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Rebuilt engine, now low oil pressure, advice?

ive never installed oil squirters...i was just thinking if there are supposed to be some and he didnt use em, maybe thats the problem...but its not.
 
Hey, these are BMW squirters, they are drilled straight into the galley, so no sticking there. I dont recall if they come with washers or not. If they did, im sure I installed them as such, if not, I didnt.

Just ordered a Melling M181 pump for insurance. Gonna JB weld the oil tube up and get the OEM O-rings. The black ones are from FCP, I would recommend not getting those :p
 
Ok, just pulled off a rod cap:

4795239004_e06fc1cebb_b.jpg


Not that I have to point it out, but thats a hell of a lot of glitter on the bolt AND the bearing itself has been wearing at an accelerated rate.

The Crank looks fine... no obvious scoring:

4795238870_4dc6377ae6_b.jpg


The question is, where is all the metal coming from? I dont think all the metal is coming from the bearings, hell I'd keep using that bearing if I can stop glitter onslaught.

One thing that came to mind. I never removed the ridge from the top of the cylinders after I installed the new rings. I've been told that at high RPM I could snap a ring, could this also be the cause of glitter-fest?

Hmmm, or maybe just oil starvation for too long accelerated wear on all the components?
 
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Ninja007 said:
The oil pressure light comes on at low RPM <2500, i've driven the car probably 100 miles since the rebuild. I am fairly sure the lights been on for the majority of those miles.
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:omg: No bueno. You should have stopped right away. Why the hell would you drive a car with the oil light on?

Ninja007 said:
The Engine was a donor out of a 93' 940, had ~100k and supposedly ran like a champ, then sat for a year before I got to it.
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93 should be a factory squirter already. Why did you get the squirts from John V?
 
Ninja, you have a lot of cleaning up and thinking to do. That oil pump seal looks bad, but I'm not sure it alone accounts for the symptoms you had. Did I read once that squirter engines use a higher volume pump? You did not mention changing it. I don't know much about squirters, but they look to me basically like an oil leak that was not there before. Do they have a valve that closes when the volume is low?

I have done a number of semi-rebuilds like yours, and a new pump was always part of the program. The bearing clearances are not what they once were, regardless of how good the crank looks. With a turbo and squirters, I think that would be even more important.

HonestJhon said:
OIL DELIVERY TUBE MODIFICATION courtesy of brickboard FAQ
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Has anybody done this and run the engine for a good while, then taken the tube out and looked at it? I would be interested in what it looked like.
 
Good reads... I have an Oil Pressure gauge going in before I fire it up again, ordered a Melling M181 pump today (insurance). Here's my plan at this point:

Get volvo transfer tube O-rings
Mod Transfer tube w/JB Weld
Prime then install new pump and tube (carefully)
Install gauge and fill with cheap oil
Crank without spark to see what the pressure looks like
if its good, im gonna drain the oil after a minute or two at idle.
Throw some new oil in and drain after a short drive at low load.... basically I want to cycle as much clean oil as I can through there to clean it out. I still need to look at the oil filter, cant wait to see what suprises lay in there
 
Harry Tuttle said:
Do they have a valve that closes when the volume is low?
Click to expand...

I also asked something like this and he responded,

Ninja007 said:
...these are BMW squirters, they are drilled straight into the galley, so no sticking there.
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Which makes no sense. We are suggesting that they have an internal spring that only allows them to squirt at a "high" oil pressure. Maybe the relief springs in your squirters are stuck and causing a leak and low oil pressure. Just a theory.

And there have been tens of thousands of B230's out there (guess.) that have been done millions of miles without JB Weld on the pickup tube. It seems silly to do that and if it comes dislodged it could clog your pickup screen.
 
ZVOLV said:
I also asked something like this and he responded
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Yeah buddy, I let that go out the other ear. I agree with you on the response. And I note also that he had already mentioned that he had a new pump coming.


ZVOLV said:
And there have been tens of thousands of B230's out there (guess.) that have been done millions of miles without JB Weld on the pickup tube. It seems silly to do that and if it comes dislodged it could clog your pickup screen.
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Agreement here too. The key is to instal the tube correctly, something that is not as easy as it looks.
 
