my 1990 gs-t has been consuming a fair amount of oil. well, most of it is all over the engine compartment(and getting on the exhaust manifold and smoking. anyone know how i can clean the engine or where i can get it cleaned?) the dipstic keeps coming out, which is probably where all the oil is coming from :!: a friend of mine told me what it probably is, but i dont' really remember what he said. it made sense though...anyway, the oil pressuse gauge seems to be reading on the low side. at idle the needle drops pretty close to the L mark(about a 1/3 of the way from the first mark by the L to the 2nd mark on the gauge) what should it read at idle?
anyone have an idea of whats going on?

DSM oil pressures vary a lot during regular driving and idling. Your idle oil pressure sounds fine to me. What does it look like when you are driving regularly? As long as its between the two middle marks during regular driving, your oil pressure is fine.

The dipstick def. sounds like a culprit for some of the oil. If its burning on the exman or valve cover there are a few other possiblilities. You may need a new oil cap gasket. Can be bought from Mitsu for cheap. You may also need a valve cover gasket. About $40-$50 from autozone or advanced. Its pretty easy to replace. If those don't take care of the oil leak I would replaced the turbo oil gaskets and/or copper crush washers.

I have heard that popping the dipstick is a symptom of a failing engine. The boost pressure leaks past the pistons through cracked / loose rings or cylinder wall imperfections and escapes through the dipstick, spewing oil all over in the process. When my engine was on it's last legs, I had this problem. I solved it with a pair of vice grips to crimp the metal tube over the dipstick tighter.....and then a complete rebuild 6 months later.

Just a scary thought for you to worry about. Sweet dreams.

The dip stick tube crimping definitely works and is only a fix for an oily symptom of bad rings as suggested. I've seen some cars go pretty far with bad rings, just don't expect too much from the engine in the performance catagory.

Marcus

if the rings are bad would the engine run any different? it runds great. the only problem i have is when starting it when the engine is warm- it has a low idle and will sometimes die. i was wondering what that was too