No or very little oil pressure
Turbo Mini Forums

Got a bit of an issue with the mini as in i've got very little oil pressure.

As a bit of background, when i first put the engine back in, i struggled to get pressure until i actually started the car when it wound up quite happily to 60psi or so. Haven't been back at it again for a while but went up last night to do a nut a bolt check before i got it back on the road. Keith had started it yesterday afternoon but killed it when he wasn't getting any pressure. I went up last night, i again got pressure once it was running (60psi) but this dropped off to 20psi before dropping to pretty much zero now.

When the engine was apart, it got new shells and turbo pump. Oil is good. The only significant change is
That i fitted vtec oil jets. I'm wondering if these are flowing too much but again, this wouldn't explain how i can see pressure from time to time.

PRV has been checked but no difference. Gauge not checked but the light is staying on.

Pretty much recall fitting the o ring too.

Now resigned to pulling it back out but would welcome suggestions.

Edited by Rob Gavin on 5th Apr, 2015.

Hi rob, loose oil pump or gasket not seated correctley, the next one and my monies On this. . . . . . . . The O ring between the gearbox and block will be There as you are sure you have fitted this.

The non genuine. Gasket covers the ORing and this is why you are getting intermittent oil pressure as it sucks air in, you need to relive That by cutting the new! Gasket to leave a 1mm gap around the circumference of the O ring.

I have pointed this out to minispares as the OEM gasket didn't. Cover the O ring. . . It fell on deaf ears SADLEY! a few members on here have had the same symptoms and that's the bloody cause.

Cheers Steve. I've had similar thoughts. Going to pull it tonight to confirm

well I am a fool. Complete schoolboy error I may have inadvertently left a sheet of blue roll in the engine during assembly and the gearbox has now turned into, as Oli has described it so eloquently, a saniflo.

pump is fine although the gasket around the ports has torn; I'm wondering if it is down to the pump working harder than normal trying to lift the oil; the pick up gauze is 2/3 clogged at least.

still to pop the mains and bigends to check but fingers crossed its all ok.

Whoopsie

That bloody blue roll, its a fucking menace, years ago a good mate and I spent 3 days on a 205 GTI rally car with a newly built engine that we couldn't get to fire up. You name it we changed it, wiring looms, ECU's, injectors, fuel system, air flow meters, blah blah blah.
Even resorted to trying to tow the fucker off up the road behind his dads Land Cruiser, to no avail.
The cause? A big wodge of blue roll in the inlet manifold he'd put there to keep crap out while building it.....

Glad I'm not the only one then Tom!

You're deffinately not alone Rob.
I've had similar; more like Tom's tbh..

Hope the engine is alright!

Dazed and Confused....

Don't you hate engine building!

I run a supercharger and I don't care the TB is on the wrong side.
VEMS + 12 PSI + Liquid Intercooler = Small Bore FUN!

At the moment, yes!

Worry not m8, we've all done something similar. At least you had the nads to own up.

No choice!

Bugger, at least its saved a load of head scratching, even if it has caused a load of work!

My we bro did this with his spitfire, he had removed the inlet for whatever reason and stuffed roll into the inlet ports to keep the crap out. few days later duely bolted the inlet back on and fired it up, took ages to start, and when it did there was ,what i can only describe as, confetti out the exhaust, all black and burnt. gave us a hell of a fright!

turbo 16v k-series 11.9@118.9 :)

Denis O'Brien.

Clearly i'm not the only dafty then!

well the car is on the road again but oil pressure is still a major issue.

Senario as follows;

initial start up; at idle, I was seeing around 40-45psi and rising to 60-65 when rev'ed.

during my journey last night to MOT station, heading down on the motorway (sitting at 3K RPM) the pressure gradually dropped off to between 30-40psi - down to 20psi at idle.

I got struck in traffic and the temp came up a fair bit. At idle, I was seeing as low as 10psi.

it sat for probably 45 mins at the MOT station and cooled a little, lifting the readings by 10psi or so.

As background, its still a bit lazy to pick up pressure on initial startup although yesterday was actually the best its been (around 10secs). Oil is millers CTV and is fresh.

As you know, there was bluerollgate, however it all cleaned up nice with no visible damage. In addition, the previous build had lower than expected oil pressures so I'm wondering if there is something else going on.

Now I've got a few thoughts;

a) fecking blueroll somewhere still playing with me

b) crank was a brand new unit supplied by Minisport; the thrusts needed a bit of tweaking to get the desired endfloat but journals should be standard (I've never actually checked them). I'm wondering if the tolerance could be out and allowing increased flow/ reduced pressure when hot

c) when I last stripped the engine, the oil pump gasket was torn. I never got to the reason for this but I'm assuming this would a) allow the pump to drain at rest and lead to the delay in picking up pressure again at start and, b) would ultimately reduce its efficiency. Just wondering if this has happened again



d) oil jets; I fitted jets out of a Honda Vtec and just wonder if these are flowing too much; I never modified the flows on these from standard. I'm possibly tempted to remove them and simply plug the holes to try it.

e) I can't build engines for toffee and should get another hobby

mmmmmmmmmmm..........

Edited by Rob Gavin on 2nd Jul, 2015.

Engine out. Build oil pressure on starter, time it and make a note of the readings.

Then take the box off remove the oil jets and grub screw the holes. Box back on and repeat the test. Do it with dry gaskets then you can reuse them if you have to pull it apart for further investigation.

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

And check the obvious while the box is off like blue-roll etc lol

If something is worth doing, it's worth doing half of.

Maybe check functionability of pressure relieve valve before pulling engine?

Dazed and Confused....

the pressure release valve has been checked a few times now; I've not got one of the adjustable ones on it to try that.

good idea john

Could the gauge be faulty/reading wrong?

My build thread..

http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.php?p=vt&tid=542985

I checked with another gauge and it was pretty much the same; also oil light is coming on consistent with the pressure drop

Certainly if its coming to bits I would plastigauge the mains and big ends to verify the running clearance are correct. If they are large then you will never get good oil pressure no matter what you do. Especially since the crank came from those rat bastards.

that was my thoughts Tom. I've always assumed it was just a Rover old stock item and discounted it as an issue before but it is one of the few things that has remained consistent in the engine builds

Think I'm going to pull it again at the weekend