ok...
rebuilt H22A4. GE sleeves. rods, pistons...
all new water pump, oil pump. head is known to be good and from my stock car with only 7800miles on it. oil level is dead on.

with the hondata, i get it to idle properly with the 780cc inj. i have an open dp so its really loud and can't hear exactly whats going on but definitely not sounding perfect.

my oil pressure light flickers at idle and goes off at 1000rpm but after heats up oil pressure continues to drop a bit.

my greddy gauge reads pressure but very low at idle.

Ok, never had to troubleshoot this and hopefully there is no significant damage to my bearings since i have not revved it at all and i know there is at least some oil pressure!!

Where to start?? Drain the oil and drop the pan? What is my sequence to make sure I find the issue?

Thanks guys

 

did you take the balance shafts out?


you got any coolant in your oil? any smoke at all?

 

balance shafts in place, no coolant in the oil, no excessive smoke.

 

put an actual oil pressure guage on the engine an read the pressure. don't trust the idiot light. Also what were your main and rod bearing clearances?

 

I would try another gauge first. Make sure the connection to block doesn't have anything(teflon tape or paste) covering the entry. If you pressure is low enough for a light, the engine should be noticeably noisy.

If your bearing clearance is in spec, and your oil pump new, what about the pickup, any damage?

Oil control orifices in block and head? Both have o-rings?

 

all good points....

verified now with 2 gauges and idle is only 5-6 psi.

you know, it can be anything. I am so ******* **** that i went over everything as i was doing the rebuild so carefully . everything torqued to spec. It is obviously either a plug before the pump, the pump being bad, or there is an oil passage leak either at the sump/oil pump connection or past the oil pump letting pressure out.

I pulled the valve cover and thank god, oil has been getting up there. The oil is clear with the very rare little metal spec that looks more like a fleck from screwing in a bolt here and there. no flakes of metal seen yet.

 

oh,
bearing clearances measured and set by Golden Eagle...they did my bottom end rebuild at the same time they sleeved the block.

 

you need to find out what the clearances were set to.

 

copy from forced induction...

ok...before I start laying in on Golden Eagle, I'm gonna wait for Vince to call me back.
I found the problem. I should first kick myself in the *** for not double checking their work. I must have had blinders on. They never put back my oil jet assembly in the block. Its sitting somewhere in their rebuild room I imagine. Its certainly not here.

Well, thanks for all your feedback. An oversight on their part part and mine for not noticing it

My 4th rod bearing looks ok actually, only minimal signs that any wear has started. There is only a spec of babbit here and there in the oil. God, I only hope there was just enough oil getting to the bearings that i'm ok without having to have them do a total rebuild.

 

just wanted to let everyone know that Ted Tiaga at GE was able to be reached today and he was extremely apologetic for this happening and was more than willing to stand by their work and remedy any errors. I am hoping there is no significant bearing damage. I am hoping that it wont be too hard to get the oil jets in from under the car (the girdle will have to come off but that will allow me to check the mains bearings at least).
And, hopefuly my oil squirters will be mailed back to me this week.

General rule of thumb--lesson learned--always check the work of others (thoroughly). Another eye on things never hurts.

Bright side of this is i'll spend my holiday weekend building my new Wideband unit and mow my lawn.

 

Too bad they forgot the squirtes, but Golden Eagle is a very "stand up" company. I am glad you found the problem.