Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

1 Answers

High pressure Indication

Asked by: 1566 views Student Pilot

Hello,

Here are some questions about oil pressure

  1. What causes the High Pressure?
  2. Is there other way except the gauge to notice High pressure during flight?

Thank you.

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

1 Answers



  1. Bryan on Jul 22, 2022

    In a typical piston engine, oil travels from the sump at the bottom of the engine through a strainer, through the pump, through an oil cooler, through the filter, then into the various parts of the engine to lubricate, cool, and clean, then back down to the sump for another trip. If the pump is working well but any other part of that loop is dirty or contaminated (including the valves that sometimes isolate the oil cooler if that function isn’t needed), you will end up with high oil pressure. It’s just indicating that the pump is working but the oil isn’t moving freely through the system.

    The answer to your second question then is that high oil pressure will cause the oil to not do its jobs as well–clean, cool, and lubricate. There’s no way to notice whether the oil is cleaning or not in flight–but you may notice the other two. If you have high oil pressure, it may not cool as effectively so you may see higher engine temps, depending on what instrumentation you have to monitor that. If you run it with high oil pressure long enough, the less effective lubrication could also begin to rob you of power until the engine fails outright.

    So if you’re seeing an oil pressure indication that is higher than normal for the plane you’re flying, the best advice is to get on the ground as soon as is practical and have a mechanic see what’s going on.

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.