Hey all,
I had the Trans Am out last Saturday when I noticed that my temp was above normal and my oil pressure was dropping. When it was idling, it would drop to nothing, if I kept it at 1500-2000 RPM it would come up to arond 180 PSI. I looked under the hood and saw that my upper rad hose was bulging out at the neck. I figured that maybe the thermostat was stuck closed, and caused the car to heat up. Maybe the oil was getting too hot and thinning out causing a lack of oil pressure. The stat that I was using was a 160* and I had two small holes drilled in it, so the coolant was able to pass only very little. I replaced my stat today with another 160* and now the car is staying cool, no hotter than 80* and my oil pressure was sitting at 130 PSI at idle and would only go as high as 200 PSI at 2000 RPM. When it's cold she is as high as 280-290 PSI. Any insight as to what is going on. There is no ticking or knocking, everything on the car seems to sound and respond good. I am just afraid to take the car on any long runs and have something catastrophic happen.

holy shit....i think your oil pressure is way too high if its hitting 290 psi

The dash gauge will be in kpa if you had zero the top end would be getting pretty noisy. Only sure way to test is with a real gauge.

Ok, Ok KPA...LOL
All I know is that the guage was in the red when it was hot. It is better now with the new stat in it. I also threw in some lucas oil as well. There has been no unusual sounds coming from the engine. I just feel that the pressure guage is lower than usual when it's at operating temp. It's making me nervous looking at it when I am in town. What would be considered a normal reading for a car that is bone stock?

Get a new oil pressure sending unit,they aren't that expensive.

Yours may be faulty.

Is that located behind the distributor? It has one wire coming out of it?