Hi guys,

My oil pressure light came on a few days ago (on 92SE) and engine started knocking pretty loud - it was pretty clear that there was barely any oil pressure. I decided to change oil/filter even thought it was only 2000 miles since the last oil change. To my huge surprise symptoms completely went away for 2 days. It was driving perfectly - good oil pressure, no knocking.

Today it's all back again... drive the car for 5 minutes, oil light is on, engine knocking. I have only 2 ideas at this point - bad oil pump (but why would it work great for 2 days after changing oil???) or just a clogged oil pick up screen in the oil pan (I did an engine flush about 7 months ago, so there might be a lot of crap left in the oil pan). Do you have any other ideas? What can I check?

What's involved in taking of oil pan on the VE? I am sure it's been covered before, but search doesn't work - so I can't find it. How about replacing oil pump? I assume it's not DIY. Hopefully, for oil pan I will just have to remove center support, and then just unbolt the cover itself. Am I missing anything? What else could cause oil pressure to drop all of a sudden?

Thanks very much for any help... I am about ready to give up on this car and donate it to the junk yard.

D

 

Have you checked your oil level?

 

Removing that support unbolts the engine from the car. You must support it from the top. To replace the oil pump the crank pully and I assume timing chain must come off. Not fun.

 

ouch.. kiss this baby goodbye.

FSM procedure:

remove pressure switch. install pressure gauge. check pressure.
If below 60psi at 3000 rpm, check oil passages for clogging, and replace pump if necessary.

pump removal:
1. drain oil
2. remove drive belts.
3. remove cylinder head
4. remove oil pans.
5. remove oil strainer.
6. remove front cover assembly.


Wheeeee!

 

[strongbad]crap... man.[/strongbad]

 

why do you have to remove the cylinder heads to take the oil pan off thats alot of work

by the way i had this problem on my ve way back in may only it started to tick really bad even with the vtcs grounded and the oil light did come on around a few turns so i checked the oil (it had only been about 1000 miles after a change) it was like 2 quarts low (do thethe front cranks seal being bad) filled it up TICKING went away for a while but it came back and i kept having t add oil but finaly in late august it started knocking on the highway and lost all power once again it was low on oil but it was to late.

now i have a new engine no oil leaks and im very happy and learned from my mistake ALWAYS CHEAKC YOUR OIL!!!!!!!

 

I dunno dude.. that's what the uckfing FSM says.


and yeah.. check your oil. that's a smrt thing to do on a periodic basis. just like checking tires, brakes, tranny fluid, etc.. you don't just check that **** every 5000 miles.

 

removing heads = not good

but talk to Brian for gaskets.

Maybe i'll go play with my engine and see if there is anyway to get away with it. Stupid expensive head gaskets.

 

i happen to have my old engine in the garage i need to rip it apart and see for my self

 

dont get ****ed of course im not doubting you in any way i just wondered if you knew why

i have an fsm i will look at later

 

Oil level is fine... I already checked it.
So, how do I take the oil pan off? Is supporting engine from the top the only way to do it? I thought that there should be more than one mount holding the engine. Has anyone removed their oil pan? Any instructions from FSM?

 

there are 2 mounts holding the engine but they are both supported by the crossmember that you have to remove to remove the oil pan

the instructions are listed in an above post and trust me removing the cylinder heads is a big job you mine as well remove the engine and rebiuld it because it proboly needs new bearings at the least ive never heard of an oil pump failing in these engines

it would proboly be alot easier and cheaper to just get a new engine trust me ive gone threw this before the cheapest quote i found on getting mine rebiult was 3500$ and i wasnt about to try to rebiuld it myself the used motor i got for 1200$ shipped to a local dock

by the way how many miles are on your motor

 

those instructions are for replacing oil pump... I am asking for instructions for removing oil PAN.

 

Shouldn't he check for oil pressure, before disassembling the motor? But it does sound like spun bearings due to a bad pump. Did your engine have good maintence? What engine cleaner did you use? Sorry for the bad luck.

 

Also, engine had been replaced previously... I got the car with a dead engine. The new engine has about 98K miles on it by now. It was very dirty when mechanic installed it - lots of crud inside. After doing an engine flush it ran ok for almost a year, but he warned me that all that crap that was flushed and dissolved will settle down in the oil pan and might block the oil pump pick up screen. So basically... I am just want to give this engine one last hope by removing and cleaning the oil PAN and the oil pump pick-up screen. If that doesn't help - this car is getting parted out.

All I am looking for is some tips on removing the oil pan. Mechanic wanted $150 to do it (3 hours of labor). Has anyone done it before?

