Car is now running, kinda. First start, oil psi went to 80 and back to 0 in about 20 seconds. Killed car and found all oil under car. Filter o-ring blew out or sucked in. Was a duragaurd or something like that. New filter, ac 1218, same thing, next filter supertech s-5 or whatever it was, lasted about 2 minutes, psi pegged out till it blew the filter gasket again.

Car sat for about a year at a shop prior to my purchase last Saturday, diagonsed with being locked up because they couldnt get it to turn over fast enough to start. I fixed a few wires, cleaned battery cables and she starts.

On the last filter, the upper engine chatter mostly went away other than what sounds like lifters still ticking pretty loud. Is it broke or did they just not get enough oil to fill up yet? Pressure is at least getting to the intake, gauge is working. Whats wrong here? No oil cooler. No old filter gasket stuck to block, hand tightening, pre-lubeing filter gaskets. Tired of pouring money on the ground.

Running 10w30 btw, so no super thick crap here. I guess I will pull the filter adapter out of the block later today and check the threads, check for blockage in that area... even though oil is making it to the sending unit on the intake. Im at a loss. Also not sure if its related, they may have taken the thermostat out, but it built pressure fast in radiator. In the short time it ran, I went to check level and it bubbled up fast when I started turning the cap. They had the fans grounded to come on with key, so maybe they took Tstat out too.

Car was originally taken to the shop on a no crank complaint, nothing oil leak related. Ran fine one day, came out the next and nothin, towed to shop.

 

The oil pump has a pressure relief passage, and pressure is controlled by the spring opening the bypass. Sounds like the bypass isn't working. Typical spring pressures are 60psi and 80psi.

 

Thats what I was afraid of. But I guess thats better/easier to fix than something else broke/blocked off. So doesnt sound like there is a blockage somewhere else to you? You think dumping a little trans fluid in and lettin it soak a while would loosen it up? Also heard of people using diesel to free up and clean up stuff like this before. Just lettin it sit a couple days and then drainin it back out. Or do I just need to bite it and drop the pan. I know the pump is only $35, will I be able to tell on the old pump if thats the problem, or will I just have to put the new pump in and hope the pressure is right? Thanks Injuneer, I was hopeing you would chime in.

 

Sounds like the pump to me also and as you probably know dropping the pan is not that fun of a job. I think thats what would be creating all that pressure Also it really doesnt matter what brand whether fram of duraguard that shouldnt be happeneing definetly not due to the oil filter quality.

 

Ya, I've built several engines, and have been working on cars for about 15 years, just wanted somebody to confirm it, since Im new to LT1s, didnt know if there was something else that would cause it. Didnt think it was the filters after the AC filter blew up. I use ACs on everything all 6 of our GM cars. Even used AC products when I could on our fords, But those are all gone finally. Im planning to attempt to raise the engine up and pull the pan with engine in the car. Its at least in the garage now. Wish I could do headers while Im tearin stuff down and cleaning in the bay. Just no extra money to play right now. Planning on doing whatever gaskets I can while Im in there though. Front cover has been leaking a while it looks like. Dont wanna tear the front end off the motor, especially since the opti is working, but it is dirty as crap. Dont wanna spray anything down and ruin that. May just scrape what I can get to and use air to blow it all off. Right valve cover is a little nasty, but for the mileage, the motor is actually very clean.

 

I don't understand why you didn't pull the valve covers and intake and prime the oil system (as you were told and you eluded to in your previous post) BEFORE you started it with 6 finger tight plugs??????

You were told it had (in other words) an oiling problem, were you not?

I believe with regard to the oil filter problem that you have a different issue than you think. All "oil" filters have relief valves so that if they become plugged, the valve bypasses the filter all together. This occurs by pressure. If your pressure was actually too high, the valve should open relieving pressure to the filter.

I wouldn't be calling anyone just yet. You haven't proved it doesn't have a major problem just yet.

