Still no Oil PSI... L28et

[ZXT_bean]

Well it has been about a month since I had realized that my car had no oil psi. It was a mistake really. I had accidentally cracked the hard line going to the turbo, well I come to soon realize that there is no oil coming from the new crack.

 

I have pulled out all the plugs, and put my starter on a switch so I can turn it over while looking for oil. I dont have a working psi gauge, so I have just taken the sending unit out. I figure that is the my best way to tell right now.

 

So after swapping 3 different pumps I had around the garage, and then bought a new automatic turbo high flow pump. I knew something else was wrong. My only idea of where to look was the pan and pick up tube.

 

I dropped the pan tonight only to find no gasket between the block and pickup. Ok, no big deal I figured it out. Put it all back together, re-primed the pump, and still NO oil psi.

 

I have been though the service manuals, the only thing I can think of is maybe there is a clog somewhere? Maybe the Filter is clogged? I am out of ideas. As for things I have tried, I took my compressor and blew air through the oil pump passages, thinking maybe it might unblock something. Still nothing... Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

Edited November 22, 2010 by ZXT_bean

[BLOZ UP]

So you don't have a gauge to measure?

[ZXT_bean]

not at the moment, but if there was any sort of pressure would I not be able to see oil coming from the hole where the sending unit screws into?

 

I also have the rocker cover off and I see nothing from the cam..

[Noddle]

Hi,

 

did you check that the shaft that turns the pump, is not stripped (gear), or the pin broken in it ?,

 

you could test this by seeing if the distributor turns when cranking

 

if the car is running then I would not think this is the issue.

 

Nigel

[ZXT_bean]

Yea the car starts and runs fine, I took a look at it while I had the pan off just to make sure. No chipped teeth or anything. Should I maybe put the sending unit in so it can build pressure for the 1st time?

 

What is the actual procedure for priming the pump?

[Alxxpress]

Yea the car starts and runs fine, I took a look at it while I had the pan off just to make sure. No chipped teeth or anything. Should I maybe put the sending unit in so it can build pressure for the 1st time?

 

What is the actual procedure for priming the pump?

 

Too much bearing clearance, in better words your engine is efed. How's your turbo?

[ZXT_bean]

Too much bearing clearance, in better words your engine is efed. How's your turbo?

I really dont see that being the case. It didnt knock or tick or anything to suggest of that nature. I really hope that isnt the case.

[mario_82_ZXT]

If you can start it is there oil on the top end?

If it's been a month since you've noticed the lack of oil something would have broken by now.

[ZXT_bean]

Ok I should have been more clear. This car is not my daily driver. It has been an on going project. This is the last hurdle I have to over come. Its been a long and slow 3 yr build. Is it possible I didnt prime it correctly?

[ktm]

How did you prime the pump with it in the car? You prime the pump by putting oil in it before reassembly. The oil pumps are not self-priming.

[ZXT_bean]

Yea, basically I just filled one side then rotated the spindle till it flowed though out. and refilled the other side. and then installed it.

[BLOZ UP]

You're oil pressure won't be optimal if there's nothing installed in the oil pressure hole, but something should come out of it.

[ZXT_bean]

Ive decided the only real course of action to take was to pull the head of and look for any clogs or obstructions. I plan on taking it apart after the holiday weekend. will keep any and all progress posted.

[josh817]

If you had oil pressure there should definitely be oil in the passage with the sending unit hole. That same passage goes to the oil filter. I didn't prime my pump either on my rebuild. It didn't help either that the pressure gauge is electric so its very slow to changes. What I did was get one of those cheap hand pumps used for pumping tranny fluid (since obviously you can't tilt the bottle). I then unscrewed the sending unit, stuck the tube into that hole, and pumped that oil galley up until it started coming back out the hole I was pumping into. I screwed the sending unit back in, and was good to go.

 

Are you saying you have no oil at all coming out of the sending unit hole when cranking/running? If so, read on.

 

The oil is sucked up from the pickup, down a galley to the pump, then pumped down the galley where the oil filter and the sending unit is. If there is no oil coming out of that hole, you don't have oil pumping anywhere else.

 

If you have no pressure, presumably, no oil coming out of the sending unit hole, that tells you that the problem isn't after the oil filter (somewhere else in the motor), but it is before it. The problem is either a clog in one of those two galleys, or the pump itself.

 

I would say check the pump to make sure if for some odd reason it doesn't have a bypass valve/spring in it which would keep the pump from pumping. I find this to be unlikely though since you went through so many pumps already.

 

Get a rifle cleaning rod/brush and run it through those two passage. I'll attach an illustration (yes I know it's of an L4) to help show you what I mean. I drew in a red line marking the localized area where you will hopefully discover something. The star denotes where the sending unit hole should be, before the filter:

[ZXT_bean]

I have a hand pump I use for filling my rearends and trany's. I will defiantly give that a try! As for some sort of pipe cleaner.. that is a great idea as well. I will report back tomorrow with an update! Thanks a TON!

