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Low oil pressure and smells of gas

studmuffed

studmuffed

Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2017
Location
Va
Hey all,

My oil pressure has been a little low lately. 9psi minimum at very hot idle (95 degrees outside) and about 20psi at idle cold. The pressure goes up with rpms but I think it's a little lower than it used to be. It's a b230f+T build with a recent megasquirt conversion so I was wondering if the tune being wayyy rich at first could've contaminated the oil? The oil is pretty runny and kinda smells like gas. I also have been venting the crankcase to atmosphere instead of pulling a vacuum and was wondering if that could contribute.

I also recently changed the O-ring seals for the oil pump with OEM ones from FCP Euro and put in synthetic 10w-30.

My idea was to change to 15w-40 oil and get a proper catch can set up to pull a vacuum on the crankcase, but was hoping to get some input from people that may have some ideas.
 
Yeah, I do. It was originally super rich especially at higher rpms but I got it reasonable now. Still gets really rich in some spots.
 
Which spots are getting super rich, and how rich is super rich? 9:1?
How many miles on your engine?

I had an over rich running engine on my b21FT and the end result was pretty bad. Yes the oil smelt of gas and was runny as you described. Eventually the oil thinned out so much I started slowly burning oil (or evaporating), then I got a low oil pressure warning through a high speed turn and that was it for the engine.

Are you sure you have the correct oil pressure sender for your +t? do you have a 3 bar or 5 bar gauge?

I would get the fueling dialed in, change the oil to a thicker grade and confirm low oil pressure with a test gauge.
 
Leaky fuel injector can dilute the engine oil with gasoline. Check spark plugs for sign of fuel additive deposits. One plug with more fuel additive deposits that the others is a good indicator of a leaky injector.
 
If nothing else, change your oil and see what it smells/looks like. Washing your cylinder walls with gas is going to ruin the engine.
 
Now it only really gets too rich at higher rpms but those spots are getting worked out slowly but surely. And yea, AFR read like 9.5 or less.

I have a bosch mechanical gauge so no sender necessary for my unit.

smoothdurban said:
Which spots are getting super rich, and how rich is super rich? 9:1?
How many miles on your engine?

I had an over rich running engine on my b21FT and the end result was pretty bad. Yes the oil smelt of gas and was runny as you described. Eventually the oil thinned out so much I started slowly burning oil (or evaporating), then I got a low oil pressure warning through a high speed turn and that was it for the engine.

Are you sure you have the correct oil pressure sender for your +t? do you have a 3 bar or 5 bar gauge?

I would get the fueling dialed in, change the oil to a thicker grade and confirm low oil pressure with a test gauge.
Click to expand...
 
9.5 usually means it's so rich the gauge can't display it properly.
Oil that smells like gas and decreasing oil pressure means your oil is full of gas.
Change the oil, and fix the tune, immediately.
 
Okay, I won’t drive it until the oil is changed. I spent a while on the tune the other day so it should be much better now. Thanks for the input all, I’ll make sure to report back the results
 
Well I changed the oil with some synthetic blend 10w-40 but it still only reads about 20psi of oil pressure cold at idle and it seems to max out at like 55-60 psi at 5-6k rpms. Do these numbers seem normal? I'm wondering if my oil pickup tube o ring broke again but last time that happened it was reading 0psi of pressure and the oil light was on no matter what rpm I was at.
 
Well I think it's the transfer tube o rings again. Does anyone know how to prevent this from happening??? I replaced the crappy ones I used with some nice OEM ones from FCP Euro and I put some RTV on them for good measure, but it happened again. The weird thing is I have way more pressure this time than last time it happened since last time I had 0psi all of the time.
 
Check out the thread on IansPlatinum's transfer tube experiment. There's a really good discussion about the tube, oil pump and o-rings in there.

I had a nightmare about my oil light coming on during a turn when I fell asleep after reading this thread. Thanks, Turbobricks. At least it wasn't that recurring dream where I start the car without oil or a filter.
 
Nickagriffin said:
Well I changed the oil with some synthetic blend 10w-40 but it still only reads about 20psi of oil pressure cold at idle and it seems to max out at like 55-60 psi at 5-6k rpms. Do these numbers seem normal? I'm wondering if my oil pickup tube o ring broke again but last time that happened it was reading 0psi of pressure and the oil light was on no matter what rpm I was at.
Click to expand...

20 PSI cold is low no doubt. Mine is triple that.

Nickagriffin said:
Well I think it's the transfer tube o rings again. Does anyone know how to prevent this from happening??? I replaced the crappy ones I used with some nice OEM ones from FCP Euro and I put some RTV on them for good measure, but it happened again. The weird thing is I have way more pressure this time than last time it happened since last time I had 0psi all of the time.
Click to expand...

When I was rebuilding my B230FT I ordered 2 O rings for this from FCP and I got two noticeably different O rings. I complained and they sent two more O rings and those were different as well.

I picked the two that looked the closest to what was in the engine and I have not had issues since.
I also never used RTV.
 
Just wanted to update this incase someone has a similar problem, it was the O-rings again. Once changed, the oil pressure is back at 60psi cold and 20psi minimum when hot. This time, the o-ring didnt split, but it got wedged out making a partial seal. I highly recommend checking out the link that iamrolling posted, since the proper way to install the new o rings is described on the last page.
 
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