[RESOLVED] EXTREMELY high oil pressure!!! Please help!!!

[dsmguy904]

I have recently been have a problem with my 90 GSX that involves extremely high oil pressure (dont know exactly how much yet, i need to get some $$$ for a real gauge) that in turn is cause oil to blow through the seals in my turbo AND has high crankcase pressures, im guessing a side effect of the high oil pressure. anyway, i will try to simplify this to make it easier to understand....

here are the problems/symptoms:
1)EXTREMELY high oil pressure
2)oil and antifreeze blowing through the seals in the turbo(both sides, intake and exhaust)
3)high crankcase pressures indicated by hearing the pcv sucking oil through almost constantly and when you take the oil cap off you can feel air blowing out
4) oil pressure on stock gauge is almost in the middle at idle and will PEG OUT the high side at 3000 rpm cruising!!!
5)leaks from around valve cover gasket, NEVER did this before this started
6)the oil pressure on the stock gauge was slowly creeping up even with the old enigne that burned a valve, and in the 2 weeks on running great kept slowing moving up on me

Now for what i KNOW ALREADY (please read these before you ask me to check these)
1)turbo is NEWLY REBUILT
2)complete engine was put in (stock build) under 200 miles ago
3)NOT the headgasket, its a 4 layer mitsu metal one and is under 200 miles old
4)is NOT the oil filter, changed that twice already
5)NOT the oil, changed that with the filter
6)only thing swapped over/same between the two engines is the oil filter housing

well thats all i can think of right now, but as you can see this problem is really complicated. i have already stumped everyone i know, so now if i could get some help from you guys, that'd be a HUGE help, cause this car is just pissing me off more and more everyday since it has been sitting for the last 2 months and before that was sitting for 6 months before i could afford to fixed the burned valve it got (long story, wont tell unless asked). and, as my luck is with this car anymore, after i got the burned valve fixed, it was running GREAT, minus a little smoking from the old 13g that was in my car(this is a manual car BTW, same long story) suspected to be by the age of that turbo since it only happened under boost. but the wierd thing is is that my oil pressure had been creepin up on me even before i put this engine in, and the only thing we swapped over that might cause this is the oil filter housing. but i dont want to go and spend another 100 dollars trying to fix this damn thing without hearing some feedback.

Thanks,
Steve

 

[paper_clip_boy]

Check the oil Drain Tube and other oil lines. Also run a degreaser mixed with oil through the engine at idle and make sure to drain it clean. Might be a clog in the sytems.

What I would be doing right now is pulling off the oil filter housing and front cover. Clean Clean Clean.

 

[red_devil]

Try to get a reading of the extact oil pressure if you can. What weight oil are you using? I would do what paperclipboy said, do a oil system cleaner and drain the oil. I would take off the filter housing and inpsect it.

 

[ktmrider]

Revival, I have the exact same issues.
From what I have been able to find on the "regular" threads ( non-Newbie ) is if the engine rebuild removes the balance shafts this ( and squirter removal for strokers ) causes the oil pressure to shoot thru the roof ie 100+psi. My hypothesis is that no turbo seal ( good or bad ) can withstand that kind of pressure. I verified that the oil drain tube was clear, in case oil was pooling inside the cartridge, and noticed the oil literally SPRAYED out. I mean spraying 3 feet under the car, not the dribble or trickle I was expecting.
I am traveling thru X-mas and cannot confirm yet but the immediate fix seems to be porting the oil pressure relief hole in the filter housing. I found a used housing on eBay for $20 and plan to get the dremel out once back at home. This and a catch can should resolve my 007 smoke screen else I am gonna charge the neighbors to fumigate the area and kill every West Nile mosquito within 2 miles.
Thanks for any info folks.

 

[dsmguy904]

well actually, and sorry for not updating this, but i DID find my problem and it was not to port the oil relief port... turns out the 1 thing nobody else thought of was the problem:

The external oil cooler!!!

it was SOOO clogged (realize that it is the stock one at 130k on it at the time) that it caused my oil pressure to sky rocket. i kept trying to think about anything that would have stayed on the car this whole time, and guess what, that was it!!! I have since switched the car over to a water-cooled (91-94 style) oil filter housing since i had a water pipe to run one.

Anyway, thanks for your help guys, and now if anyone else has this problem with a car that has an external oil cooler w/ balance shafts we know one of the first things to check...

Thanks,
Steve

 

[ktmrider]

Cool, glad you got your issue resolved. Gives me another item to check if the porting does not work.
Thanks for the info Steve!

