91integraLSVTEC

hey guys, my oil pressure on a cold start up is just fine, it shoots up to about 85psi when cold. But when the motor gets hot i see no more than 35-40 psi at 3k rpms and have 7-8 psi at idle. I just changed my oil too 15w-40 rotella and the problem still persists.. This problem just arised about 2 days ago. Could it be my oil pump going out on me? I just dont understand, I built this motor about a couple months ago. It has about 15k miles on it. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

btw the motor is a d16z6 vitara/tt rods 57 trim setup.

rdssk8rcs1

What type of gauge?

Turbo-charged

if it was my car, i'd have the engine out and on an engine stand.


if the oil pressure was fine, and its not fine anymore....odds are you have damaged something and its just going to progressively get worse.


i have never personally seen an oil pump "start to go bad". the ones i have seen either work or they dont.

HamiltonRex

do you have you oil pres gauge T'd into your oil feed line for the turbo?

91integraLSVTEC

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by HamiltonRex &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">do you have you oil pres gauge T'd into your oil feed line for the turbo?</TD></TR></TABLE>

nope. My turbo and oil pressure gauge gets its seperate feed from a sandwich plate adaptor by the oil filter.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rdssk8rcs1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What type of gauge?</TD></TR></TABLE>

sunpro. it is a mechanical gauge.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Turbo-charged &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">if it was my car, i'd have the engine out and on an engine stand.


if the oil pressure was fine, and its not fine anymore....odds are you have damaged something and its just going to progressively get worse.


i have never personally seen an oil pump "start to go bad". the ones i have seen either work or they dont.


</TD></TR></TABLE>

I dropped my oil pan yesterday to see if my oil pick up was clogged. I noticed little gold flakes in the oil pan and traces of metal shavings. It wasnt alot few traces of it here and there. Something is having metal to metal contact. The oil pick up screen had few metal shavings in it but wasnt no where near enough for it to get clogged. I cleaned the oil pan, oil pick up and shimmed the oil pump. I now get about 100psi at cold start up. However after driving for 15 mins the oil pressure drops to 40-45 psi at 3k rpms, 10 psi at idle.


Should I go ahead and replace the oil pump? Or any other suggestions other than pulling the engine? it still drives fine, no knocking whatsoever. I just cant belive this is happening! If there is no other things that i can do to save the motor, then i'll just pull it.

Turbo-charged

its not the oil pump. sounds like your starting to see signs of loosing a bearing. your dropping oil pressure from the now looser clearances, not from the metal blocking the pick up.

ralph11sec

i'd bet youre starting to spin bearings.

i agree with the other guy.
if it was my engine, if im seeing 20psi @ hot idle, and one bad day, it idled at lets say 10psi. shut down engine, and rebuild the ****

Bseriescivic5

pull the rod caps, have a look at the bearings, My vote as well for a tired bearing, how long has this motor been running?

ralph11sec

he said it was a few months.

well it doesnt matter. oil owned you buddy.
time to order oem bearing and new rods and crank.

yakuza

Or it could be just the fact that oil is thick when cold start and as it its heated it becomes thinner. I'm running ACL bearings with new rebuilt engine, less than 300 miles - oil pressure from cold start is approx 60-70psi when warms up to optimum temp pressure drops to 35-45psi. If I drive the car hard then pressure drops to about 10-15psi. If I leave the car running either on idle or just cruise after then oil pressure slightly goes up.

Best thing to look into is an external oil cooler which I'm going to do next, the stock oil water cooler isn't just enough for the my kind of setup anyhow.

Oh, another thing, oil type and thickness could be another factor too ..

