I'm sick of the oil leaks - the smoke - all the b.s. I should have tapped the upper oil pan to begin with, i shouldn't have listened to the stupid kit instructions.


I need to know what fittings to get for the oil return on the turbo. Part numbers would be great - I think I'm going to use -12an sizing.

 

You going to remove the upper oil pan?

 

I saw that you said that you can drop the lower one, and drill, flush the hole... but didnt hear any details about it...I was just planning on dropping the crossmember and then the oil pan.

 

I would just do the lower oil pan. Seems so much easier to me. That is how I have mine.

As far as Parts, you can use kinda use what you want. I use 8AN for my return and 6AN for my feed. 12AN is really big

 

-12an is a little large. And taking the upper pan off seems like a lot of work when you can use the lower. Im going to be running -10an drain and -4 feed. Just wondering, where did you tap for your feed?

 

feed is tee'd off of the oil pressure sending unit.

Where do you tap the lower oil pan?... From what I understand, you don't wanna tap the lower one because of the fact that it is returning below the oil level - leading to oil not draining quickly enough.

 

Yeah I remember reading somewhere the same.

 

Has anyone had a turbo on a max fail specifically because of an oil drain problem as a result of tapping below the oil level in the lower pan? I haven't heard of any but its not a topic I pay that much attention to. Every setup on a maxima I can think of has it tapped there except the one jaime mentioned. It is probably not the most ideal setup, but I haven't heard of it causing any problems.

 

My lower/steel oil pan was used, and I had my upper oil pan done. The only reason I did this was cause the turbo was leaking oil. I thought it was the drain line, but it was not.

but, your in luck................................

 

I tap upper oil pans only. I got the idea from Bags and Eric, they tap the upper oil pan while it was left on the car. You just have to get the correct drill bit size and tap size for the fitting you are using and thats it.

 

PICS PICS PICS..... This is where mine was tapped, it was tapped while on the car. If you use lots of grase and go SLOW and clean as you go, not many shavings will go into the pan. The you take the drain plug out and flush it with some oil, several qts.

 

 

Thanks a lot for the pics bags.

The only thing that worries me is that even with flushing the motor with that much motor oil - there are all those little crevices were even one tiny shard can land at - and cause damage later...

 

If that worries you then, remove the upper oil pan. You will need to replace your front and rear upper engine seals. They look like half moons and possibly two tubes of permagrey. I should rent you my drill bit and tap, but it is for a 8an line though. Hey its better then paying $70 for both tap and drill bit!

 

Thing is - I've got a drill bit/ tap for when i did the valve cover - so i may just put a different valve cover on that doesn't have a hole drilled, and remove the return bung to install it in the upper oil pan. Is it ok to run a rubber line down there? It seems like it'd work fine.

 

you could do it on the oil filter side, where the large opening is.... that way if any small pieces go in there you could remove the steel lower pan and clean it all off.

 

The only problem I see there is the crank pulley/ belts being there.

 

sory I should have used a pic

 

Isn't the ac compressor bolted up right there? hehe :-P

 

thats why you see the two holes on bags pictures on the oil pan. That would be a sweet spot for it.

 

Jay - not sure how you could use that area by the two holes - the ac compressor bracket bolts up to it right there.

I think I'm going to tap the oil pan while everything is still on the car. Someone correct me if I'm wrong - but all the oil in the upper/ lower oil pan is filtered by the oil filter before the oil pump sends it back up to the top of the motor? I'm hoping that with the combination of flushing with several liters of motor oil will take care of the shavings.

 

Here's where I put mine, this is actually a 350z pan that I'm using on the VQ30. I won't have AC.

 

Running it where the AC goes makes the most sense. That is of course if you already have the AC removed. Doing it there would eliminate the need for all this flushing and worrying about shavings because the shavings would just fall out the bottom.

That nice to see that 350 oil pan. Gives me confidence for my project. How do you plan to cover up the starter hole? Just fab an aluminum plate?

 

Ya, just a metal plate.

allen

 

so back to my question - does the oil get pulled through the oil filter before it goes into the oil pump to the top of the motor or no?

 

It goes through the filter right after it goes through the filter. It the pressure gets too high then it goes around it through a relief valve.

 

It goes through the oil filter right after it goes through the oil pump strainer thing? Is that what you're saying?

 

hmm....350z Oil Pan, Is it a complete bolt on?

JP

 

what if you tapped into the lower oil pan. and put a "L" fitting on the inside and angled it up on the inside of the oil pan making it higher? or does that still not work?

 

Yes, it's a complete bolt on but it's not gonna work in a Maxima chassis because of the way the the bottom is shaped, won't clear the Maxima crossmember I don't think.

allen

 

why would you want to go with a 350Z upper oil pan?

 

then you would have a high spot where oil would not flow. It could then back up into your turbo

 

Oil Pump strainer > oil pump > filter > disperses to the different parts of the engine

I don't have the FSM or haynes in front of me to tell you where it goes from there but I do remember that is how it goes.

 

Really it should be an aluminum plate. If it is steel it will expand at different rates and possible crack that area of the pan.

 

Well - I've decided to tap the upper oil pan by taking it off the car.

Today, me and a buddy got the following done:

Unbolt Ac compressor, motor mounts, crossmember, unhook turbo exhaust piping, charged air piping, and the old feed / return lines.

Tomorrow - the oil gets drained, the pan gets dropped, tapped, and bolted back up, and sealed with permatex grey per jay25's recommendation. Car should be up and running.

One thing I found that was interesting was that, there was little to no oil being drained - the return line was virtually dry, which really bugged me. The shaft of the turbo still has no play so it seems to not be "blown". I think tapping the valve cover was a bad decision - and that turbo kit producing companies, i.e. PFI, should not recommend tapping it.

I'm using the same fitting that I used at the valve cover, just that it is to be tapped exactly where Bags fitting is. I'm using rubber hose to connect the fitting on the turbo to the return fitting on the oil pan.

The only thing that I'm wondering about is - how to install the new oil seals on either ends of the crankshaft... anyone have any info to share on that?

 

I highly recomend replacing the two semicircular gaskets over the crank. I'm not sure what they are called. But I just pulled my upper pan two months ago and it is leaking already from the that gasket on the front. Thank god it isn't leaking from the tranny side. Its really annoying though because I have put in a 1/4 quart a week to keep it full and I can't park in any of my buddies concrete driveways. I think I may pull the motor to do the pan tap and mount the blower.

 

I just done tap my upper oil pan today,if you want PM me and I'll try my best to help.Frank.

 

Yeah I picked both of them up just in case. And VQmax - i'll ttyl bout it.

 

Don't forget to clean your pan really good after you drill it. I just had to pull my pans again after I forgot to clean out the aluminum dust/shavings from when I drilled my oil return line! Thankfully the motor wasn't started.

allen

 

Of course i cleaned the pan - I finished the final touches on the car today and drove her for a bit. The oil feed is almost vertical - i'd say at a 70 degree angle. I was pissed when after my boosted run - the bov had shot some oil - I think that's just what was left from before though. I tapped the oil pan exactly where BAGS pics show also... man what a pita just to put a 2 inch piece of metal in.