A few possibilities come to mind. The voltage stabilizer could be bad (it's
connected to the center speedometer) and would impact the water temperature
gauge for sure and maybe the oil pressure gauge as well.
You may have air in the cooling system that's preventing circulation. Try
removing the radiator cap, disconnect the hose going to the heater control
valve on the head, and using a garden hose with very low pressure hold it on
the hose that you disconnected. This will force the air out of the heater
core (the lowest point in the cooling system in a mini) and should force any
other air pockets out the radiator. Reconnect and start it up.
Oil pressure gauges are usually mechanical, but if yours is electrical see
the voltage stabilizer above.
For low oil pressure for either type of gauge, check the oil pressure relief
valve. If it isn't seating correctly your oil pressure will always be low.
You can swap out the bullet shaped valve for a 9/16" ball bearing (same size
as what's in the outer CV joint) to eliminate this problem in the future.
Best of luck,
Andy
________________________________________________________________________
Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 22:12:44 -0400
From: Frank Clarici <spritenut@comcast.net>
Subject: No oil pressure, running hot
Not my Sprite but my Son's Mini (1275)
He really wants to drive it to Carlisle, we even made up a windshield
wiper system for it over the weekend. (from Sprite parts of course)
Anyway, he just picked me up from dropping of PIECES to it's new owner
and on the ride home I noticed his oil presure was at 10 (at speed)
and his water temp was pinned at H.
He said it always run at these numbers.
We swapped gauges, flushed the rad and block, retarded the timing,
changed the oil, shielded the air flow direction, made sure the water
pump (new) was working, made sure the fan was blowing the correct way.
No difference.
The engine has new bearings and oil pump, less than 1000 miles.
Block was tanked, brand new radiator, t/stat is working and we drilled
holes in it to see if it helps.
I told him he just can't drive 3 hours at 70 + mph with 5 PSI oil
pressure and a maxed out temperature.
So he's bummed.
Any ideas?
Everything is in order, everything is new.
Now you can stick your finger in the rad when it's hot.
It's hot but it's not boiling nor is it scalding hot.
I wouldn't want to stick my nose in it but I can hold my finger in the
radiator for several seconds. The rad is cooling, the water is at the
right temp. the paint on the head is blistering and that's where the
temp sender is. It's a hot headed Mini.
- --
Frank Clarici
Toms River, NJ
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