| Oil pump failure? |
Subject: Oil pump failure? by Danspeed1 on 2013/12/1 4:05:34 Just got my 2005 Vette back together in august after a 1 year build that cost way too much blood sweat and overtime. I fear it may all have to come apart this winter. In short, I am running ported heads, cam, morel lifters, M112 supercharger, and Methanol Injection on a stock bottom LS2. For whatever reason at the time I rebuilt the engine I opted to stick with my stock 40K mile oil pump (big mistake). For the last 5K miles the car has run decent, with no major issues. I have electrical gremlins however my oil pressure has always been a consistent 45 psi cold, 32-34 psi hot and 50-60 psi at 2000+RPM. Since day 1 of rebuild I noticed that when the engine was cold it made a pretty loud ticking sound I was told it was the morel lifters. Last week I was driving the car when the low oil pressure light came on. I quickly shut the car. And then restarted it. Pressure was back to 40 psi. I figured it was an electrical problem. Today was last ride before I put it away for winter. 28*F outside; I went out and started her up. It was shuttering pretty hard but its really cold so I didn't think anything of it till I looked in my rear view mirror and noticed a huge black cloud coming out the rear of the car. Never seen that before! Just around that time I looked down at the oil pressure gauge and noticed 0 psi. Killed the car. Total elapsed time it ran was for about 12-15 seconds. I opened up the oil cap and with a flashlight looked in. It was pretty dry. I had my father restart the car once to see if oil was reaching the head. Ran it for about 5 seconds... nothing, however now we had oil pressure... 28 psi. Started the car a couple seconds later, car still dead cold 26 psi. Gave it a quick rev and got it up to 32 psi. Normally it would be in the 50's. What scares me a little bit is when I pulled the dipstick i noticed a milky substance on it (could be moisture) but I could swear I saw metal particles. Could be my imagination. I have a couple of thoughts here. I am hoping the oil pump is not bad and this thing has to come apart again. I am really hoping the bearings are not F***ed! Car ran the day prior with consistently good oil pressure. I shut it down, started it today, and now this. I am 1/2 wondering if the oil pressure sensor went bad?? Or maybe the pressure relief on the pump is stuck open. Either way this is all so sudden I don't know where to begin. Is there anyway I can test the oil pressure with a mechanical gauge. Also how long would the oil take to reach the top of the head? Dan |
