TurboDiverArt
The Guru Thorn
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2002
- Messages
- 1,655
OK, here?s a question. Had a problem at E-Town on Sunday. Car ran beautifully on Saturday, made 3, 9.8 second passes at 21 psi of boost to finish up my competition license runs (yeah!). I was very excited as all 3 passes were within about 3 hundredths of each other and at low boost, I was ready! Anyway, changed the oil/filter at the track on Saturday and all was clean. I have been fighting a smell in the car, the smell of antifreeze but couldn?t seem to locate the problem. Since smelling it I?ve done 5 compression tests (after each day of racing) with no change. I?ve done one cold compression test just for the hell of it, no problem there, fairly in line with the hot ones, just a little lower compression. I always change the oil/filter after each day of racing, never a hint of water in the oil. I?ve compression tested the cooling system (when it?s cold), pumped it up to 22 psi and it held for an hour (lost one psi of pressure but that?s OK). I was planning to pull the heads in the off season anyway and replace the head gaskets!
Anyway, back to the real dilemma. After racing on Saturday I changed the oil/filter at the track like I always do and all was clean. Start back up all is normal I have ?normal? pressure and I pull it back into the trailer and strap it down. Sunday I start the car in the trailer and I have half the oil pressure I ?normally? have. I think this is strange, I rev it a little to 1800 RPM?s and it goes up to 40 psi which is normal for the engine (yeah I know that?s low). Anyway I think to myself that it?s low but does go back up to ?normal? at 1800, I?ll keep my eye on it. I do and when hot oil pressure is normal so I feel pretty good (I run non-synthetic Castrol GTX 20-50). I go to tech and all is fine. They call the quick 16 to the lanes, all is fine. We eventually move and I get to under the tower and all of a sudden, no oil pressure! Naturally I shut down and get pulled back to the trailer. We checked the sending unit and that?s OK. Car was idling fine, no rough idle, knocking, temp was 165 which was good, no problem except the gauge read zero! In the lanes I thought it was either the oil pump belt (which I checked in the lanes) or the sending unit. All were functioning properly!
I haven?t gotten the car off the trailer yet and down to Rich?s Custom Auto but I have a few ideas to check out. My car runs with a Duttweiler oiling system (external pump, not a dry sump). Things I?m planning to check when I can get it into the shop are, clogged feed line from the pan (I?ll also look into the pan from the AN 10 fitting). Check that the pump is pumping oil from the pan. Ensure that oil was making it through the oil cooler and filter. I?ll check this from the turbo feed line as well as the block feed line. I believe there may also be an oil pressure screw on the pump but I have never looked at this before. Maybe the set screw (if there is one) backed out. Naturally being external I can just hook the pump to a drill so as not to start the engine and possibly do more damage. If oil is getting to the block then I know the pressure problem is something in the block and not with the oiling system itself. Someone at the track suggested possibly the rear cam bearing may have spun a few degrees which would block the oil passage to the sending unit.
I definitely do have a blown head gasket now as at the track I changed oil (on Sunday) for the hell of it and it was green. I had just recently put in a little antifreeze as it was getting cold and the car was being left in the trailer since I was racing every weekend or Wednesday since Bristol.
Any other ideas to check? Sorry so long!
Anyway, back to the real dilemma. After racing on Saturday I changed the oil/filter at the track like I always do and all was clean. Start back up all is normal I have ?normal? pressure and I pull it back into the trailer and strap it down. Sunday I start the car in the trailer and I have half the oil pressure I ?normally? have. I think this is strange, I rev it a little to 1800 RPM?s and it goes up to 40 psi which is normal for the engine (yeah I know that?s low). Anyway I think to myself that it?s low but does go back up to ?normal? at 1800, I?ll keep my eye on it. I do and when hot oil pressure is normal so I feel pretty good (I run non-synthetic Castrol GTX 20-50). I go to tech and all is fine. They call the quick 16 to the lanes, all is fine. We eventually move and I get to under the tower and all of a sudden, no oil pressure! Naturally I shut down and get pulled back to the trailer. We checked the sending unit and that?s OK. Car was idling fine, no rough idle, knocking, temp was 165 which was good, no problem except the gauge read zero! In the lanes I thought it was either the oil pump belt (which I checked in the lanes) or the sending unit. All were functioning properly!
I haven?t gotten the car off the trailer yet and down to Rich?s Custom Auto but I have a few ideas to check out. My car runs with a Duttweiler oiling system (external pump, not a dry sump). Things I?m planning to check when I can get it into the shop are, clogged feed line from the pan (I?ll also look into the pan from the AN 10 fitting). Check that the pump is pumping oil from the pan. Ensure that oil was making it through the oil cooler and filter. I?ll check this from the turbo feed line as well as the block feed line. I believe there may also be an oil pressure screw on the pump but I have never looked at this before. Maybe the set screw (if there is one) backed out. Naturally being external I can just hook the pump to a drill so as not to start the engine and possibly do more damage. If oil is getting to the block then I know the pressure problem is something in the block and not with the oiling system itself. Someone at the track suggested possibly the rear cam bearing may have spun a few degrees which would block the oil passage to the sending unit.
I definitely do have a blown head gasket now as at the track I changed oil (on Sunday) for the hell of it and it was green. I had just recently put in a little antifreeze as it was getting cold and the car was being left in the trailer since I was racing every weekend or Wednesday since Bristol.
Any other ideas to check? Sorry so long!
And the man is right on....anti freeze will kill a set of bearings in a heart beat. 
