but I found a 10 year old thread on here where it was mentioned that where the gauge is connected won't give you true oil pressure anyway, which would explain my low readings. Any idea if this is true? The gauge is currently connected to the oil gallery port above the exhaust headers on the upper left hand side of the front of the engine. The manual states this is used to confirm there is oil pressure but only by loosening it to see if oil seeps out, no mention of attaching a gauge to get an actual value.

Looks like I'm better off relocating the gauge pipe to a sandwich plate or something and then blanking that port off properly with a bolt to stop the leak.

Yeah that's correct,there is a restricter in the oil feed to the head