Question on oil temperature

[xb-60]

Originally Posted by bobcowan

Good operating oil pressure should around 45psi or so. It will drop a bit at idle, but not too much....... 20-25psi at hot idle is fine; while running down the highway it's probably a little bit low. I would investigate that a bit more closely.

I came in on this thread a little late.
I've got a low oil pressure story. Firstly, I agree with Bob, decent oil pressure is desirable, but sometimes you can get by on less if you have to.
A while back, I read an article in an Australian car magazine about a 2 litre Alfa twin cam that was driven from Sydney to Perth (4000km/2500miles) in 29 hours (average speed of around 85mph). Around 1000 km into the trip, the oil pressure dropped suddenly to 15psi at 170km/h and was zero at idle. An Alfa mechanic met them at the half way mark for a quick checkover, and told them not to worry about the low oil pressure. I had (and still have) a similar model Alfa, which has experienced the same dramatic oil pressure drop twice, the cause being an aluminium slug in one of the crankshaft cross-drillings coming out. On the first occasion, I had to continue driving the car for 2 weeks before I could take it off the road to fix it (wife and bub in hospital). At strip down, years later (with 220000 on the clock), no damage evident.
Cheers,
Glen