blacknight80
Active Member
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2013
- Messages
- 549
This is a post that will hopefully help someone troubleshoot a sudden oil pressure loss and save you some heartache.
I have a fairly fresh build that I have been tuning mostly on mexican closed courses. Everything has been going really well and decided to run it at my local track. I made the pass and when I turned to get on the return road the car shut off. There was no smoke, no rattle, no heat, no milkshake, nothing indicated carnage. I tried to load the data log and it wasnt there so i couldn't review the run. I logged the start up and it was only making +/-10 psi, my xfi has a safety at 10 so it would kill it after 10 seconds. I towed it back and loaded up and went home.
I decided to drop the pan and inspect the bearings, everything looked great. The cam looked good and it's bearings did not appear to have spun or walked out. I took the front cover off and Inspected the oil pump and bypass, all was good. Next was to see if a galley plug walked out and from looking past the cam counter weight through a hole on the gear everything was where I left it during assembly.
The only thing left on the list of possibilities was a cracked block or a cooked cam bearing.
I pulled the intake in preparation of removing the cam and decided to prime the pump to see if the oil was hemorrhaging from the front cam bearing....nope, but I was coming from the front with enough force and volume that it was bouncing off the cam and flooding back into the valley through the front drain. The front cover came off and I poked the passenger side plug with a pick and wouldn't you know it, it7 went right through.
Turns out I ground the plug a little to much in fear I would block the galley and it ruptured. This plug has been in place for around 3000 miles and decided to finally give up.
I have a fairly fresh build that I have been tuning mostly on mexican closed courses. Everything has been going really well and decided to run it at my local track. I made the pass and when I turned to get on the return road the car shut off. There was no smoke, no rattle, no heat, no milkshake, nothing indicated carnage. I tried to load the data log and it wasnt there so i couldn't review the run. I logged the start up and it was only making +/-10 psi, my xfi has a safety at 10 so it would kill it after 10 seconds. I towed it back and loaded up and went home.
I decided to drop the pan and inspect the bearings, everything looked great. The cam looked good and it's bearings did not appear to have spun or walked out. I took the front cover off and Inspected the oil pump and bypass, all was good. Next was to see if a galley plug walked out and from looking past the cam counter weight through a hole on the gear everything was where I left it during assembly.
The only thing left on the list of possibilities was a cracked block or a cooked cam bearing.
I pulled the intake in preparation of removing the cam and decided to prime the pump to see if the oil was hemorrhaging from the front cam bearing....nope, but I was coming from the front with enough force and volume that it was bouncing off the cam and flooding back into the valley through the front drain. The front cover came off and I poked the passenger side plug with a pick and wouldn't you know it, it7 went right through.
Turns out I ground the plug a little to much in fear I would block the galley and it ruptured. This plug has been in place for around 3000 miles and decided to finally give up.
