Well after 11 months of down time i finally got the car put back together and i have 0 oil pressure. Needless to say this really ticks me off and bums me out. Where is the first place to look? I am getting no oil to the top of the motor and i verified that by pulling a valvecover to look. The motor was able to fill the oil filter but thats it.
I have a new ported LS6 pump with a new o-ring that installed without any problems.(pickup tube fit in really nice not too tight but not too loose) All of the oil galley plugs are in and the cam retainer/ crossover seals are new. I dread the thought of pulling the oil pump back out but thats where im gonna start.
I did pull the oil filter off and cranked it over and i got no oil out of the filter boss which confuses me even more because the motor filled the oil filter with oil but now i dont get oil out of there.

What do you guys think?

 

Did you have the engine completely apart? If you did, did you prime the the oil pump first? Are you taking your readings with a mechanical gauge (should be). If you had the engine apart for machine work or ???, there is a small pipe plug at the rear of the engine that rests under the rear main crank cap. Sometimes a machine shop will pull the plug when they are cleaning the engine and forget to reinstall it. If the plug is missing, you get no oil pressure.......

 

Start by checking the o-ring in the oil pump. It can flip out when you least expect it and you won't find out until now. The other thing is to verify that the oil pressure sensor is tightened all the way down, that it's not broken and that the ground wire is correctly attached. You're not getting any oil up the pushrods? That's funky because even without the o-ring it should pump up.

 

Well i pulled the oil pump back out and disassembled it to make sure the pressure relief valve wasnt stuck open which it was not. It looks like the pump never primed so i primed the pump and reassembled making sure to not lose the o-ring(i didnt lose it). Cranked it over and still nothing.
By this time i have lost my patience with the car so i just packed up and called it a night before i did something stupid. Tomorrow im gonna try and backfeed the pump through the oil filter boss with a hand pump and see if that does anything if i still get nothing im gonna tear the pump back out and toss it in the garbage and reinstall my old pump which i know works.
I talked to the guy who did my machine work who is a freind of mine and he assured me all the plugs are in the motor. Im still not gonna rule that out but i couldnt get oil to the filter so as far as i can see its in the pump.

 

g'luck in tracking the problem down!!! probably not a bad idea to take a break and come back to it.

 

I went back at it today by backfeeding the pump while rotating the motor backwards to draw the oil in and that did nothing. I reinstalled the factory pump and still got nothing. For some reason i cant get the pump to prime. Im about all out of ideas on what else to do so I might give MTI or ARE a call tomorrow and see what they think.

 

Did you check the rod, main, cam bearing clearances? If too much it will bleed off. Seem the problem is not the pump. Maybe there is a plug missing. Maybe give Katech a call bet they could help. Steven

 

Take the cover off the oil pump and stuff the pump with vaseline and put the cover back on. This usually helps to prime the pump if that is what's happening here....

 

All of the bearing clearances are within spec, these were checked multiple times while assembling the motor. The pump is not drawing oil into it. I will try the vasoline idea today and see what i get. I appreciate all the help you guys are given me. Im not a newbie to engine building but i am a newbie to these GEN III motors.

 

Sorry to hear about your troubles Matt. I was so looking forward to putting to you this year. I've got issues of my own though, and doubt I'll make it to M8. Anyway.

Have you tried taking the pump off & switching it yet? Do you have an ASP pulley on your engine? I had to have my pulley machined down a bit, because it was pushing tight against the pump, and the motor would not turn over by hand (wrench).

Hook up the pump, take out the plugs, and with the tranny in N, try to turn it over & see how tight it is.

My tolerances changed because of the dual timing chain, and if you also switched chains, then the pump would have to be shimmed, and thus the pulley would set tight against the pump. Not everyone has this problem, some fit right on. Just something to check out. There are some pictures of the machined pulley on my webshots page in the sig. Good luck.

 

after alot of thinking i found my problem and its my own fault. I decided to check for my galley plugs just in case and the machine shop did their job and reinstalled everyone they took out but my dumb *** forgot to install the one behind the back cover DOH!!!. I realized that when i seen it lying on the floor where i had all of my parts. So im pulling the tranny back out to get to the rear cover to install it and i should have pressure after that.
Damn i feel dumb now to overlook such a small thing. I can say that i wont forget it again if there is a next time.

 

Don't scare us like that

 

99 1LE Hugger SS,

The rear plug isn't just a cup plug. It is a plastic
piece with an O-ring that looks like a small dumbell
(no pun intended). At the plant it is called the dog
bone (because thats what it looks like).

If a standard cap is put in the rear gallary, the oil
will bypass the oil filter!

I will E-mail you a drawing of the part.

 

Got the car back together after installing that plastic plug Fired it up and instantly got between 70-75 psi after i let it warm up it dropped to 45-50 psi. Funny what 1 plug will do to your oil pressure. Now comes the task of getting it down to the alignment shop and wiring up the nitrous again plus any other little thing left to do. It looks like ill be able to make it to the track this year after all. Dont know if ill spray it this year, depends on how many break in miles i put on it.