Got one more question about oil pressure

[lowandsleekDSM]

Ok today i started my freshly rebuilt stock 7bolt and im coming to a rather big problem. The engine does not have oil pressure. Now ive searched on tuners for this thread and im hoping i just did something wrong when i was priming the engine for oil pressure. All i did was take the spark plugs out and the wires off and just craked the engine till the oil light was gone and well the light didnt turn off, so my dad just said since it seemed like you primed it enough just start it and see what happens but dont leave it running of course. So i started it and the lifters were loud!! and the oil light actually went off but the gauge was not showing oil pressure and the dipstick showed that i didnt have enough oil in it when in fact i put the correct amount in. Now im thinking i might have to pull the head just to verify if the head gasket is installed right or not which will suck big time! But heres my question - How can you verify is the oil passge that feeds the head oil is closed up or not? Is there an easier way to check this? Im hoping its just a simple fix. And if i did something wrong when initially starting it please tell me so i can just redo things and go from there. Thanx!! (sorry this thread is so long everyone!)

Alright, i had a question about my headgasket and the block. I recently got into a big problem about oil not pumping into the head. Well today i decided to tear down my engine AGAIN for the 15th time (and my freshly rebuilt 4g63 was just running a total of 2 minutes in the last 6 months.) Well....here is my problem, i took the head off and took a look at the metal headgasket that i got from Maperformance.com and took a look at the block itself....and the headgasket leaves every hole uncovered except for two. Now, when i initially started the car (before the head came off), the oil light went off after a couple seconds of running BUT the oil pressure gauge showed no pressure at all. Ive even tried to flip the head gasket and the one i have you cant get it wrong. Now are all the holes in the engine block suppose to be uncovered? When my dad was trying to figure this out with me, he said i should of checked the feed line going to the turbo (but i was already half way into the tear down anyways) What could cause all this? Bad oil pump? (just a little FYI - the oil pump worked flawlessly on the car but it is the original one, i know done mistake but, whats not broke dont fix right?) Im in need of some advice, any would be appreciated

 

[RoasT BeeF]

I picture would be helpful to demonstrate which holes are blocked off.

When you originally rebuilt your engine did you prime the oil pump before you started it? Based on my own experience rebuilding these engines I have done it both ways. With and without priming the pump. Without priming the pump it took a good bit of time before I saw oil comming out the top looking through the oil cap hole and also before I saw indication of pressure on the guage. Priming the pump on the other hand resulted in the oil pressure guage building immediately after starting the engine and of course seeing oil at the head immediately as well. It's possible you did not run the engine long enough to build pressure if the pump was not primed initially. You say 2 minutes, but was it realistically more or less than that?

 

[delta448]

Your profile says you have a rebuilt engine.
Did you do a BSE? Did you remember to misalign the BS bearings to prevent oil leaking internally?
How's the clearances on your mains -if you replaced the bearings there? The B-shaft connected to the pump and then the mains recieve oil first and an internal leak there would cause low or no pressure.

As Brent said a picture (or even a little MS Paint diagram) would be quite helpful to see which holes are the ones that are blocked. Can you tell if the blocked holes are oil feed or oil drain?

 

[lowandsleekDSM]

Well just an update with good news. I finally just slowed down and just thought it through and i think maybe i just didnt run the car long enough to allow the oil pressure to build up. Because i took the head off and my dad had a pretty good idea to spin the oil pump sprocket with an impact gun and oil started shooting out the oil port in the block which was a good sign, so after that we just put the head back on and just tightened it down - didnt torque it down though and did the same thing with spinning the oil pump sprocket and what do you know, the oil started to come out where its suppose to in the head. After we figured that out i just torqued the head again and im going to finish up tomorrow (saturday). But my dda was saying that i might not have primed the pump enough, because my reasoning for running the car for such a short amount of time was obviously the pressure gauge didnt read any pressure and also the lifters were wicked loud! Thats why i turned it right off...didnt want to damage anything. Sorry for the lack of pics but i`ll put some up tomorrow because i`m still wondering about the holes.

 

[RoasT BeeF]

Good to hear. As for the lifters being very loud, this is also normal as the lifters should have been collapsed by whoever did the head work. It will take them a good bit of driving to pump up and quiet down so be prepared for that.

 

[lowandsleekDSM]

Ok since this thread ive been dealing with yet again little to no oil pressure and this time i`m just at my wits end with this car. If you all need to know what happened then just read the original post i started. Well today (today being saturday) i got everything back together finally after being busy with everything else with work and all that (trying to make the money i guess). Well after the initial start up once again (even after the oil was flowing to the head thinking it was all fixed), well....the problem has i guess come back to haunt me once again and this time im just about fed up with my car. Heres a short video of the sounds ive been hearing when i started it up and the loud clanking noise in the background is something im VERY concerned about and after the start up...the oil pressure does not build at all past the half way mark on the oil pressure gauge (factory gauge of course). Now tomorrow im going to get back to the car im going to wait for it to cool down and all that good stuff. Now when my dad held the gas pedal down at about im guessing 3 to 4k rpms and the clanking noise stopped and the car was running ok and the oil pressure was building slightly but when he laid off the gas...the oil pressure went straight back down. Is this just me not letting the car run long enough once again? or is there something more to this problem?

