oil circulating but heads running dry

[DSSMER1]

I have recently swapped my motor on my 97 eclipse its pretty much stock all I have done is eliminate the balance shaft and added a 16g the block is from a 98 gsx and the head is from a 96 tsi the car starts but no oil is reaching the head so I was wondering if any of these parts could cause the head to be running dry. Any help is appreciated thanks.

 

[Andrew Dahms]

You've got to be careful. I have come across some jobber headgaskets that dont match up with all the holes. You could be blocking the oil channels, or maybe the channels are different between years or makes for a 2g?

 

[DSSMER1]

thanks, looks like i'll have to check compatibility on the heads for for any differences.

 

[Freerevving]

Is the head just noisy, or is it smoking?

After a rebuild, a noisy head can take 50 miles or so of regular driving to go away

if it's smoking then it's starving for oil

please elaborate

 

[DSSMER1]

the heads not smoking but since i heard the cams and runners were making more noise than i remembered i popped the valve cover off and it was not getting any oil but would it be normal for it to run like that till the head and motor are broken in.

 

[Freerevving]

well the noise is normal until the lash adjusters can fill up with oil... but if the inside actually looks dry there is definitely a problem

If there is absolutely no oil, then there wouldn't be anything smoking either

 

[pimpin81]

im just gonna guess but could it be a bad oil pump, or could your an eliminator kit gone bad.

 

[DSSMER1]

Well the crank is getting the oil the problem is just with the head and the elimination kit was just put in there are 0 miles on it do you still think it could be the pump or the elimination kit let me know what you think and what i should be looking for.

 

[Daaan]

thought i might just ad: If you accidently "drown" your oil pump (overfill it) the pump will push little if any oil to the head at all. Check your oil level.

 

[DSSMER1]

i'll try it thanks

 

[Defiant]

thought i might just ad: If you accidently "drown" your oil pump (overfill it) the pump will push little if any oil to the head at all. Check your oil level.

What? WTF​

 

[BoostedTalonTS]

You did install the block-off bearing in the BSEK correctly, right? -That would be so that the new bearing ends up blocking off the oil passage that would normally feed the original forward BS bearing. If not, then that could explain your lack of oil up top.

Also, how did you prime your oil pump before the initial start-up?

 

[DSSMER1]

I don't know what you meant by primeing the pump but since I don't know guess I have to say no, let me know how that is done thanks.

Also to defiant, I meant i'll check it out.

 

[Freerevving]

thought i might just ad: If you accidently "drown" your oil pump (overfill it) the pump will push little if any oil to the head at all. Check your oil level.

What? WTF​

what he said
WTF



DSSMER1: I tried to respond to your email, but there was some kind of error return message... not sure if you got it

It's already been said, but I also think it's probably either the Balance Shaft Elimination bearing(s) not properly installed, or it's the oil pump
I'm leaning towards bad BSE install...

 

[BoostedTalonTS]

I don't know what you meant by primeing the pump but since I don't know guess I have to say no, let me know how that is done thanks.

Also to defiant, I meant i'll check it out.

Every time you R&R the front cover/oil pump, you NEED to prime it prior to initial start-up.

First, you should pack the oil pump gears themselves with assembly lube, prior to reassembly. This helps in the priming process.

As for the priming process itself, the best way I know of is to remove the timing belt and take a cordless drill with a 3/8" drive adapter w/ a 14mm socket and prime the pump with the drill. This is usually recommended for new motor build-ups but it also makes sense to do it even if you are just swapping in a new oil pump/and or doing a BSEK.

I must have spun up the oil pump for about 60 seconds before I started to hear/see oil & air bubbles start pouring out from the roller oil jets in the head. I kept on spinning it until all the air bubbles were gone.

I would at least tear it down to the timing belt in order to do this... That way you should be able to determine if there is a genuine problem.

 

[DSSMER1]

right well looks like i have some work to do i'll go ahead and check out these things thanks for the info and i'll let you know what i find out to see if i need further help or a miracle to bring it back to life.

 

[turboglenn]

I too have seen some HG's that didn't have the same position on the holes as the head did and would have caused some major issues i'm sure.. Also i believe it's possible to install the HG wrong and not have one of the oil holes line up. There's one hole on the very end of one end of the head and the other end i believe has 2 holes, and they are for oiling..... I"m pretty damn sure i'm thinking of a 4g63..there was a link on here a while back to a guy that did a RWD 4g into a BMW and he blocked off one or 2 of them and drilled a new one of his own as well so i know they are there.

 

[DSSMER1]

well looks like i'll have to pay attention to the gasket to find out exactly what the positioning is hopefully thats what it is well heres hopeing.

 

[Pirrofab]

my friend had a similar problem when he got his jdm 4g63 running. fired it up to find no oil pressure and the head making all sorts of noise. he then removed the oil pan to find someone removed the back side of the balance shaft and never put anything back in so the oil pump would push oil into that opening for the balance shaft and then it would just leak down back into the crankcase

 

[DSSMER1]

Can you explain what you mean by "the back side of the balance shaft"and let me know what the deal is with that?????

 

[Pirrofab]

sorry about the little bit of confusion, the balance shaft runs the length of the block. you have the side on the timing belt and the side towards the bell housing. by back side of the balance shaft I meant the side going to towards the bell housing. the bearing for your eliminator kit might not have been installed properly. Or in my friends case, they never put anything back in and left a big gaping hole for oil to pour out of.

 

[BoostedTalonTS]

sorry about the little bit of confusion, the balance shaft runs the length of the block. you have the side on the timing belt and the side towards the bell housing. by back side of the balance shaft I meant the side going to towards the bell housing. the bearing for your eliminator kit might not have been installed properly. Or in my friends case, they never put anything back in and left a big gaping hole for oil to pour out of.

That's what I was talking about back in post #12...

For the record though, you only have to install the block-off bearing in the forward (turbo) side of the block... The rear BS is fed directly through the oil pump itself as the rear (AC compressor side) BS is actually hollow. -The stubby shaft is all the block-off you need as far as the rear BS is concerned.

 

[DSSMER1]

Right, thanks for clearing that up i'll be sure to check that out and make sure every-things straight would you happen to know the best way to check the BSEK's fitting into the block so I know what to look for.

 

[BoostedTalonTS]

As long as you followed the steps outlined in the VFAQ perfectly, you shouldn't have any problems... Here's a link:

Balance Shaft Eliminator Kit Install

Specifically, be sure that both of the forward BS bearings were removed and were replaced with the BSEK block off bearings, ensuring that the oil feed ports were plugged... Here's a few pics from the VFAQ:

If you look closely at the 2nd pic, you can see both oil ports in the factory bearings. BOTH of these need to be blocked off!

 

[Daaan]

What? WTF​

When i rebuilt my cylinder head on my 92 talon i had poured excess oil into the head to ensure it had oil. Forgetting i had oil in the pan previous to my rebuild i overfilled it by quite a bit. when i fired it back up the lifters ticked like hell, so i took the oil cap off and absolutly no oil was on the cam shafts. I let it run for about 5 min and still no oil. So i asked a local mechanic and he said to check my oil level. Low and behold i was way past the dipstick marks. I drained it to the proper level and fired it up again. All was good and oil came back up in no time.

Worked for me I guess.