Modified by yakuza at 10:45 AM 9/16/2008


Modified by yakuza at 10:53 AM 9/16/2008

patrick4588

iTrader: (1)

my honda manual says 8-12psi at idle is normal. and 40psi @ 3k rpms doesnt sound bad. what is it at say 5000rpms?

powerdbygarrett

im reading this thread and wondering about my oil pressure now. built h22, my oil pressure is as follows:
cold start 55-60 PSI
Warm idle 15- 20 PSI
Driving 45ish PSI
WOT 50-55 PSI

does that sound accurate for an h22?? thanks

patrick4588

iTrader: (1)

sounds kinda low, but that could be due to loose bearing clearances. id still want at least 60psi above 5000

powerdbygarrett

would a small oil leak cause lower oil pressure, cause i think ive been spoting something leaking under the car

yakuza

Possibily, but I would recommend you get that checked. For a H series engine your oil pressure sure sounds low. Make sure you check for any leaks, check oil regularly before startups and even when car sitting parked for long time.

MidShipCivic

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Turbo-charged &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">if it was my car, i'd have the engine out and on an engine stand.


if the oil pressure was fine, and its not fine anymore....odds are you have damaged something and its just going to progressively get worse.


i have never personally seen an oil pump "start to go bad". the ones i have seen either work or they dont.


</TD></TR></TABLE>

You sound almost like me... '' Engine out already '' If you see metal in the pan. then it's being pumped all over the motor... BAD prepare yourself for scorn journals and a''self machining'' engine.

SlAmMeD 91 HaTcH

something is wrong..that is a little low.. it all depends.. i would say your bearings are gettin tired... iam 85 psi cold start up 100.. driving down the street.. warmed up idle 25-30 psi depending how hott it is.. she makes 80 psi easy just driveing easy bone stock z6... idd start lookin at main bearings.. clean your pickup out real nice that will make a differnce until it clogs again...

91integraLSVTEC

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SlAmMeD 91 HaTcH &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">something is wrong..that is a little low.. it all depends.. i would say your bearings are gettin tired... iam 85 psi cold start up 100.. driving down the street.. warmed up idle 25-30 psi depending how hott it is.. she makes 80 psi easy just driveing easy bone stock z6... idd start lookin at main bearings.. clean your pickup out real nice that will make a differnce until it clogs again... </TD></TR></TABLE>

To late for that. I pulled the engine out over the weekend and installed my turbo setup on stock internal z6. Losing 120whp blows goat ***** big time. atleast I avoided engine failure. I have low milage z6 crank laying around. I'm just going to replace the main and rod bearings 1 time with the new crank. better safe than sorry. MONITORING OIL PRESSURE IS VERY IMPORTANT!!!

SlAmMeD 91 HaTcH

That sounds good... goodluck with your car man. oIL pSi GauGe FtW...!

dreadcivicturbo

i doubt anything is wrong, my car does the same think. 70psi when cold, 40psi when crusing, and about 8-10 psi when idleing.....have alittle over 2000 mile on motor, drive it every day including and hour+ride to the track

91integraLSVTEC

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dreadcivicturbo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i doubt anything is wrong, my car does the same think. 70psi when cold, 40psi when crusing, and about 8-10 psi when idleing.....have alittle over 2000 mile on motor, drive it every day including and hour+ride to the track</TD></TR></TABLE>

better fix it soon or else this might happen 2 you:


kitt88 delsol from d-series.org.

He was running the same amount of oil pressure as me, ignored it and thats what happened..

EARLdaSQUIRREL

sounds like the bearings are going out, cold thick oil will give enough pressure but when warmed up it will go down, happened to my friend with acl bearings, now he is running oem honda spec'd to size and no problems

ITR-EKcoupe

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 91integraLSVTEC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

better fix it soon or else this might happen 2 you:

kitt88 delsol from d-series.org.

He was running the same amount of oil pressure as me, ignored it and thats what happened..</TD></TR></TABLE>

wow that got hot!

2point2

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dreadcivicturbo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i doubt anything is wrong, my car does the same think. 70psi when cold, 40psi when crusing, and about 8-10 psi when idleing.....have alittle over 2000 mile on motor, drive it every day including and hour+ride to the track</TD></TR></TABLE>

Same with my setup, and I never worried about it because it falls within the specs in the Honda manual. Everything was mint when I pulled it apart too.

When it comes to oil pressure on a stock engine, follow the manual, not HT.

ABK

If you see metal shavings you should be pulling that motor out. Gold shavings usually mean that bearings are getting owned pretty bad right now.