I am guessing sitting is car pool lines or waiting on kids during activities for the longer idle periods?
As for the oil pump, here is the deal, all the oil pumps are variable output on these engines for the past 10+ years as I recall, the difference is the 6.2l has a 2 stage controller on top of the variable output pump. For some reason the L84 5.3l for dropped the 2 stage controller/solenoid. All the prior generations seemed to have the 2 stage solenoids even the 4.3l as I recall.
Not sure how all the dash guages are set up for displaying oil pressure. My Denali did not have oil pressure shown at all until I went into the Gauge/Dash setting and chose I think "Advanced" then the only additional gauge that showed up was oil pressure as I recall. The oil pressure guage is 0 to 120 PSI with a open space in the middle which would be 60 PSI. No other markings, hash marks or numbers.
I have a number of OBDII tools that will query the oil pressure. For some reason GM had a different type of sensor up until 2004, then changed starting in 2005. So the issue here is there is a difference in the Oil Pressure PID calculation between the vehicles up to 2004 and then 2005+. The calculation difference is 14 PSI. So on a few of my tools when I choose the 2024 vehicle I was a disappointed with the oil pressure numbers the tool was displaying. Then I used another tool that only displayed the oil pressure when choosing 2004 and earlier vehicles, this values was higher. Then after really paying attention to the dash gauge, the higher values now seems correct. I think some of the other tools must have used the pre 2005 PID calculation which is likey wrong. I believe a heathy 6.2l with the variable displacement oil pump with the 2 stage feature is satisfactory as long as you are not running 0W20 oil. I would really like to get a mechanical guage on the engine to verify the correct value, but I am starting to think the higher value I am measuring now (14 PSI higher) is correct.
Below are a few graphs.
The 1st graph note how the oil pressure starts to drop in the beginning as the oil continues to warm up. I had already driven about 15 minutes before I even started to gather data. I was in a drive thru where the long idle is in the beginning. I often put the transmission in Neutral when I am sitting in drive thru's and longer traffic lights. The lowest oil pressure value in at the end of the long idle is 37 PSI. While cruising at about 40-45 MPH because I am in a semi rural area, the oil pressure typically is around 42-56 PSI depending on RPM and load. Then later in the drive you will see a dip in oil pressure for a short period, I was stopped at a traffic light for a bit. By this time, the oil was up to 212F and at idle the oil pressure lowest value was 33 PSI. There was another short drop in RPM and oil pressure near the of the trip, I stopped to let a number of deer clear the road in my neighborhood before shutting down at the end of the drive. I should have cut the graph/data a bit as there is a drop in oil pressure to like 5 PSI where the RPM is shown around 525 RPM, but this was an error in the data gathering, the engine was actually off when the oil pressure dropped but there were still data points for the RPM which were invalid. Sometimes I have to clean up the start and stop of the data pulls. I have about 10 seconds of bad data, I should probably kill my logging before I shut the engine down for a better final data pull.
The 2nd graph shows the oil pressure during a 2 hour 15 minute drive. Oil temps maxed out at 226F with a 64F ambient temp and fairly cool road surface and you will see the oil pressure at cruise it typically around 50-58 PSI. Then there are some oil pressure spikes that jump up to around 84 PSI, this is when the 2 stage oil pump solenoid is activated due to higher engine RPM and Load. This does not happen with the L84 5.3l because the 2 stage oil pump solenoid has been deleted for some reason. The oil pressure spikes are normal on the engines with the 2 stage oil pump solenoid.
The 3rd graph is just for info. This was for the same 2 hour 15 minute drive showing the Knock Retard events. This is one of the reasons Preminum fuel is pretty much a good idea and it is still not good enough. Remember 11.5:1 compression ration and crasy Low RPM/High Torque Operation.
The 4th graph is the Torque Load for the same 2 hour 15 minute driver. This should give you idea how this engine is loaded when cruising. There are a few higher RPM spikes where I was having to bob and weave around some foolish left lane campers, but for the most part the cruising RPM is below 2000 RPM and when I am crusing at around 70-75 MPH the RPM is around 1700 RPM. This road is relatively flat, there are some slight, short grades, but nothing steep, so just think about driving up a 6% incline for a mile or more.
Again, overall I am more comfortable with the oil pressures I am seeing, but I am currently running 5W30 oil, not 0W20. I would hate to see what the 0W20 oil pressures would looke like at 226F+, assume at least a few PSI lower, but the upper value of the oil starts to thin out above 100C/212F, one chart I looked at indicated that a 20 weight oil is more like a 10 weight oil even at 10F above 100C/212F. Not sure how accurate this oil temp chart was, but it would be concerning. I have the Max Trailer package with the larger radiator, but not sure if the oil cooler is actually different. But I think the 6.2l may run higher oil temps while cruisig due to the torque loading on the engine. Waiting to see what happens to the oil temps this Summer on a 100F day where the sun has been beating on the pavement all day and the pavement temps are probably in the 130F range.
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