Hey guys.. my head is gonna explode soon. I'm tryin to run through all the oil passages in my head on a gsr motor. My buddy's oil pressure has dropped on his boosted gsr. Everything seems fine but i told him to stop driving the car until i can fix it for him.

It's not making any knocking noises, and it's not leaking, but his cold start oil pressure is only at about 40psi (used to be up in the 75-80 range), and his idle pressure is at a dangerously low 5psi. (used to go no lower than 10, but usually was close to 15)

Before i tear into this thing & start plasti-gauging all the bearings hunting for failures.. does anyone have any other suggestions.

I know he had the cams out a few weeks ago when he was messing with something, so the top portion of the head was apart but other than that. I'm not sure where i'm gonna start with this. I just don't wanna see him hurt anything thats gonna cost him a bunch of money.


*EDIT.. oh & i'm sure it's not the oil pressure guage coz the idiot light flickered on when he came to a stop a couple times.

 

up for answers

 

c'mon guys.. need a little bit of input here.

 

How new is his oil pump?

Also, this may sound obvious, but has he checked his oil level? Sometimes the cure for these things are the easiest, most overlooked things.

 

Oil pump is only about 200miles old. (worked perfectly when installed, this is pretty much a fresh build)

I believe that the oil is up to the full mark, i'll double check that tonight, but i'm pretty sure it's full out of paranoia.

 

Has the car sat for any good amount of time lately? Check the nylon going to his pressure gauge. I had some air in there once and it made my numbers all funny. If he hasnt done anything to it lately and has noticed anything different while driving or running it im sure its fine. Its rare for something to just go wrong.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rdssk8rcs1 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Has the car sat for any good amount of time lately? Check the nylon going to his pressure gauge. I had some air in there once and it made my numbers all funny. If he hasnt done anything to it lately and has noticed anything different while driving or running it im sure its fine. Its rare for something to just go wrong. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Fresh build, fine for one week, now low oil pressure. Even the idiot light comes on when comming to a stop, i'm sure it's not his gauge.

 

The idiot light too huh. So you got me with is gauge then. Just a thought. But there wasn't any gasket maker or sealer used during this built was there? A week seems to be just enough time for that stuff to come loose and get stuck in the worse possible places. Its just a thought but ive seen it before.

 

I had a thrust bearing go out wich made noise and gave me low oil pressure. Just another thought. Not sure if it'll help you out, but when mine made noise and gave me low oil pressure that's what it was. If you can't find the problem after doing what some others suggested, I'd say drop your oil pan and see if there's any metal shavings or a something. When I dropped mine I found mass metal shavings and a crushed up bearing in the pan. Bad news. Anyhow, good luck.

 

yea, oil level is up to par, so no problems with that.

Come to think of it, it did make slight noise when you let the clutch out that most of the rest of our cars don't make. Maybe it is the thrust bearing's.

I'll probably make some time this weekend to pull the oil pan & take a look. See if i can find anything wrong.


If i can't find any thing that looks like a problem in the pan, what head related issues could cause this?

 

Did he leave the o ring or dowel out that sits under the number three cam cap? What about the oring sfor the rocker arm shaft oil control orifices. All of those have an effect on oil pressure.

 

ive had the same problem before. he probobly needs an oil cooler. change the oil your pressure will probobly be good again for a bit till you break down your oil again. also have him invest in a turbo timer ;-) cheers

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 90Rexx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ive had the same problem before. he probobly needs an oil cooler. change the oil your pressure will probobly be good again for a bit till you break down your oil again. also have him invest in a turbo timer ;-) cheers</TD></TR></TABLE>

do you smoke crack?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hybrid_KJ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Did he leave the o ring or dowel out that sits under the number three cam cap? What about the oring sfor the rocker arm shaft oil control orifices. All of those have an effect on oil pressure.</TD></TR></TABLE>

This is definatly a posibilty! I'm going to check into this tonight, thanks!

how much of a drop do you think this could cause?


Modified by Running925 at 8:24 AM 4/17/2008

 

on my turbo d series it dropped my pressure to flickering oil pressure light. i had 20 psi max at like 6k rpms. cold start still had decent oil pressure but not as good as it used to be. i think this is your problem.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hybrid_KJ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Did he leave the o ring or dowel out that sits under the number three cam cap? What about the oring sfor the rocker arm shaft oil control orifices. All of those have an effect on oil pressure.</TD></TR></TABLE>

haha i took the number 3 cam cap off & it was definatly missing the dowl pin and the o-ring. Didn't have an extra dowl pin but i put an o-ring in there and threw it back together. Still has the low pressure problem, ordering the dowl pin tomarrow.

When you say the orings for the rocker arm shaft oil control orafices, what are you refering to?.. i'm just not following this statement.