 

[dsmguy904]

ya any time!!! i wasnt able to get on to update when i figured the problem out (i was going to UTI at the time and i figured the problem out right after my apartment got broken into, and everything got stolen, including my laptop that had the internet access ) but i guess after that i just forgot to update this thread. thanks to you ktmrider i finally got to updating it so everyone else knows!!! like i said before, i talked to MULTIPLE experts about my problem, even had a few look at the car, and NONE mentioned my external oil cooler. one day i just asked a buddy if he had a spare water cooled housing, and got it for free, swapped it out, ran the water lines, started it up with PERFECT oil pressure!!! (obviously with a bunch of smoking at first that slowly subsided...) then shorty one of my compression rings in #1 blew out on me, so i was back to square one again but as of about a month ago, i came back home and got the dsm running PERFECTLY (for the first time!!!)

anyway, glad i could help, and if anyone else wants any more in-depth info on what happened, let me know.

Thanks,
Steve

 

[ktmrider]

(obviously with a bunch of smoking at first that slowly subsided...)
Thanks,
Steve

Sweet, I also forget about the external oil cooler.
One last Q, how long til the smoke subsided? I have a used 14b that I am gonna put on once the smoke issue is resolved, especially if the turbo seals on the current 16g are wasted.

 

[ktmrider]

Finally got a chance to hook up an external oil pressure gauge, I am seeing 110psi at 2500rpm with semi-warm engine temps. At idle pressure was 85psi. No way the 16g turbo oil seals can handle that kind of pressure IHMO.
I am going to remove the housing and port the relief valve plus replace the 90 style cooler and lines ( the lines are leaking anyway ). I'll post up the results in the next few weeks.

 

[BUCK]

First Thread I've seen on Air to Oil Cooler causing Hi Oil Pressure - I would have thought the Oil Pressure Relief Valve would have handled it & wonder why the Oil TEMPERATURE Valve in the OFH isn't a possible suspect for dsmguy904's problem?? - There are a JILLION Threads on Water to Oil Coolers crushing & leaking internally, contaminating Oil or just letting the Oil Filter FALL OFF & dump Oil everywhere and/or SIEZE a Motor when all the Oil is gone - So it's certainly clearly best to NOT replace a 90 style Oil Cooler with the Water Cooled P.O.S.

 

[ktmrider]

I am going to remove the housing and port the relief valve plus replace the 90 style cooler and lines ( the lines are leaking anyway ).

Should have been more specific, I found another 90 style cooler and lines locally. I definitely like the oil to air model better.

 

[vernvision]

You might be getting blow by because your rings have not seated yet. Don't use a synthetic oil to seat rings. I made that mistake once before and it took a long time to get them to seat. If you get blow by it can blow seals if you ar not carefull. Keep your boost down until they are nice and happy in there place. I would not keep the motor running at a constant rpm range until the rings are in place as well keep varying your engine spped and not by just shifting gears. High oil pressure is better than low oil pressure so keep that in mind. If you had any kind of work done to the oil pump to put out higher pressure. I have a oil pump with the balance shaft removed and it pegs out the stock oil gauge but I have 2 mechanical guages 1 for head pressure and the other one is in the filter housing and it reads 80-85 at cruising and 55 at idle. The head pressure runs at about 30psi to less than 10psi at idle this tapped where the oil line used to go to the turbo. I would say that you need to get those rings to seat and hopefully the gaps are not lining up on the rings. I have been through so many motors that I have had everything that can happen to these motors happen to me. Just another of my 2 cents that cost me like $5000.

 

[ktmrider]

That is possible, check my other thread for the "suspect" valve stem seals.
While I agree high oil pressure is better than low, 110psi at cold/idle is a bit much. I have not checked the pressure yet since porting the relief valve and installing another cooler, I am pulling the head and swapping stem seals tomorrow/Sunday.

 

[vernvision]

Yeah I remember about yor valve seals and I am sorry to hear that but you can upgrade them at least.

One thing that I failed to mention is that when your engine is cold your oil pressure can or will be likely 20% higher than when the engine is hot. Depending on what grade and type this can vary greatly. New oil also is denser because it hasn't got fuel in it to help thin it down. I notice this especially with my head oil gauge.

Where are you routing your oil lines from? The stock setup or are you using a bipass line from the oil filter housing.

On the oil pressure to the turbo if you are running a stock oil line set up then if you put a gauge on that oil feed in the head you will see that it will be low even at 110psi you will be at 40-50psi max there and at idle much lower. I run a bypass line from the oil filter outlet. It puts the full 85-90psi through my Turbo. I have been using this setup since 1999 and I am on the same big 16g turbo. No leaks and my turbo runs 100% cooler as a result. I don't know where you got this information on the turbo seals but I am suspect about it being inaccurate. As long as you have good flow through your return pipe you should have no problem with seal because of pressure or volume. If you mean the banjo seals then make sure the copper ring is absolutely clean or it will seap. They always seap a little at first then usually seal up when the engine gets hot. The turbo internal seals fail because of heat usually from a lack of oil and or running lean at least that what I found out with 4 of 5 turbos with seal and bearing failure that I went through before I used a bypass line.

Anyway, when you get the head pulled let us know what is going on with that motor. If you could take some pics and post it that would very helpful to see what is going on.