 

The "relief valve" in an oil filter does not protect against over-pressure. It is there to bypass the filter if the filter medium plugs up. The bypass is based on differential pressure across the filter, not the the pressure of the oil system. If the filter is flowing correctly, there is nothing the bypass valve can do to eliminate high oil pressure.

 

Speedy, I appreciate your input. Theres no need to get offended though. I bought the car dirt cheap, diagnosed as a locked up engine. Between work and my wife and our one year old, I stated I didnt have much time to play with this car right now. Its been 20-30 minutes at a time here and there. I think its a good testimony of the engines integrity that I did get it to start, plus got it to run by itself on only 6 finger tight plugs. I believe that proves the initial shops diagnosis of locked up as wrong. They spent days trying to get this thing to even turn over fast enough with the plugs out, to starting speed. I had full intentions of pulling the engine and doing a total rebuild, when I had time and extra funds, when I purchased the car. I didnt see the harm in seeing if I could get it running, see what all might be wrong with it, and so far its proved to be successful. I stated I didnt want to pull anything if I didnt have to, as it wasnt that important to me when it was thought to be a junk engine anyway. Now that I have heard it run, I am on a path to repair it. I dont think priming it with a drill would have alerted me to excessive oil pressure while it was running.

The actual previous owner, before the shop I bought it from, had taken it in on a no start/crank complaint, after it running and driving just fine the night before, so I really had nothing leading me to believe what the shop told me after I inspected the car at purchase. If it would have been bearings for sure, then the shop would have already done more damage than I did as much as they screwed with it so it wouldnt matter anyway. I agree with you though, if this would have been mine already when the problem occured or one of my customers cars, I would have pulled tins and intake, checked everything out, top and bottom end before doing anything with it.

I post problems I run into on here mostly for others opinions, suggestions, ideas, before I have the time to tear into them so I dont miss something obvious. Its usually late, after a long work week, when I get time to play with my toys.

On that note, Im not trying to be a d!ck, just stating why I did what I did, like I said, if it was somebody elses car, or one of my customers cars, it would have been more by the book. Im not saying there isnt anything else wrong with it, It may still have to come out, but from what I've been able to conclude and hear it running, its signs, etc. I think the oil pump relief valve will be the only major concern. MAYBE lifters, but again I havnt let it run long enough to really pump the lifters back up.

 

Got time finally to work on the car. Got the pan out, relief valve was definately stuck. Had to wedge a srewdriver in it and pry to get it to move at all. Just replaced the pump. Put a truck pan back under it to do away with the level sensor which has leaked on all my cars that have had them..... Perfect fit. Got to drive the car. All gears feel good.

All the engine noise went away within minutes of letting it run. Oil psi is around 40 cold. I know I need to do wires, but I think my opti is junk. Runs more rough the more it warms up and loses power/backfires under load. Running easy I got to 50mph without much problem.
Didnt really try to push it more than that since I just got it going and it is having ignition trouble. Gave it about 1/3 throttle to see how it acted and it started to take off then backfired and bogged down. Left a HUGE black/grey cloud. Eased it back into the driveway and shut it down. Cooled off some and started it back up, ran fairly smooth again.

I also have to fix a couple y pipe bolts on the driver side, somebody screwed with them, has a lug nut and a brass nut on two of the studs on that pipe...... Needless to say I have a fair exhaust leak to take care of. I think I stipped one of the brass nuts puttin things back together. So will be replacing those and wireset, also have a vaccume line to fix off the evap solenoid, and see how it does after that. Im pretty sure I'll be doing an opti though. Still better than a "locked up motor" lol. Overall Im very happy with it, definatly worth what I have in it.

My driveway/garage has a small bump about 2 inches difference at the garage, when I backed her out of the garage, when the front tires caught the bump I barely tapped the gas to get over it and she spun the tires like they were bald and skinney. They are new 245/50s, I was very happy with the power its shown even with it running as rough as it is.

Forgot to mention, the car cranks at normal speed now with cables all cleaned up and grounds cleaned up, starts fairly easily too, doesnt crank forever before it fires up, still think the opti is going though.