 

As far as spun bearings... I am not so sure about that. Motor runs great (for the first 5-6 minutes) and then oil pressure drops and valves start knocking. Knocking is coming only from the top part of the engine... so I would think that bearings are ok for now. (also it's not VTC - they are grounded)

 

does the VE have an oil pressure relief spring?
anybody know.

 

Try running like two more engine flushes, one right after the other, use fresh oil and a new filter for both, let the solution circulate a little longer than what the directions say. Make sure you dont drive the car while the flush solution is in there (I know you know that). It would only cost you like 20-30$ to try that rather than all the time and headaches pull the cross memeber off, and the Y-pipe. Also for the two oil flushes, use different brands of flush solution, maybe one will work better than the other.

 

need moar info/description/etc

 

Yes, its the oil pressure regulator, there are two springs one sits inside the other, and it comes with shims for the springs. I bought the assembly from courtesyparts, but I checked my oil pressure and found it was incredibly high, so I left it alone. I didnt want to do all the work that this guy might have to go through.

 

Do you think it would clear up oil pump pickup screen if it's really clogged? I am a little worried about clogging it even more. Judging by the amount of crud present on the camshafts when I got the engine, oil pan must be half full with crap by now.

 

hmmm now i feel like taking apart my spare oil pump.

I think that might be todays project


ohhh and my engines at the low level on the dip stick, so I think I might just dump in a quart or so of marvel for kicks. hmmm, maybe I'll just change my oil.... na

 

You do know that too high a pressure can be just as bad as too low a pressure. or sometimes even worse.
People are under the misconception that higher pressure is better. The engine needs more VOLUME not pressure.

 

too high of pressure hurts the bearings

 

I ment high, as in like 'brand new high'. The FSM only tells you a minimum, not a maximum. Few people have reported their oil pressure, so I was quite surprised with mine.

 

I think its totally worth trying. Just make sure you always use a new oil filter, for each flush.

The fact that their will be extra fluid (flush solution) in the oil pan will help carry out the particles when you drain it out.

 

Well... I will give it a try... I was kinda trying to minimize the amount of money I spent on this, but I guess it's worth $25 not having to take the oil pan off....

But seriously, as far as oil pan goes... sounds like engine has to be supported (can I just use jack stands under transmission?) and Y-pipe has to be removed? Hmmm.. for some reason I didn't notice the Y-pipe being in the way the last time I was down there. Maybe I didn't look hard enough.

 

you shoudl always check the oil pressure first, before going any farther on this stuff...

If you're low on pressure and you have to remove the oil pan to get to the pump anyway, pull the pan and take a look inside. if it's full of junk, then clean it and put it back together and see what happens

If it's clean, then it's going to be the pump itself. rebuild/replace the oil pump and see what happens after that.

 

Matt, I know for a fact that my oil pressure is low... what's the point of checking it? My oil light comes on, valves start ticking and it almost disappears if you give it a little gas... I think it's enough to tell that oil pressure is low.

I think I am not going to repace the oil pump - seems that it's more work than it's worth.

As far as taking off oil pan - it's the only thing left to do, regardless (well, after the flushes).

 

There's no secret on removing the pan, support engine, remove cross member, unbolt/remove all objects that might hinder the removal of the pan, unbolt remove pan, done.

The oil pump on the other hand will require removal of all three timing chains plus oil pan. I dont believe the heads need to come off

But back to your original problem, besides a clog pick-up screen you could have a faulty oil pressure regulator valve. Which is located internally in the pump. I would do as you suggested, check the pick-up screen first. If cleaning the screen doesn't help then you have to decide if you want to go into the oil pump assy to see what's happening

Happy hunting :

MIKE

 

dmitriy, any news?

 

I have a similar problem. My oil light comes on intermittantly. I checked the oil level and it's fine. I just got the engine installed. It's a jdm with around 55,000 miles. The guy that installed it took tho oil pan off before installation to check everything out.

 

Your problem is not like the original post. Even though your light came on you probably still had oil pressure, maybe a faulty or loose oil pressure switch. The original guy had a light with no oil pressure, hense the terrible knocking noise the engine started to make soon after his light came one.

I also forgot to mention that I ran out of oil 3 times with my VE, and all three times were because of a busted oil cooler line I once had installed. It's very possible your engine can still be ok just like mine was after my incident.

 

Well, I meant somewhat similar. Mine hasn't made any knocking sounds. I did replace the oil sensor and it didn't change anything. I'm gonna try to install an aftermarket oil pressure guage so I can keep an eye on it.