b20ricepower

Setup
B18a1 sleeved block
Ls crank
Acl race bearings
Type r oil pump (obd2)

Well ive been driving my setup for about 3000 miles now and had an oil pressure issue. My engine always seemed to be on the low side for oil pressure which was about 12psi idle when warm but something went wrong the other day. I was getting on the car a few times and noticed that my oil pressure was even lower than normal. I pulled over to check for leaks or anything and didnt see anything. However, I did notice a faint noise from the bay. Luckily i was less than a mile from home anyways so I babied her home. Oil pressure continued to drop severely. By the time i got back my idle oil pressure was almost gone. Around 4-5psi. I pulled in and there was definitely a loud noise from the engine. I popped the hood once again to see where it ws coming from but couldnt really pinpoint it. It almost sounded like it was coming from the head bit hard to tell. Didnt sound like a rod knock at all. Kind of just a whirling noise. Not good. So i shut her down immediately and the next day i started pulling her apart. Took off the valve cover and no damage seemed obvious to the valvetrain. Drained the oil and didnt see any metal particles. Cut open the oil filter and didnt see anything either. However I then pulled the mains and seen some wear on them. I plastigauged them and they are still within oem specs. All around .0015. I have the pics below. Any experienced engine builders have any input? Is this just the coating wearing off the bearings or is it more? When I assembled the engine all bearings were in spec and they still are. Now im trying to figure out what is causing the pressure drop/noise. I did do an oil change the day before which makes me wonder if that had something to do with it. Used 10w30 synthetic with fram ultra guard filter. Any ideas. Could it be the oil pump going bad? Do they make a whirring noise or something if they go bad? Pump doesnt have almost any miles on it and i also clearanced the rotor to crank snout before installing it. I'm kind of lost because this is my first complete build. Here are pics of the bearings

b20ricepower

Also fyi I had a bad line hone first time out and it did minor damage to the crank. I asked the machine shop and he said that it should be fine. He line honed it correctly and said to reuse the crank. I also included a pic of the worst journal on the crank. Is it bad enough to lose that kind of oil pressure so suddenly or is it more likely to be the oil pump?

m4xwellmurd3r

Youre using a girdle on your mains? I assume youre using the original maincaps machines to fit the girdle, and have step dowels, etc. And had it align bored. I guess you could get away with honing as long as the centerline wasnt shifted upwards and all journals are still aligned straight.

That whirring noise yoire describing, did it almost sound like a skateboard wheel with dry bearings?

Faint, but noticable at a certian rpm range and crap like that?

Cause my engine did that. Nearly 20k miles later it ate a rod bearing.

Your main bearings I dont think look bad. Iirc the flat coating is supposed to wear out.

Can you feel any of those grooves on your crank with your fingernail?

92civiceg9gsr

The bearings and crank dont appear to be killed but they look very worn for a 3000 mile engine. We really need to see pics of the backside of bearings to get a better idea of whats happening.
FWIW my engine is a "loose" motor and has .0021" - .0022" on the mains and rods, but it has ~ 30psi oil pressure at a hot idle with 10w-40 oil. About 80psi at 3500rpm.

blackeg

i stopped using fram filters a while ago. they are built like **** and iirc dont have the anti drain back.

did you use non detergent oil on your first startup?

b20ricepower

Yea im running a golden eagle main girdle thats doweled. Everything was torqued down and line honed to spec. Plastigauged and assembled. Motor turned over smoothly by hand. And yes the noise sounded like a dry skateboard wheel. Not sure if this noise was the causing factor of the problem or just a side affect of the low oil pressure like camshaft noise from oil starvation. It was pretty loud though. I was expecting to see something inside the motor that was noticeable. You can feel some of the grooves on the crank barely I believe. Dont really remember. I was going to look for another crank but hes a very experienced machinist so I took his word on it. Guy has honda engines to 2500 hp v8 race engines in his shop

b20ricepower

Yea thats what surprises me. My oil clearances are factory yet I always had borderline low oil preasure. Would never get close to 80 psi unless real cold. Usually 10-12 psi hot idle and cruising at like 30psi and high rpm would stay around 50psi. Thats why I was thinking that maybe I have a weak oil pump but from what I hear usually they work or they just tear themselves to pieces. Weird.

b20ricepower

I dont think I used non detergent oil. I used conventional pennzoil 10w30 I believe. Some guys reccomended non detergent and some said to stick away from it. I listened to my engine guy and he said just to use any conventional as long as its the correct weight for clearances.

b20ricepower

Also keep in mind that the damage to the crank was done the first time i assembled. The block came from a "reputable" engine sleever here on the forums sleeved and "line honed"...supposedly. I assembled the mains and although they plastigauged decent, the motor wouldnt budge after they were torqued properly. Took quite a bit of force with the wrench to turn it over. Being my first build, I thought that maybe this resistance was normal. I ran it for a few hundred miles before I figured it out. My local machinist said that he doesnt know how they messed up the line hone but it was way off. He thinks they got main caps switched with another block possibly. Clearances were decently close, but the hone wasnt straight. They never line honed it regardless he said. No machinin marks.Learn from your mistakes I guess. Now I know it should turn over real smoothly like mine currently does. Anyways, any ideas from some experienced builders would help me a lot.

F22Master

I believe that you could have left out the oil control orifice, or the oring on it, or an oring somewhere in the head. Those would all cause a severe loss of oil pressure.

b20ricepower

All of the o rings on the head are new. The 2 orifices on driver side and the one o ring between cyl 2 and 3 on the cam cap. Vtec solenoid gaskets also new.

m4xwellmurd3r

How does your oil pump clearance look now that your centerline is shifted up? You can use feeler gauges between the pump rotor and crank snout

b20ricepower

I already clearanced the pump to crank. Had to file down the dowel pins on the pump quite a bit

motoxxxman

have you opened up the oil pump yet? might have broken the ring, or might have worn the hell out of the casing. or there might be some stupid issue with the relief valve.

b20ricepower

I'm going to pull the oil pump next. The more I think about it, the more I think its the problem. I just dont wanna replace the pump and reassemble everything and still end up having the same issue.

b20ricepower

Ok, so I pulled the oil pump and it actually looks pretty good. A little scoring on the housing but nothing that would drop my oil pressure like it did. So it's not the problem pulled the cams and checked my valvetrain and all seems fine. A little gouging on the driver side cam journals from the belt being too tight but nothing horrible. I'm kind of out of options at this time. The only thing I havent checked is my rod bearings but im pretty sure theyre gonna be fine. Whatcha guys think? I heard of oil filters goin bad but its not very often. Also, my mains plastigauge in spec. I'm confuzzled :/

b20ricepower

b20ricepower

Anyone have any input?

m4xwellmurd3r

Cut open the oil filter and have a look? I only use wix filters after I saw how gnarly frams look in construction.
The only thing I can imagine that would cause it are big bearing clearences, or something like the relief spring wearing out. Hell maybe the bolt holding it in backed out.

b20ricepower

The relief valve looked ok. My bearing clearances are still within spec too which is weird. I dont want to have to get another crank and bearings if I dont have to. I dont want to spend all that time and money and still have the same issue. Maybe the score marks on the crank are bleeding off the pressure?