A friend of mine just bought a 94 del sol vtec, the motor had just recently been rebuilt, 5k on the rebuild, 130k on the car.

The other night he was driving along, low rpm driving, late at night.

The oil pressure light came on, checked oil, plenty there, tried to make it home.

On the way home ~ 5 miles, the car died, wouldnt' start again.

I dropped the oil pickup and the remains of the oil pump gears fell out.

Yeah, it sucks, he's only had this car 1 week and the bonehead **** *** motor building skill of someone else has just ruined this guys whole situation.

Things to note:

-5k on rebuild
-itr pistons, stock rods
-autometer mechanical gauge, sender on 4ft braided line teed from oil pressure sensor (makes no ******* sense to me either,)

Here's what i'm thinking.

The motor was rebuilt, not balanced at all. Oil pump was not inspected for clearances.

I highly doubt this car had a oil pressure gauge before the rebuild as well.

I think the combination of the unbalanced rotating assembly, extra strain on oil pump to accomodate the 4ft of oil it now had to push, and the age of the pump were what killed it.

Question is, what to do from here.

I'm leaning towards a full teardown of the whole motor. take entire rotating assembly to machine shop, etc.

I don't know, the rods, springs and such could have got hot in the 5 miles he was driving, it would be hard to tell.

the guy has the money to spend, and i've definetly got the credit card bills to let him pay me, so does anyone else have any advice, experience with this situation?

 

ttt

 

this is a good one. 1st, i'd ditch the mechanical oil pressure gauge. next, if he had an oil pressure gauge, why did he drive it when it registered 0 psi?? ****** tool. so the head is scarred , the cams are shot and one of the retainers looked beat up?

tell him to get a gs-r head, for higher compression, or just go back cheaply with a B16A, but good luck finding just a head (you know how that goes).

run a prodrive oil pump gear, and replace all the bearings. thats my .02. good luck mang. call me if you need some assistance on that sheit. later
-Shawn

 

Yeah, well, I think we're just going to try to find a b16 long block, that is my most optimistic diagnosis.

So Shawn, what's up with Trinity this weekend, wOOt wOOt!

Not to mention the 2 week old skunk 2 stage 2 cams that are f'd.

 

Hmmm...was the car RED and did the seller happen to be a guy named Ryan?

Where'd your friend buy that car from - near the Jonesboro area?

 

IMO your gonna need to redo the whole motor - your probably better off doing a swap for the same amount. But I think you hit it right on the head... unbalanced assembly would put access strain on everything, and without proper clearences... yup, it was bound to happen.

 

(770)986-7888

Pacific Enmgine co - ask for Hugh.

Buy a first-gen longblock and then swap the distributor, intake manfifold, etc.

Much easier that way, and the motor will have a 6 month unltd. mileage warranty too.

 

I'm not sure if the guys name was Ryan, but it does have white lensos, and it was from up that way..

 

Yes it's confirmed. Shitty engine build for sure. It was what you'd call a "shotgun" engine build.

A friend of mine that is actually good at building engines was called in at the last minute to oversee the build and tried to tell the guy the right way to do it, but the guy didn't listen...you see the end result.

Just don't go telling Ryan that I told you all of this because it won't matter in the end, and all it will do is cause drama for me that I really don't need right now.

 

Understood, that probably could have been left to a IM, delete your comment if you want, i've got it.

-Brian