This is a read-only archive of the old Madabout Kitcars forum. New posts and replies are no longer possible, but every thread is still here to browse and read.
I don’t know the answer, but in the absence of knowledge, my approach would be:
Fill with oil to max line, crank engine over with plugs removed, and ecu power switched off (to stop injectors firing), until pressure switch goes out.
Refill with oil to the maximum line, and crank over again until pressure light goes out.
Keep refilling, cranking, and checking level, until oil level stabilises, then fire engine up properly and keep a keen eye on the pressure light.
I guess you have the added complexity of a thermostatic valve….. hmmm is it possible to disable it initially? Also, is there a non return valve in the oil cooler circuit, to stop it draining back into the sump?
John, yes thermostat but no its not possible to disable unfortuanely as its a sealed unit!
So the oil will not enter the cooler/lines until 80c but will enter the remote oil filter/lines immediately.
I thought about cracking a line open post thermo and simply pouring oil in until it wont take anymore, but this approach seems very wrong....maybe because its so simple.
Tried seloc but cant find much about filling system.
Where does the time go, cant believe I have spent 3 days of the car and cant see any visible efforts haha
Well I started the car tonight for the first time in 3 months so it was good to hear it burble to life again!! I must admit to being very nervous as the smiths was regestering no oil pressure while cranking.
When started the oil pressure light went straight out but still no oil press on the smiths, hmmm think I have a dodgy sender or dodgy gauge.
I ran the engine up to operating temp and all seems fine, holding the cooler pipes after the thermostat and after about 20 mins they very quickly went from stone cold to hot so that is working fine also. Only seems to be one small leak which is from the oil pressure switch.
Right all is working now there was a dodgy earth on the pressure sender!
Firstly does anyone know what bar the honda engine should be at idle? I would have guessed about 1.5 bar! Mines sitting at 4 bar at idle 7 bar at rev limit (idle limit)
Secondly the dodgy earth was caused by me using a remote braided line to accomodate all the senders but the line does not carry the earth.
Was wondering if anyone had any good suggs on the best way to earth a hexagonal take off?? I have tried p-clip with rubber removed but this makes a terrible noise at revs
Cheers
Craig
Ps I can put a pic up of the problem if that would help
Where in the circuit is the oil pressure sender - just off the pump? With the oil pump being a positive displacement beastie, it will do whatever pressure is demanded by the downstream system (within reason...) so higher pressure could be indicative of a restriction downstream in your oil system. Is there a chance your thermostat unit/filter/oil lines are more restrictive than the stock components? Or is the pressure sender after all this gubbins anyway, in which case it will make no difference?
Otherwise as John says could just be temperature. Viscosity of SAE40 oils is about 14 centistokes at 100degC (I think!) but even a 0W40 would still probably be ~100 cst at 20 deg C. This will make a pretty significant difference to the back pressure and also reduce pump slip so the pressure would be higher, no doubt. If you're brave could just let it tickover until it comes up to temperature and check it then... I guess it would have died already if it wasn't getting oil!
As for earthing the hex - is there enough meat on it to drill and tap? Or could you weld a lug on?
Rich, the sender is located on the remote line which goes straight into the existing location for the pressure switch, I dont think anything is restrictive as all my pipes are 1/2bsp.
As far as idling up to temp it was for about 30 mins today along with spells of rev limit holding for a few seconds so think engine is ok (touches wood) all the oil lines including all the new ones get very hot so they are flowing.
John, yes I have installed an oil temp gauge aswell but even after 30 mins today it never got above about 83c
Been thinking about this and am thinking that although all my pipes are 1/2 my remote take off pipe is micro bore and 1/2m long so surely this would increase pressure at the end of this pipe?
I am thinking about swapping my pressure sender with my temp sender which is tapped into my filter head and see if that brings pressure down.
Only issue is the temp sender is very long so I doubt it will fit into the remote tee
When you say remote takeoff pipe - is that just the pressure signal tube to the sender? If so, then there is no flow through it so it can't have any effect on the pressure...
Tell you what though - take a look at this: http://www.k20a.org/forum/showthread.php?t=32617&highlight=oil+pressure
Sounds like your pressures might be pretty typical. I guess the service limits that John quoted (my manual agrees) are pretty low compared with typical running pressure. There's a couple of other threads on there talking about high oil pressure but the only conclusions seem to be "sticking pump relief valve" (which I don't think fits with still seeing higher pressure at idle) or "must have a good oil pump". Maybe your clearances are just on the low side of normal so you've got less slip. Nice to know there's so much safety factor in there! If I had a pressure gauge I'd stick it on and check mine but 'fraid I haven't.
Richard
Cheers Rich, that has made me feel a whole lot better! I was on the phone yesterday about my smiths sender and gauge and they were telling me they are accurate to +- 2% so pretty accurate.
When you say no flow do you mean to increase the pressure the oil would have to exit at the other end? Oil does flow up the tube
What rich is saying, is that as there is no flow in the pipe (when the sender is connected), the bore of the pipe is theoretically irrelevant, as there should be no pressure drop due to flow. I’m guessing the sender is a diaphragm type affair, so pressure transients (caused by rev spikes for instance, or temporary oil starvation) might not be picked up completely accurately, but quasi-static situations (slow rev increases / decreases) should be accurately shown. I’ve heard of people having slight issues with MAP sensors located very remote of a manifold, with a narrow bore pipe, cos in this case I believe transients can be quite important.
I’ve an oil pressure gauge / sender knocking about, but I’m too lazy to connect it up. When (if??) my car proves reliable, then I’ll put it on track, and start considering some gauges, but until then, I’m happy being ignorant!
Rich, spent a couple of hours reading up on this! It seems 10psi at idle is more or less unheard of 3-4 psi being normal. Infact there are a lot of guys on there who have fitted 25 psi oil press switches, makes sense
