Just a pre-sampling to see if anyone else has encountered this before I start taking the car apart...
Symtoms / problem: Coming back from a trip, oil light started flickering, erratic on/off cycle. Came to a stop sign and the engine shutoff - is this normal, sort of a LOOK AT THE LIGHT attention getter from the engine ECU? Anyway, oil residue across the back of the engine. I assumed a rear main seal failure since i had just replaced the front main, balance shaft and cam seals and the car has 225k on it. Added THREE quarts.
45 minutes down the road - oil light is back - oh no - MAJOR leaking. Bought a case of oil at Advanced Auto - filled up again. 45 - 55 minutes - repeat procedure. I figured I'd just fess up the $20 for another case of oil and limp home.
On the highway, engine suddenly feels weak, let off the gas a litte, lose more power, pull over to the side of the road, oil light comes on, engine dies and won't start. Lotsa cranking and get engine started but not enough power to move - timing belt slip?
SO: I pulled the timing belt top cover and no oil on the timing belt or around the cam seal. Is it the oil pump that crapped out - leaking the oil and finally locking up enough to cause the timing belt to jump a couple teeth? Ideas?

Thanks for any input - I'll keep this post updated as I open up the engine to find the issue.

 

you probably cooked the bottom end running without oil. when the oil light comes on it's usually too late and you have little to no oil pressure.

I'd just get a boneyard motor and swap it out, they're only like $300 with low miles, I woudn't even bother taking that one apart.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by notoriousB &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you probably cooked the bottom end running without oil. when the oil light comes on it's usually too late and you have little to no oil pressure.

I'd just get a boneyard motor and swap it out, they're only like $300 with low miles, I woudn't even bother taking that one apart.</TD></TR></TABLE>
If your oil light came on when you only had a quart of oil left, your engine is more than likely toast. If that ever happens again, shut it off and tow it to minimize damage if at all possible. And if your timing belt every does happen to slip, you're going to have bent valves and have to put a new head on, or get the valves redone, the f22 are interference engines...aka pistons smash the valves if the timing belt breaks.

 

No timing belt slip but it looks like the number 1 cylinder cam lobes have been cooked pretty good - the cam retainers have black oil cook-off look to them. I have run synthetic since 70k so the rest of the engine is a light brown tint to it. Since the number 1 cylinder has no compression, I am theorizing a headgasket blow out on that end with a resulting loss of oil to the cam and rocker arms at that end. This loss of oil caused them to overheat and cook off the cheap oil I was putting in to offset the oil loss.

I can't post pics yet - otherwise I would show you the oil cook-off vs. the nice clean side of a 225k motor run on syn.


THe oil light was just a flashing light - borderline oil pressure and I pulled over and filled the oil each time. I suppose a headgasket and some clean-up of the cylinder head would suffice BUT with the low-mileage JDM engines selling for as little as $500 or so, it seems a far better solution to do the old DROP and SWAP.

Anyone have experience with these JDM engines in US cars?

 

Yep, I swapped in a JDM after my timing belt broke. Shop around if you're going to go that route, be sure you buy from a place that has good references. If you're gonna get a JDM for ~$500 I'd question the quality. The one I got had obviously been sitting a while or not cared for in the original car, there was a bit of gummed oil in the head. I cleaned out as much as I could, and then ran engine cleaner through and changed the oil in it twice after the swap before I drove it anywhere. Keep in mind that you should definitely replace all the seals, belts, etc. if you swap it out. It probably wouldn't hurt to put a new head gasket in the engine while it's out. And not to turn this into a FS thread, but I have an extra F22B head if you're interested. As a matter of fact I have another spare cam and a head gasket too if you just wanted to do that. Cheap. Hit me up.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 95OdyLX &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">THe oil light was just a flashing light - borderline oil pressure and I pulled over and filled the oil each time. </TD></TR></TABLE>
once the light is "just flashing" it's already too late. not borderline.