yesterday I was driving home from a long test drive after I put the head back on
everything was good until about 3 blocks from my house

before I left I checked the oil it was at the top dot.
had a small oil leak from cam seals

about 80-100 mile drive everything seemed ok

3 blocks from my house the oil light started flickering and then turned soild

I didn't have the gauge hooked up yet after rebuild
got home parked the car and checked oil it was at lower dot

put about half a quart and it was at the top dot again I though it was kinda strange.

hooked up the oil pressure gauge today and it shows 20psi when cold and quickly drops to zero once rpm reaches idle speed(900rpm)

the gauge shows zero psi
but the oil light doesn't come on ( just randomly flashes once in a while)
I look through the oil filler hole and I can see the oil squirting out of the camshaft rails.
and the head is not dry
changed out the cam seals today and resealed them
stared the car same thing
cams and valvetrain don't have any scoring on it I checked just now.

oil pump is brand new oem Honda installed 10000 miles ago. never had dropped pressure until yesterday never ran low before yesterday also.
service manual doesn't say anything about it
and I couldn't find any solid answer here or goggle.

car doesn't smoke during normal driving or hitting vtec. only smoke I saw is when I decelerate for long time like going down a long hill which is also new never happened before.


head had valve guides reconditioned and valve seats cut new valve seals and new cams and resurface.
I did notice a light cross pattern on my cam journals tho do machine shops do that a lot?

 

can the oil pressure be measured in the block and the head separately

theres an oil orifice in the block

the back of the block measures pressure before it goes to head

the bolt on the front of the head measures the pressure when vtec is engaged

can I connect the oil pressure gauge where the vtec pressure switch is to see if the camshaft clearance is too much after installing new cams?

 

put the oil pan down and check the oil pickup

 

don't you need to remove the oil orifices for vtec engines ?

 

why remove those?

 

on cold start oil pressure starts off at 20 psi
then slowly drops to about 12psi
at 1100rpm it is at 10 psi
then as rpm drop very slightly the oil pressure drops to about 5psi

then I hear another slight drop in rpm and pressure drops to about 2 psi then slowly to zero.

although I can see oil dripping from cam rails and theres oil in the head



dropped the pan and found some surprise in oil pickup

first: the rod bearings do not move up and down at all. they move side to side just very slightly im assuming they should have clearance on the sides
neither rod ends or mains are discolored I didn't see any sign of overheating anywhere at all

the magnetic drain bolt picked up some grey colored goop (paste) that is magnetic obviously

but even under magnifying glass I cant see any metal flakes in it or metal shavings
cleaned it off and put the drain plug back in and it picked up even more of that goop

I haven't got to taking the oil pump off yet but im assuming I will find more surprises there also

here are the pictures I took
please help me decode them as I don't know what to look for exactly

machine shop work:
bronze valve guides were installed valves and valve seals were cut head was decked
they also for whatever reason sanded my cam journals I saw cross pattern that wasn't there before.


grey goop that was on the magnetic pickup


whats left after wiping


inside the oil pump


oil pan with leftover oil grey color flakes and when I mix it copper/bronze flakes show up


another oil pan angle


more goop on magnetic pickup


what I found in the oil pickup



more garbage in oil pickup


oil drained

 

oil pickup has good clearance to oil pan
I replaced the oil pan gasket not too long ago didn't find anything in oil or oil pickup it was completely clean and maybe few speckles of grey goop on the magnetic pickup

second oil change also didn't have any sparkles in it


since the engine was powered up first time the oil pressure was solid never changed until now

 

I thought you had to remove them from vtec heads and blocks in order for the oil pressure to get to the solenoid to get vtec to actuate.

 

Bump anyone? Not sure what the problem is

 

anyone have a picture of worn out oil pump innards?
mine doesn't look like its beendamaged in any way the inside of the gears looks like cast aluminum is it supposed to be smooth?

 

possible that stuck oil jet(s) would cause the symptoms above?
I took out one of the oil jets and found a decent size metal flake in it steel not bronze or copper.
will check other ones later

oil pump looks pretty worn out like something got stuck in it and grinded the *** out of it.
relief valve



gears outside



gears inside


pump housing

 

Something was definetely in there and messed up those surfaces on the OD of the outer gear, they are definetely smooth from Honda

 

fn machine shop. wtf. there was nothing in the oil before I took the head off and took it to machine shop

now theres whole bunch of **** floating and stuck everywhere

the oil pressure was good. oil was clean with no flakes and oil pickup had maybe 3 -4 pieces of greygasket sealer and some wrinkle red particles from painting the valve cover

now its filled with ****. what can I do now can I go back to machine shop?( which im assuming will be hard to prove that they didn't clean the machining leftovers very well)

I have a feeling that the metal is everywhere now since it made its way into one of the oil jets.

theres metal flakes in vtec solenoid filter as well. when it was completely clean before

 

check ur camshaft too. maybe it has some scratches

 

Looks like main or rod bearing debris. If the bearing goes completely you have metal to metal contact and that will cause the bigger chunks. Also if a camshaft lobe gets rounded off it will cause the same silver debris and large chunks of metal you see here. If all the cam lobes are smooth and not rounded off its prolly a rod or main bearing.

 

The glittery gold/bronze flakes are indicators that the bearings are damaged. I'd have a look whether the main, rod, or both have been damaged. It may tell you where to look next for the cause.

Damage to the oil pump suggests that the problem occurred upstream of it.

 

theres nothing in the head now im wondering how the shavings got to the vtec solenoid

if the oil pump blew up wouldn't oil filter stop all the metal shavings?

cams look good rocker pads also.

 

That silvery bronzey metal paste is worn bearing material. And the drop in oil pressure is the bad pump and prolly bad main bearings.

If the machine shop didn't clean all of the shavings out of the head some of that could have gotten in the pump and caused it to fail and thus the main and rod bearings to follow. It happened to my 79 z28 383 build. Shop built me a new engine for the mistake.

 

Damn is this worth spending money on or should i just find a c5 bottom end?

Im guessing the pistin rings and cylinder wals are also done from the metal shavings everywhere.

 

QFT.
At this point a new bottom end is probably the better option.

 

****

race car is expensive lol
I guess the kid is gonna have to eat less food for few years kidding

 

Sounds like oil control jet oring is not installed causing excess oil pressure in the head and the bottom end lost pressure resulting in damage in bottom end and the oil pump got scored by those bits and pieces.

Just a guess tho.

 

Its there. I always check that one

 

Good tech! Sorry to hear tho

 

Where would be a good place to buy a jdm itr bottom end?
I know hmotors sells complete biut i never seen them sell bottom end