I'll bet this low oil pressure is reflecting the high temperature. 230 is not typical. Most owners here will report that the temperature will stay right around 200 most of the time, and a lot of them are running 195 or 192 thermostats. If it were the middle of summer with the AC on sitting in traffic with no airflow through the radiator, then yeah, it might spike up to 230, but even then, you should hear the fans kick on and see the temperature drop back towards 200.

Try a 180 thermostat to start with and see what happens.

Oil pressure below 200F is slightly less than 40 psi. With about an hour of normal traffic, the temperature goes up to 230F and oil pressure drops to 20 psi or less at idle.

If it were my car, I would start with a lower temperature thermostat, and continue to work on the cooling system until the car maintains a temperature of 200 or below under normal conditions. You can avoid air-bind problems and attain a little lower engine temperature by drilling a 1/16" hole in the thermostat flange to let a little bit of water and/or air pass at all times.

10 PSI per 1,000rpm is in the normal range....your ok....that is the rule of thumb with mechanics...if your engine isnt knocking at idle....your ok also...

My mechanic replaced the Sender Unit and the Tthermostat, but it turned out to be the cluster gauges in the dash. They're displaying false readings for both the Oil Pressure and Temperature. He says it costs about $500 to send it and repair it and another $150 for labor. I left the way it is. That'* too much money just to get accurate readings. Has anyone else had to replace the cluster gauges? Is it really that much?

If that'* the case, buy a set of oil and temperature guages from AutoZone. The dual set is about $60. You can mount them under the dash. Or, you could buy a full set of guages and mount them on your a-pillar. I think zzperformance sells the kit.

What type of gauge would work? What type of signal (analog or digital) goes into the cluster gauges? Is this something I could do myself by disconnecting the wire to the cluster and connecting it to the new gauge?

It'* great news that there is nothing wrong with the engine. Another option would be to go to a junkyard for an instrument cluster. Not that hard to change out yourself - just takes time and patience. Called my local yard - $50 for a '95 SE w/o compass. Your SSE would probably be more. Your mileage will not be the same, but you can make note of the old and new - photograph them both and throw the pix in the glove box- to show actual mileage when you sell it. Just another option.

He could also manually adjust the new cluster to what the old one read. All it takes is a good set of picks.

Better yet. Save all your money. BTW if you haven't replaced the freakin plastic tube for the hose between intake manifold and water pump, get in your car and bring it back to your mechanic. Owned mine 22hours when it happened yesterday. The corrode, break and you lose the coolant. Time to get a tow.

In one of the forums there'* an article with step by step procedure on how to fix the gauges you have. It'* either a corroded connector (very common) or a cold solder joint (uncommon). I need to do the same on my car.

Moral of the above rambling: while not working well...pay attention to the temp gauge..cause sometimes it'* the real thing..not just a drill. Pulling over and taking a look saved my 22 hour old (to me) motor with 150K on it. I'm aiming for 250+