what should oil pressure be on the xflow?

the gauge shows about 2.5 on cold driving above 2000rpm

2 when above 2000rpm and engine hot

what bugs me is its at .5 when idling when its hot

i cant remember the scale but its a norman equus gauge

That works out to

2.5 bar = roughly 40-ish psi
2.0 bar = roughly 30 psi
0.5 = roughly 7.5 psi

For a x-flow with a standard oil pump the first 2 values are lowish but typical. The idling psi seems rather low.

Does the oil pressure warning light come on?

Any unexpected rumblings from the engine?

I'm sure that you'll get a few other comments...

cheers,
David

Sounds normal to me.

But what oil grade and oil temperature (hot)

shell helix plus 15W50

not sure on oil temp as i don't have a oil temp gauge - as well not have a oil pressure warning light, i was thinking the gauge should be enough

On a standard pump around 2 Bar is pretty normal, when hot on idle the gauge does drop, due to lower pressure and also lower voltage from the alternator at idle.
I would fit an oil pressure light even if it is just to let you know when your engine is truly knackered!!

Cheers

Don't get too hung up on gauge readings, mine made me so paranoid, I nearly took it off. Pressure light never comes on, so I left it.

0.7bar hot on tickover after 100mph run from Harrogate last year.

You might like to check the oil pump wear is within tolerance - it's an easy enough job, just means taking the oil pump off, then its end cover, and seeing how much of a gap there is between the rotors and a straight edge.

Sounds like you don't need to worry too much, from what people are saying.

Is 15W50 good enough in the hot SA climate? Originally the engine would have used 20W50 in the UK climate (but I wouldn't get too hung up about that either!).

It is worth remembering that oil sender units are notoriously inaccurate. I recently changed my sender due to weird (and very low) readings - now my oil pressure is apparently over 7 bar when cold!! I now regard the gauge as a very rough guide.
I dismantled the old sender to see how it worked and it is basically a small piston connected to a wirewound pot - not exactly rocket science and presumeably prone to failure.

[Edited on 2-7-07 by RazMan]