Wassup there guys! It's been a couple of years now since I touched my SI. I had to put it aside and take care of some stuff(finally growing up a little LOL). Okay current setup is a stock B16A2 setup on my 00 SI with JE 9.1 pistons, Eagle H-beam rods, GSR cams on a Greddy turbo kit. Here is the problem, Early in 2005 I bought the block that I have on the car at the present time and had a mechanic do the swap cause I didn't have the time to swap it out. After the swap was done, about a month later my oil pressure gauge read real low and so I checked the oil and the dipstick was dry! I then added some oil, but the oil pressure gauge would read lower than normal and when the car is idleing the reading would be below 10 psi, with the engine full of oil.

I changed out the oil pressure gauge from a mechanical one to the electrical one and that fixed the reading but I was still burning oil. About every 2 weeks or so, I would have to add 2-3 quart of oil into the motor. I thought maybe the guy who put the motor in didn't put enough oil in it and maybe I spun a bearing so I checked the oil pan for shavings but there was none. I checked the pickup tube to see if it was crushed and it wasn't. No ticks or knocks on the motor except for piston slap from cold startups, and no oil in the spark plugs. I still run the sorry blue box so it runs real rich. I then began to notice that a little oil was starting to show up on the intake arm and a little bit of oil comes out of the blow off valve, so I'm thinking I might have a blown turbo. Towards the end of 05 I blew the head gasket and stopped driving the car.

Finally after 2 years I'm gonna be able to start messin' with the car again and I'm gonna finish it this time. I've done some searches on here about the oil in the blow off valve and I'm thinking that the turbo might be going out, but do you guys think that was why I was losing so much oil? Or do you guys think it's something else? I live out here in Oklahoma where there really isn't much and the shops that I have been to are shady so I don't like to deal with them. I will get the car tuned down in Texas or in OKC where Alternative Motorsports is located once everything is running right . Might have them do my buildup also now that I know about them. Got a built head coming my way and I'll probably send out the 18g for a rebuild or swap out for a GT28RS turbo and go from there but I don't know whether I have a bad bearing somewhere, or if the oil pump is bad(I bought the oil pump new and installed it myself and yes I lubed it before I installed it too). I've narrowed it down to those three problems for the oil consumption but I would like to get any advice from you guys.

Sorry if it's so long but please help me out if you guys can. I've been out of it for a couple of years now so I'm a little rusty but I'll get back into the swing if it, so I wanna thank you guys in advance and any advice would help. Again I would like to apologize for making it so long....

 

do you have the valve cover vent tapped into the intake tube before the turbo? this could suck the oil right out of the engine?

also, 10psi of oil pressure @ idle, is that when the oil is cold or after it warms up?

 

Yeah, the Greddy intake has a spot where you run the hose from the valve cover nipple to the arm. I believe the low reading was after the car has been warmed up because I had the specs for what the PSI should be when idleing and when you rev it to certain RPM's and when I revved it to 3K, the gauge waas supposed to be at 50 PSI but it would only reach 40 PSI or so.

 

I had a motor with low oil pressure like that, and it ended up being all the bearings. The clearance was high all over, causing the low pressure. In my case, it was from having a CTR crank pulley. Running the motor low on oil could have the same effect.

Really the only way oil can get into your charge piping/BOV is from oil blowing past the seal in the turbo. Unless you have a ton of blowby and oil is getting into your valve cover vent, theres really no other way.

I just looked at your signature... 14.2 @101 in a turbo Si? I think you need a good motor inspection, a new (bigger) turbo and dyno tuning. A guy I know with a turbo Si runs 12.6 @ 115 with a stock motor. You could make over 500whp with your motor.


Modified by ham at 11:50 AM 3/19/2007

 

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

Really the only way oil can get into your charge piping/BOV is from oil blowing past the seal in the turbo. Unless you have a ton of blowby and oil is getting into your valve cover vent, theres really no other way.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

my car with an engine that was damn near on its last leg. SPEWED oil out of the valvecover vent, as well as the black box.... with this guys car... he has a tube connected to the intake of the turbo....and like i said... this is going to suck the oil striaght out of the engine..

i do agree the pan does need to be pulled, the bearings inspected...

i dont believe he is going to make 500whp on a greddy kit anytime soon.

 

Yeah, I replaced the oil pressure gauge with the electronic one and I think it fixed the low readings. now when I rev it up to 3K it'll read 50 psi. I took the pan off to inspect it already and there was no shavings in it. There is also no rod knock or anything besides piston slap from the JE pistons. What else? I'm gonna get a compression check soon to see how the block is doing...anything else you guys can think of?

Yeah I ran a 14.2 best and trapped around 101 with a stock exhaust, stock tire pressure on Nitto 450's so I think I should be running at least high 13's with what I was trapping at. Made 221/2 WHP with 176 ft. lb. of torque at 10 psi with the blue box on the JE 9.1 pistons.

 

You guys don't think it's the bearings do ya? Main problem right now is that I go through 2-3 quart of oil every 2 weeks.

 

LOL, yeah I agree with you DTURBO, I won't be making 500 hp with the greddy kit. I'm looking at 350 hp.

 

i meant you could be making 500whp with that MOTOR, not with that turbo setup... thats why i recommended a good inspection and an upgrade.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dturbocivic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
he has a tube connected to the intake of the turbo....and like i said... this is going to suck the oil striaght out of the engine.</TD></TR></TABLE>

i have the same thing. i have a hose going from the valve cover to the compressor and the 2 big ports in the back of the block going to a catchcan... no issues.

also, you shouldnt hear any piston slap. ive never had that problem on any builds nor have i seen it on anybody elses. do you know your piston to wall clearance and pin clearance?


Modified by ham at 12:01 PM 3/19/2007

 

That's what I thought too (piston slap), but I did a search and some people said that with forged pistons it takes a little longer for the pistons to expand. My brother has driven the car for almost 8 months now and it still drives, only thing is that sucker is sucking up all the oil.