No oil to head 6-bolt engine

[Littlebeeper]

ok I have another hard problem. I read all the low and no oil to head. i have ruined 1 head, previous owner ruined 1 for sure probably 2 cause he gave me a spare 6-bolt with no head. car is a 90 TSi AWD with a 6-bolt and stock air oil cooler in the stock location, in front of the ac condensor.

I am getting NO oil to the head. i replaced the oil pump, and did the free balance shaft removal (cut rear shaft at the dimple and threaded in a longer bolt to cover the oiling hole. front shaft was left in there to block frontoiling holes). i primed the pump, and saw oil pressure at the guage. i also heard the oil gurgling as it was pushing out the air in the system. i never waited for the oil to squirt out of the head, that was my fault. before i put in another head i want to find the problem. this is what i have done so far.
1. i removed the distribution block on the head and spun the pump. the guage goes about 1/2 way and i get no oil. oil pump is spun over 2 minutes and i can feel the drill getting some resistance in the 1st second or 2 as it starts to pump oil.
2. i removed the lower head bolt on the left side, the bolt closest to the oiling hole for the turbo. this is supposed to be the oil feed to the head. oil pump spun and still no oil.

any suggestions? i'm thinking maybe the oil filter could be clogged, oil filter housing is clogged or damaged, oil pump housing gasket is installed wrong (i installed it so i have to check it but doesn't explain the 1st head unless previously misaligned as well). front engine cover gasket installed wrong (i replaced that too). oil relief valve installed wrong (not even sure thats possible), oil cooler clogged. thats all i can think of checking. the car came with a stock 14b in the trunk and it was locked up. no damage to the wheels just locked. i'm thinking this thing got oil starved with the 1st oil starvation. i'm getting another head but i want oil moving up before i install it. any ideas, i'm done brain storming and allmy ideas seem slim. maybe i'm missing something so i'm picking your brains. Thanks guys.

 

[BogusSVO]

how much has the head been milled?, I doubt what i have been working on will apply to you, unless you have an extream case.

Have you checked to see if the oil pick up is still mounted to the oil pump ?

 

[Littlebeeper]

oh, forgot to put to put that in. the head isn't milled, there is still plenty of room in the oil port of the head. that was checked as well. i bolted in the pickup tube myself. both bolts and the nut with a new gasket on the tube. i also banged out the bottom of the oil pan as it had some dents and i was worried it might hit the pickup tube causing a restriction. thanks for the help. i'm open to any ideas

 

[BogusSVO]

the only thing left is some sort of blockage in an oil galley.
are you getting oil pressure to the OFH? if so How much?

you may want to try pullin the VC then the distabuition block, and the one head bolt, and back flushing the main oil feed with compressed air.

 

[Fabian]

when you did the balance shaft elimination you didnt put any silicone or RTV on the oil pump cover did you? Cause a friend of mine put some rtv on mine when we did mine and a piece of rtv got sucked through the oil galley and got stuck right at the head so there wasnt any oil flowing to the head at all and it locked up. when I took the head off I saw the piece of rtv right there in my face laughing at me. pulled it out and cleaned things up, put on a new head with gasket and the car's been running awesome ever since.

 

[Littlebeeper]

Thanks Boqus, i didn't think to shoot pressure down in there. i did think of shoving a wire brush cleaner as i think i saw copper head sealer on the head bolt threads when i took her apart.

Also thanks Fabian. i didn't use any sealer of any kind on the pump cover, i did use a light coat on the front engine cover though. it just enough to help the gasket stick in place while i slide the cover on. the gasket for the front cover seams a bit complex though. it has a lot of oil passages to seal from each other.

 

[BogusSVO]

I doubt the copper seal would be enough to cause a blockage, if it was the spray on.

i doubt this is it, but, I just looked at a head and layed a gasket on it, but HG could be on upside down and backwards, you really have to be a bone head to do that, but look under the intake runners and see if there is gasket hanging out.

if that was the case I would suspect that you would have other issues too.

Yes I know this is grasping for straws.....

 

[Littlebeeper]

i'm going to have to check it anyway when the head comes off but its on right. all the oil drain ports or good, no head gasket is visible and it would be if it were wrong. thanks for all the ideas

 

[TuRBoTaLooN]

the only thing left is some sort of blockage in an oil galley.
are you getting oil pressure to the OFH? if so How much?

Have you checked this? I'm having a similar problem and would like to know if you have pressure in your OFH.

I too have primed the oil and heard the "gurgling sound" but have not seen the oil coming up out of the head.

You could also disconnect the oil feed from the turbo, disconnect spark plugs, coil pack, and fuel pump, and spin the motor to see if oil shoots out that line.

SUBSCRIBED

 

[BogusSVO]

the last left field thing to look for , is the proper location of the head aligment dowel, if it got jammed in the oil feed bolt hole, that would block off the oil flow to the head.