Heres the video:
pics7-01-08.flv - Video - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

 

[bluegs03]

It might be the sending unit to the gauge is old and worn out? It could be the oil pump being old (unless you replaced it) I would get an aftermarket gauge from someone and see the exact oil pressure and check the pump.

 

[delta448]

How much oil pressure do you have at idle? It sounds like you've got some nasty lifter tick from that video and possibly something more, my hearing isn't the best anymore. How about pulling the valve cover off and checking to make sure the valvetrain is getting oil?

 

[lowandsleekDSM]

Well at idle if I remember is roughly below the half way mark...maybe lower. But like I said when my dad took my car up to about 4k rpms...the oil pressure built up but not by a whole lot. The oil pump was good when the engine worked so I didn't replace it or touched it. And when I took the head off, we turned the pump shaft and it was pumping though the block with no problem and now everything is back together I did check the cams and stuff to see if they were getting oil and everything was getting oil just not enough. But my dear old dad did strip the nut on the pump shaft while turning it to check the oil flow.....could that be part of the problem? Should I drop the pan just to check everything out ?

 

[delta448]

Well at idle if I remember is roughly below the half way mark...maybe lower. But like I said when my dad took my car up to about 4k rpms...the oil pressure built up but not by a whole lot.

Do you mean you're looking at the stock gauge and it's sitting on the halfway mark, or normal pressure line? I have to rev it pretty hard on warm days to get my stock gauge to go very much over that line. If you're worried because you used to get higher readings, then I really suggest investing in an aftermarket oil pressure gauge and seeing the actual value in psi. You should have at least 10psi at idle on a freshly built 4G63.

I did check the cams and stuff to see if they were getting oil and everything was getting oil just not enough.

How do you know it isn't getting enough oil? Just because the lifters are ticking doesn't mean they aren't getting enough oil. Are the lifters reused from the original engine?

But my dear old dad did strip the nut on the pump shaft while turning it to check the oil flow.....could that be part of the problem? Should I drop the pan just to check everything out ?

You don't have to drop the oil pan to check the oil pump. Is the oil pump's timing belt sprocket secure on the pump's shaft or is it loose? If the shaft isn't turning with the sprocket then you will need to fix that ASAP.

 

[lowandsleekDSM]

Yea i was looking at the stock gauge and i had the head rebuilt by a local shop here in tampa so i`m assuming the lifters are still the original ones i guess (but i was told through some people here on tuners that the lifters will need some time to pump back up and fill up with oil again due to the fact that they were collapsed when a head is rebuilt) Before i put the timing belt back on i did notice that the threads on the nut were stripped so the nut isnt coming off as far as im concerned but thats going to be a bad thing if i need to take it off though. But would the stripped nut cause the shaft to not turn with the pump pulley ? and im guessing that i would have to take the front case off and basically everything else off to chance out the pump shaft right? I really cant take the engine out again, my buddy has my engine lift and engine stand b/c he`s doing his stupid 240sx

I was just thinking about my problem im having, and like i said the threads on the nut that holds on the oil pump sprocket is stipped but the nut isnt comming off it just spins if you try to take it off - Is it possible to just rethread the rod? and replace it with another nut possibly? Just trying to figure out what my options are before i go tearing everything apart for the third time

 

[lowandsleekDSM]

Ok everyone, im still having problems with little to now oil pressure in my `97 gst. I rebuilt the motor a few months ago and in the past few weeks i have been getting little to no oil pressure. Now today (today being Thurs.) i took the oil pan off once again, took the windage tray off and started inspecting inside the block. Nothing seems out of the ordinary. Both balance shafts spin freely with no problems. I have not however replaced the front case when i did the rebuild (i know i should have, but i didnt fix what wasnt broken, might of been a bad idea now i think about it). If many of you dont know, when i initally started my car up, the oil pressure was not building at all, so i took the head off inspected everything and the oil passages were good by priming the pump with the drive gear itself. Well that prompt me to replace the nut that my dad screwed up and well im back to square one, but after all that the car does this wierd like metal clanking sound much like a baseball card against bike spokes would sound like with no oil pressure at all. I was afraid to run the car for a very long time so i only let it run for a minute or som not even, but the problem persists. Now i`m kinda stuck here, ive checked everything and im not sure what i should do. Could it be my sensors? or just replace the front case and inspect the oil pump just for good measure or what? Im prepared to take the front case and the oil pump off.
Now here are some of the things ive noticed while i was inspecting everything and trying to get some ideas on what might be happening:
-No shavings in the oil at all
-No bearings or anything were found in the pan what so ever
-like i said, both front and rear balance shafts are rotating freely with no binding or anything.
-i can however move the rods VERY slightly side to side but not front to back (cylinder 1, 2, and 3 are like that). Could that be a problem?
-The car barely runs though, im guessing its due to old spark plugs i have in it for right now just to get the car started and running.
Any advice would be great, im sooooo stuck at this point! Thanks guys!