Ninja007 said:
The black ones are from FCP, I would recommend not getting those :p
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When did you order them? I did this job about 3 weeks ago, the seals from FCP were red-orange.
img0870pn.jpg


Did you lube them before installing? Looks like the one on the right got ripped during installation of the tube.

Oh, and as far as the chrome. I have the same problem, but I'm not worried about it. Why? It'll only come off it you RUB it off and the fact that the particles are caught by the magnet itself.
 
My issue with the magnet is not so much the chrome, but that the chrome is there basically encapsulate the magnet which is VERY brittle. I complained to FCP, they know they do this and they sent me a stock drain plug replacement at N/C. Personally I feel much more comfortable with that one over the magnet one they used.
 
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^I ordered the more expensive of the two bottom end kits that FCP stocks, it was about 8 months ago.

^^If I didn't have that magnet there, there would be 2x as much metal floating around in my oil, you should have seen the glob stuck to it when I pulled it out. I'm more comfortable with the mag... I think IPD has a magnetic one without the chrome... in fact I think I have it sitting around somewhere.

ZVOLV said:
I also asked something like this and he responded,

Which makes no sense. We are suggesting that they have an internal spring that only allows them to squirt at a "high" oil pressure. Maybe the relief springs in your squirters are stuck and causing a leak and low oil pressure. Just a theory.

And there have been tens of thousands of B230's out there (guess.) that have been done millions of miles without JB Weld on the pickup tube. It seems silly to do that and if it comes dislodged it could clog your pickup screen.
Click to expand...

Hey, don't get smart Mr. Kush :-P

I will pull one of the squirters off and inspect it, but they looked like they had no moving parts when I installed them. I will put a pic up.

I am not completely convinced of the JB weld trick either, a mechanic friend suggested contact cement on the O-ring to hold it in place, but I don't think i'm gonna do that either. Just gonna lube it up and very carefully tap it in with a rubber mallet.

Talking with another fellow today who's rebuilt a couple engines, he suggested that I might be able to replace the main bearings while the crank is installed. Take the caps off, then spin the crank over and with some gentle persuasion they could come out to. Anyone dont this before?

If its do-able, I will replace all the bearings (again)
 
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Ninja007 said:
replace the main bearings while the crank is installed. Take the caps off, then spin the crank over and with some gentle persuasion they could come out to. Anyone dont this before?
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Never dont it but heard of it. In the ideal case, the oil hole in the crank journal goes straight through and aligns with the hole that is often in the bearing. You put a pin in through the crank, engage the brg with it, and spin it right out, if you turn it the correct direction.
 
Still waiting for the new Oil pump and the O-rings from Volvo to come in... Took my filter off today, the oil in there looked similar to everything else. After I re-installed the rod cap that I took off to check, I took a video of the play in my rod bearings. They are installed per greenbook specs, 14 lb-ft + 90 degree angle tighten. They seem really loose side-to-side, Can someone can confirm or deny?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gmm-qpgU0PY
 
Ninja007 said:
Rebuild included: Oil Squirters (thanks John V), complete clean of everything, light cylinder hone to remove glazing, new rings, New rod bearings, reused main bearings (still had shiny surface), new seals throughout.
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Just because the crank and main bearing shells are shiny , does not mean they are w/ in spec or not out of round. It would have been cheap insurance to have the crank journals polished and then mic'd for the correct bearing shell thickness.

The picture you posted of the connecting rod bearing is where your metal particles are coming from. Did you measure the bearing clearances when you installed them , (by plastigauge or bore micrometer)
 
Dr Farnsworth said:
Just because the crank and main bearing shells are shiny , does not mean they are w/ in spec or not out of round. It would have been cheap insurance to have the crank journals polished and then mic'd for the correct bearing shell thickness.

The picture you posted of the connecting rod bearing is where your metal particles are coming from. Did you measure the bearing clearances when you installed them , (by plastigauge or bore micrometer)
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I mic'd them to check for out-of-round and taper, they were within spec for the standard bearings. If I were to do it again I would have had a shop polish them then plastigauged them as well.
 
When i rebuild a engine i always turn the oilpump to confirm oil pressure, and preoil the engine before startup. You can do this by turning the aux shaft with a powerdrill before mounting the cam belt.
 
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