 

[Littlebeeper]

FIXED!!!!!! ok i did have lots of pressure at the OFH as written in my 1st post. i didn't state how much. the stock guage read 1/2 so even though it sucks, 1/2 reading on it means damn good pressure as most of them don't even get there while cruising. I already had done the distribution block and no oil when i spun the oil pump with the drill. i removed the oil port head bolt in case it was too big and spun the oil pump with the drill. still no oil but gurgling since the car had sat for a bit allowing the oil to drain back. Next thing was maybe the headgasket was wrong or i broke or crushed a piece off, so i removed the head this afternoon. head gasket looked good and the oil feed hole was full to the top. i was already thinking something between the head and block. so, i spun the oil pump and still no oil. DAMN!!! so i was going to do what Bogus suggested and blow down the oil galley. i blew with my mouth in oil feed to the head in the spare block i had and there was almost no resistance. i figured there should be some in my block since there is oil in it but still should blow back. i tried with my mouth and no pressure was going through.....hummm it was clogged. so i guess Bogus was 2 for 2 but we all knew there was a blockage somewhere . i was going to use compressed air to try to unclog it but i wasn't sure where in the oil system the clog was. i got an allen wrench and dropped it in the oil feed hole of the spare block, it dropped all the way to the curved part of the allen and the allen is like 6 inches long. i went to the block in the car and it only went like 3 inches.....YES, i thought, clog is close to the opening. so i started poking at it with a smaller allen and small gunk, like gasket sealer and maybe hardened oil, was comming up on the allen. i thought i smelled some JB weld or that Epoxy stick that you mix. thats weird but its all oil based so it may have just been there for a long time. after about 3minutes i was getting to think it was JB weld or something. then i broke through. HELL YEA. oil started comming up slowly with little particles in it. i quickly started to spin the oil pump to prevent back flow. more pressure and poking at the hole and i finally got the thing fully open and flowing good. its not shooting 4 or 5 feet in the air put i haven't spin the pump full speed. i would spin slowly till oil flowed out of the hole. last thing i'm worried about is if maybe an oil feed to a main, rod, or oil squirter may be blocked. ...........if its not one problem, its another i guess.
should i remove the oil pan and remove the rods caps and main and spin the pump to see if i get oil comming out? the squirters i'm not too worried about. for 1, i have no balance shafts anymore so low RPM starvation should not be a problem even of the things get stuck open. i really don;t want to tear into it again. i may just drop the pan to make sure there is no scoring of the bearing. if they are ok i shouldn't have to worry that they were oil starved right. the engine has run for about 15 minutes total and the only thing that gave was a turbo and 2 heads. i ran it for 2 minutes with the head and it froze up on 2minutes. the last owner said he ran it for like 15 minutes and it froze up. he used assembly lube though so his was well protected my head sat for about 2 years and i didn't even bother to remove the cam caps to oil them up so mine had probably minimum oil, so it froze faster.

so should i even worry about the bottom end? the clog was found at almost the absolute end of the blocks oil passages.

 

[BogusSVO]

if it was me, I would drop the pan and check the bearings, but with the clog close to the top of the block, you maybe ok.

with that one clog, I would wonder if there were more

since you have the head off, can you measure the depth of the oil trough in the head?

also you may want to consider doing this.....
http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/newbie-forum/341028-4g63t-head-oil-port-mod.html

it should help with flow to the head, now the clog is gone, also it MAY help drop the oil pressure some from the high pressures reported by doin the BSE.

 

[Littlebeeper]

both of my heads had not been machined so i didn't have to do the mod. now they are ruined unless the machine shop can fix the cam caps. they were gouges from lack of oil.
i don't want to take the caps off the mains or rods cause then i would add that not only i may have a damn clog, but i may put in a cap or bearing wrong and mess something up that way. wouldn't i be able to notice oil comming out of the side of the caps anyway? i would have to place a jar full of oil up to the pick up tube and spin the oil pump, but is this doable or do i have to remove the bearing caps? man this is going to be a mess also. i'm thinking it will be ok

 

[BogusSVO]

yes doing it that way can be done, taking the caps off is not all that much to do, just take your time, do NOT mix the caps up

but if your willing to make the mess, i would pull the rods and main caps off, inspect the bearings, and flush the oil thu like you said, while rotating the engine over by hand, here again be carfull not to nick the crank on a rod bolt.

if you do this, and if there are any more blockages, the big oil ports will give the clog a way out, if there is one.

alot of "ifs" with your engine right now, I think if it was mine, Id just finish pull the engine, and re-clean everything, mainly the block, pull the oil galley plugs and scrub them out and flush them
If the rings and bearings look good, just roll with them, and just be out the price of a gasket set.

this way you get rid of the "ifs" and you "know"

 

[Littlebeeper]

i got this thing for $700 with a spare 6-bolt block that is set up for a 2g (front mount for 2g already installed) "if" this don't work i'll just sell the damn thing for the same price with a bad engine and keep the spare 6-bolt and the spare turbo (need to rebuild that though). or hell i could always part it out. has a new ac system and awd components are good.