oil pressure 210 cummins

Hi, I have a 210 cummins marine motor, and the oil pressure at 1200 rpm,s is 32psi at 800 rpm its 12psi. Is this pressures ok?

Welcome aboard.
Those pressures sound low. Could be real, could be the gauge. Standby for some real advice like installing a mechanical gauge to check actual pressure.

So what year engine, number of hours, and oil used?

Greetings,
Welcome aboard.

NO expert but I would install a mechanical guage to double check the electric dash guage before starting to look for any other problems.

Electric guages, I assume your guage is electric????, are good but they depend on the sender and good electrical connections, all of them. Sender feed wire, + & - power leads must all be good for the guage to do its job.

Install a guage of about 100psi where the electric sender is located and see what it says.

If it says other than the electric guage then you may have a wiring or sender problem.

I'm also going to suggest that you need to get a Cummins owners manual. It should give an acceptable range of pressure at cruising speed and at hot idle.

--Are you using the correct oil?
--Is the level correct? Actually on these engines that is more important than many realize and is often misunderstood.
-- If you raise the rpm does the pressure climb? To what?

At 1200 revs the engine may not actually be producing its upper oil pressure limit. I know my engine [different] does not reach full high oil pressure untill around 1,500. You could simply be running it on the slow side for full pressure. I would be more concerned with the idle pressure.

I suggest also reading the following link. GO further as Seaboard Marine has offered a huge amount of free info for your engine.

Oil Pan Capacities for Cummins Marine Engines - Seaboard Marine

I have a couple of 6BTA5.9's and that pressure sounds ok to me. Mine run around 12 PSI at idle and 40 at anything above 1200 RPM. To get a really informed answer ask the question on boatdiesel.com

Here is some RPM vs Oil Pressure seatrial data from my Mainship 30 powered by a Cummins 6BT (210hp)

RPM Oil (psi)
600 (Idle) 30
1000 45
1500 50
2000 55
2200 55
2500 55
2650 (WOT) 55

High Wire said:

Welcome aboard.
Those pressures sound low. Could be real, could be the gauge. Standby for some real advice like installing a mechanical gauge to check actual pressure.

So what year engine, number of hours, and oil used?

Click to expand...

engine is 1990 with 4250 hrs oil used is 5w40.

Check oil temp at oil filter with an IR gun. Hot oil will mean lower pressure.

Have you changed the oil? Any difference in pressure?

Second that about putting on a mechanical test gauge as the electric gauges are notorious for being inaccurate.

My 450C shows about 5psi on the electric gauge at hot idle of 550rpm. Checked it with mech test gauge and it was 15.

Sounds low to me.

is this something new????

5W40??? did you mean 15W40?

Make sure oil does not have fuel in it.

bayview said:

Sounds low to me.

is this something new????

5W40??? did you mean 15W40?

Make sure oil does not have fuel in it.

Click to expand...

Yes 15w40
I have had this boat for 6 years now but have not used it much . May have put appox 100 hrs. on her. she is 36' X 14' . The oil pressure was like this when I bought her. but lately when I slow down the oil light comes on!

Out of interest I ran up my friends Cummins 6BT Oil 30w strait 3700hours


600rpm 35psi
1000 45
1500 60
2000 60
2200 60
2500 60


My Perkins 6 from start up idle to 2200 under load 60psi

During normal operation, 1600 - 1700 RPM mine runs 55-60 psi. Shell Rotella 15W40 oil
Engine has around 3000 hrs on it.

Here is some RPM vs Oil Pressure info from my Cummins 6BT (210hp), 7100 hrs (electric gauge, not verified by mechanical gauge, but these are the readings for the past 18 years.)

RPM Oil (psi)
650 (Idle) 25 cold, 18 hot
1000 35
1500 40
2000 40
2200 40
2500 40

ski: My 6Cs never got below 30 at 650 idle. 1100 hours. 15W40

pasco.

I would check the lube oil for fuel and then try a mechanical gauge. The electrical sender do fail or a bad engine ground might change the reading. I don't remember if high or low resistance is high or low pressure.

bayview said:

ski: My 6Cs never got below 30 at 650 idle. 1100 hours. 15W40

Click to expand...

Mine is about the same, 30 at 650. I turned my idle down to 550 so I can run slow in no wake areas, rpm has a big effect. About 3500hrs on it. When I bought the engine at 1200hrs, it was the same OP vs rpm, no loss in my ownership. Rotella 15w40 also. Above about 1200 up to full it is 55-60.

Doesn't low idle increase shock because of static IP timing?

Not sure of what you mean by that..??

Ski, just curious and as it relates to his light coming on.....

Does Cummins use two different sensors for gauge and light/buzzer(both pressure and coolant temp) or is it all off of one sensor? This is where my aviation clouds my brain because that is the way it works in aviation...so much so that many times, one or the other can be legally inop as long as one can be confirmed to work....with a commitment to fi within a certain amount of time.

Baker- Factory Cummins panels have a printed circuit board that monitors the signal from the oil pressure gauge transducer, aka sender, and trips alarm based on that. So only one device monitoring oil pressure, drives the alarm and gauge. So if sender goes whacky, both the reading and alarm will be off. And senders do go whacky.

Many boatbuilders scrap that system and install their own alarm system, an OP switch and a sender for the gauge. This is a better route as the PCB alarm boards have proven sensitive to humidity and cause trouble on their own. You get a bit more redundancy, too. Two devices checking same thing.

IP timing is set advanced to allow injection at best time at high rpm compensating for injection delay. at low rpm injection is way too early

From the Cummins manual minimum at idle (600 RPM +-50) 10 PSI. Minimum at rated RPM 30 PSI and the pressure relief valve opens at 65 PSI.

Ski in NC said:

Baker- Factory Cummins panels have a printed circuit board that monitors the signal from the oil pressure gauge transducer, aka sender, and trips alarm based on that. So only one device monitoring oil pressure, drives the alarm and gauge. So if sender goes whacky, both the reading and alarm will be off. And senders do go whacky.

Many boatbuilders scrap that system and install their own alarm system, an OP switch and a sender for the gauge. This is a better route as the PCB alarm boards have proven sensitive to humidity and cause trouble on their own. You get a bit more redundancy, too. Two devices checking same thing.

Click to expand...

Well dammit....a missed opportunity!!!!!