[rayaapp2]

Hey guys,

 

Did you crack the hard line at the turbo? If you did then I wouldnt expect much oil at all to come out. How many miles are on that thing? Either way its a lot or very little. My guess IF you are cracking the line from where I think your cracking it is that the FIXED ORIFICE in the banjo fitting has clogged with carbon or slug and has restricted what little flow was already there(DO NOT BORE HOLE UNLESS YOU FEEL AMPLY QUALIFIED). Hell it could be plugged at the oil pressure switch end, but not likely. Pull the banjo fitting off and inspect the line from the inside. You will see that its restricted to limit the amount of oil flow. It doesnt take much to clog that thing up at all. If you have a slug motor or a motor that has seen high temps its pretty easy to clog up the oil passages there. MY guess is that your engine has oil pressure. You can carefully clean the orifice, but as I said dont bore it out. The system was designed for what 60,000 miles within a limited number of years that it far surpassed. If its clogged its time to go through it. Just part of Regular maintenance that was probably never preformed THOUGH Ive seen these things go for far longer than the recommended service interval. Who services a ZX anyway right?

 

IF your worried I can tell you how to make a mess, but KNOW you have some oil flow through the system without a gauge. Pull the valve cover off, carefully crimp both the PCV and valve cover breathers without breaking them(they may break as they are probably old brittle rubber), and turn the engine on and let it idle. Oil should sling everywhere, but you will see oil flow from the cam. IF oil doesnt sling everywhere you have an oil flow problem. There may be other ways, but thats what comes to mind first for me.

 

IF your banjo is clogged it may be time for some component R&R(who knows what else is plugged in the system). Most likely its just the stuff around the turbo(the major heat source), but it can break loose and float around in the system(personal experience here with an L-series).

 

Somehow I missed the part about the sending unit being pulled and still no oil.

 

...I have pulled out all the plugs, and put my starter on a switch so I can turn it over while looking for oil. I dont have a working psi gauge, so I have just taken the sending unit out. I figure that is the my best way to tell right now.

 

So after swapping 3 different pumps I had around the garage, and then bought a new automatic turbo high flow pump. I knew something else was wrong. My only idea of where to look was the pan and pick up tube.

 

I dropped the pan tonight only to find no gasket between the block and pickup. Ok, no big deal I figured it out. Put it all back together, re-primed the pump, and still NO oil psi.

 

I have been though the service manuals, the only thing I can think of is maybe there is a clog somewhere? Maybe the Filter is clogged?...

 

IF you pulled the oil pressure sender and there is still no oil flowing out of there then you may have to pull the engine apart and check the oil passages to and from the oil pickup, oil filter, and oil pump. JUST AS Josh817 describes with the riffle brush.

 

Another question is if you pulled the pan and pump then you must have drained the oil correct? Why didnt you put a $5 filter on with some new oil? You could have your reasons but that seems silly to me.

 

Ray A.

Edited December 1, 2010 by rayaapp2

[ZXT_bean]

Well to answer some of your questions. The oil and filter that was on the car only had about 20 min of idle time on it. So I was not really worried about that. But once I tear into it again I do plan on a new filter and oil.

 

As for oil on the cam, I have had the rocker cover off during this entire process. I have yet to see oil "sling" from the cam. Actually I have yet to see oil drip from the cam at all.

 

But you are correct in the fact that the hard line cracked at the banjo fitting on the turbo. I really dont think it is fixable by any means, So now I have to track down a oil feed line.

 

Im going to the store in a little bit here to find me a long brush and pick up the bits for a fresh oil change

 

I will keep all informed. Thanks for all the helpful hints. hopefully something gives and I get oil psi soon.

[zack_280]

I know this is a kind of older thread, but it was the only one of relevance that I found when I was searching this subject, so I thought I would throw in my 'solution' to priming the oil pump and oil system. This will only work if you have an oil cooler, but it works well, so I thought it would be relevant.

 

 

I filled/primed my oil pump and oil filter with oil prior to installation. I then proceeded to crank the engine for 20-30 seconds and didn't see any oil pressure on the dash gauge. That made me a little uneasy, so I did a search here and ended at this thread. I basically used the idea from this thread and modified it to better suit my application. I have an oil cooler and I just unhooked the return line from the oil cooler. I then loosened the oil presser sender. Then I took my handy hand pump and pumped oil through the cooler->filter->oil pump. When I saw a few drops of oil coming from the loosened sender I knew that I had oiled everything from the filter to the pump so I put it all back together with a little more peace of mind.

[HowlerMonkey]

Here is my L28 priming method.

 

I get some clear tubing and cut a taper in the tip so I can shove it into the hole that feeds the oil filter.

 

You have to shove the tubing forward relative to the car's front end into the hole that is in front of the threaded filter.

 

That hole is the termination of the gallery that leads from the filter boss through the front cover and to the pump output.

 

1 foot of this tubing works well for this.

 

So....connect the tubing to a skinny funnel however you can and fill the funnel halfway up with oil.

 

Put a wrench on the crankshaft nut and turn it opposite of the engine's normal rotation.

 

This will suck the oil through the tube, down the passage, prime the pump, and also fill the pickup tube.

 

One quart or less will do it.

 

Remove tube and quickly screw the filter on.

 

Crank car for a bit and then pull the oil pressure sender and quickly put a finger over the hole.

 

Hit a remote starter switch or have someone crank car while lightly holding finger over hole.

 

If oil does not come out of sender hole then something is very wrong with the pump or the pump drive because you just primed the absolute hell out of it with this method.

 

Once oil comes out of sender hole, put it back in and crank car until oil comes out of the cracked loose turbo supply banjo fitting screw.

 

I've actually had an oil pump push zero oil after this priming method was used so I slapped on another pump I had, did the same priming, and instantly got oil pressure/flow from a different pump.

 

It's not easy to jam that tubing into that hole because you have to point it forward but clear tubing is pretty soft which makes it easier.