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94 Suburban vice grips/low oil pressure?!

1053 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  B1G-AL
I just bought this 94 Suburban with 130k miles and found today that it came with multiple free vice grips...but seriously...what are these hoses behind the rear passenger wheel and why are there multiple vice grips on them?






I picked up this Burb at night after the owner and I drove an hour from our homes to a midway point. Being that the truck made it to our meeting spot I didn't do as thorough of an inspection as I would normally do...I checked the dipstick and it was low so I figured like most TBI 350s it had probably burned a qt. While test driving the Burb the oil pressure gauge was all over the place, dropping to the red with the "check gauges" light on when at idle for no more than a second or two. The engine ran smoothly with no ticks, knocks, or fluctuations of any kind so I just assumed the gauge was faulty.

At home I checked all the fluids again and found the truck was short 3 qts of oil...you can imagine how thrilled I was. I took it for a drive after adding 3 qts and the oil pressure gauge was right on 40 at cruising speed where it should have been for a short amount of time...but now at idle it is well below it...(see below)



I know these trucks idle at low psi compared to modern engines but is this too low? Does anyone think the engine could have taken damage from being short 3 quarts or am I assuming the worst? The engine fires right up and sounds/runs smooth with no issues that I can hear (the Burb has a glasspack so its hard to hear anything but the exhaust!) but since adding the 3 qts the oil pressure gauge has yet to fall to 0 psi so it can't be that faulty. Thanks in advance...Al

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10lbs. for every 1000rpm as a general rule for older SBC's.
-3qt,'s is never good. Keep an eye on the oil consumption & the tailpipe.
I've seen high mile SBC's that go through a fair amount of oil, & yet, like the Energizer Bunny, they just keep going & going &...
Keeping the rpm's down will ease the tendency to suck oil.
Looks like your idling low. Is that in gear?
It was in park...not sure why it idles so low either...again I figured faulty gauges. I would watch the tailpipe if there was one...it's a glass pack that has no pipe running to the rear.
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