RoadRaceMike

so i have a stock b20 swapped in my eg civic and my girlfriend is driving it home in the pissing rain wednesday afternoon. it hasn't had any issues since i got the car a couple years ago.

she calls me up saying it's running like ish and the check engine light came on and the temp is on the rise (from 0 to about 25% up from the bottom and rising).

she pulls over and i meet her there. i check the oil and coolant and nothing is low, so i let it cool down and we check fluids again and all is good still so we try to run it again but it still idle's like crap so i tow strap it home.

24hrs later i check it out and it still has plenty of oil and coolant and nothing is leaking, so i fire it up to see if it was just the thermostat. it runs for 2 minutes with out a CEL and then goes into limp mode (i guess). it's idiling up and down, sounding like crap and the check engine light is on again. so i kill it and forget about it until today.



i check the oil again and it's off the end of the dip stick! dry as hell! still no leaks so i put a quart in it, it registers on the dip stick as full, and it runs like a champ!

so why did it seem like it had plenty of oil the first 3 times i checked it......including after letting it rest for 24hrs........but not when i check it 3 days later?

on a side note, when i tried to gather the OBD1 code from it, it wouldn't flash for me so i couldn't pull the code. also i have a moroso oil pan which hasn't leaked in the year i've had it on.


Thanks!

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

Make sure you have the right dipstick and don't check oil when the engine is hot. I want to say oil pump but something is not making sense to me.

RoadRaceMike

i hear you. i will verify that next but it's still curious to me as to why my oil could have read high 24hrs after it hasn't been running. that should be sufficiently cold to be accurate.

and wouldn't being hot make it read lower as some of the oil is in the engine. it read high when it was hot and again high when it cooled down in the field enough to be accurate (i thought) and high the next day

it didn't read accurate until at least 48hrs later. that seems strange to me.

0GearHeadDeals.com

hopefully you were removing the stick, wiping it off, reinserting it, then pull it out again for the true reading.

even if you were, with the engine running, possibly the oil was splashing on it and you thought it was a correct reading, when it really wasnt.

RoadRaceMike

the day of yea, but that still wouldn't account for why it was off the next day

would my moroso 4 quart pan make my dipstick read differently than a stock one?

beecee18

After seeing this statement, I would just say drive brotha, while keeping daily tabs of oil level using the correct way to determine oil level.
until problems persist or get worse.
wouldnt fix until broken
hope this helps

0GearHeadDeals.com

I agree with beecee, unless you were parked on a hill or something when reading. just start monitoring daily.

RoadRaceMike

you know.........i pretty much figured that where this would go, but i wanted to make sure cuz it kinda blew my freakin mind.....


but yea.....thats whats gonna happen now......at least for a while.......


thanks everybody!

beecee18

Also bud,
Another thing you need to take account for is, the moroso oil pan, "dont quote me for it" should have a higher capacity, So if your used to the 4.7 quarts, the moroso pan holds maybe a quart or two more, checking morosos sight or looking at your product information will tell you the exact number.

So was the pan recently installed?,
Did you add more oil for the extra capacity the new pan has?,
And if it was recently installed did you run the manufacture specific oil pick up tube/windage tray, that is if it is supposed to, as im to lazy to search right now lol.

RoadRaceMike

well, thats part of the reason why i mentioned it....cuz i'm not sure really....



here's the purchased part


it says it's a 4 quart pan......i can't remember how much oil i actually put in it, but i would assume 4 quarts plus any more i might need to get the stick to read if it's not reading level with 4 quarts already. it has the dipstick that came with the car (i know that doesn't make it right) but i changed the oil at quikie joints and myself to stock standards several times with the stock pan before i went to the moroso. i definately didn't add any windage anything when i did the pan.

i'm gonna change my oil today so maybe i'll post how much oil it took cuz i can't remember from last time. i don't want to over fill it but then again i don't want to under fill it either.




it is a little chilling to think that i was running low this whole time. i've gone to 3-4 HPDEs with it and my girl has been daily driving it for about a month now on the last oil change

mills123

MAKE SURE YOU CHECK YOUR OIL ON LEVEL GROUND !!!!!!!!!

MY DIPSTICK HAD NO READING...THEN I REALIZED THAT THE CAR WAS PARKED ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD AND THE CAR WAS LEANING INTO THE GUTTER. (THE DIPSTICK WAS ON THE HIGH SIDE SO IT WASN'T GETTING ANY OIL.....!!!!!!!)

WHEN I PUT THE CAR ON LEVEL GROUND THE READING WAS NORMAL.......