Guys... flickering oil light? WTF!!

[AccordEpicenter]

Ok so i was messing with the water/alky injection (which works really good) and i started noticing the car wasnt running as well as it should, then the oil light flickered for a few sec and the engine was stalling out at times (WTF?) so i pull over, check my oil (looked ok) and looked to see if the sensor was plugged in or wtf was going on... so is started the car up and same thing, at idle it was flickering... so i just drove it gently back home (2 blocks...) killed the engine down the street and rolled into the driveway... Engine sounded ok at idle but was a little noisy... dont think i spun anything but we will see i guess... any ideas as to what could have killed my oil pressure? Im thinking some kind of bearing failure or some crap in the pickup? Maybe a bad oil pump? Any ideas guys?

['A20A3']

I got you. Check this out. I had the same problem with my sedan about 2 years ago. You should take off the oil pan and check out the oil pump screen. Mine got kinda clogged and it caused it to do the same thing as yours when it was real warm.

Does yours do it when the engine is cold?

[AccordEpicenter]

no i tried it like 20 min ago and the oil pressure seemed to come right up and the engine rattle went away... I think youre right, i think there is somthing in the pickup

[Accordtheory]

you don't have a mechanical guage? That's the only way I roll, I don't trust the electric shit. You should have a hell of a lot more than the 7psi it takes to kill that light..around 60 psi at cruise..

[AccordEpicenter]

i have a mechanical gauge but i dont have the double npt fitting in yet... so the gauge is inop right now

[thegreatdane]

If you do have something in your oil pick up it makes you wonder what that would be... I was thinking busted main bearings? The oil is naturally thicker when cold thus perhaps causing the oil pressure to be sufficient when cold. Busted mains will cause a big drop in oil pressure.

['A20A3']

Yeah mines just got clogged with a bunch of sediment. Like from bad oil or whatever. They're old engines ya know sometimes some bullshit happens. It looked like coffee grounds though...all up in my oil pump screen and pipe.

I'm glad my new engine is in wayyyy better shape though.

Good luck man.

[lostforawhile]

you don't have a mechanical guage? That's the only way I roll, I don't trust the electric shit. You should have a hell of a lot more than the 7psi it takes to kill that light..around 60 psi at cruise..

The factory switch is set at 3 psi, scary huh? I run a mechanical gauge and a pressure switch that is a lot higher then factory. according to my book the optimal oil pressure is 50 psi at 2000 rpm. it's normal to get lower pressure with hot oil at idle, it doesn't need much pressure at tickover. one of my books even said on a high milage engine an occasional flicker at idle is nothing much to worry about,sudden loss of pressure at high rpm is the problem. I don't think honda even lists an idle oil pressure. I know my 81 would run about 7 pounds at idle but 60 at cruise.

[rjudgey]

Hmm doesn't sound good,
I've found that with stock blocks that are original which then get turned into high output units tend to eat the stock Honda bearings on the crank alive, had a A18 with just 50k on the clock after one track day and a long journey their and back the main bearings were completely toast. Get the sump off and see whats stuck in the pickup but whatever it is sounds like are-build is on the cards!! Yeah also never rely on stock oil light their crap learnt that lesson after driving for 300miles without checking oil ending up with rogered big ends after the light came on at the same time the engine started knocking too!!

[thegreatdane]

yea I took apart two ET engines at one time where one of them supposedly had around 60k km on it because I needed a spare crank. Both of them were dead on the number 3 main bearing and had damaged the crank as well.... The A20A4 engine I needed a spare crank for had the same problem...

[AccordEpicenter]

OK UPDATE when i started it this morning the oil pressure came up and there was no knock at all, drove it only a little before putting it in the garage and getting to work, purred just fine. So i pulled the pan and the pickup tube was pretty clean so i believe the oil pump is probably shot, but there was a bunch of flakes in the oil pan. I pulled all the rod bearings and they looked a little thrashed but the journals were fine, but the mains looked pretty bad, the journals were ok except for number 3 which was spun and pretty worn. The way that it looked though, the bearings were sticking to the journal pretty good but moved easily and there was a significant amount of wear that just could not have happened in just driving it back like i did but get this, in the last 10-20k miles there has always been a rattle in the bottom end of the motor, and i could never figure it out, and it always went away when you pushed the clutch in... So i think that ive had those spun number 3 mains for a long ass time!!!. Now heres the deal, i started tearing into the spare motor ive had, im gonna talk to the machinist and diamond pistons tomarrow and see what i can do with this. When i pulled the spare motor apart, same thing, the mains seemed pretty beat, but the journals look perfect, but both motors use fully grooved top and bottom bearings on the mains? WTF? Im gonna look into the journal sizes and see if i can run a non grooved bearing in the lower position in the main cap, that should add 20-25% bearing surface area which should really help with the beat up mains i keep finding... Maybe LS mains will work? Not really sure at this point about the bearings, but im def going built motor now.

[AccordEpicenter]

im prolly gonna go with ACL's

[AccordEpicenter]

ehh im not using them because h-t ricers use them, i remember sean saying that they were some of the best

[Oldblueaccord]

That #3 bearing probably handles the thrust of the crank. SO running a big clutch is working it along with boost etc. There maybe be some tricky macine work to get it back ok. I think I'd look into a new crank or ones that not been beat on to much. A new cap also. I'm sure there some tricks to keep the #3 going on Honda motors.

Its the same on Chyrsler BB motors. they make some flange type bearings and special caps to help with what is called "cap walk".


wp

[AZmike]

That #3 bearing probably handles the thrust of the crank. ...

The thrust bearings take the axial loads. They sit on each since of the 3rd main, but are not part of it.

[rjudgey]

Yeah go with ACL never had a main bearing go on my engines and i've allways used ACL, a lot of race engineers only use ACL. Might be worth getting the crank re-ground and balanced just to make sure it's not bent or badly balanced. their are some mods you can do to improve the oil circulation, mainly on the crank journals themselves rather than bearings, i'd just use the stock ACL ones they are more than upto the job. An yes destroying bearings can be done in as little as few hundred miles or a few thousand. But either way your going to be doing a re-build by the sounds of things!!

[Oldblueaccord]

While you got the oil pan off id look into how your oil return from your turbo goes in. It might be airating the oil and oil and air dont do there job. Im sure they sell some kinda oil baffle for that purpose.

Just another thought.


wp

[FyreDaug]

Damn dude, how many miles are on that motor? I thought you built it up before? Or you just didnt touch the bottom end much? Maybe im behind in the times, but I coulda sworn you built it before you boosted it

[AccordEpicenter]

i was gonna build that other motor that im building up now a long time ago, but since my motor has been going strong for about 3 years with 8-13psi boost ive been pushing it off more and more, its got about 135k miles on it, entirely stock, ive never had the head off it, or the intake manifold, and ive been literally raping this motor since i got it with 87k miles on it about 7 years ago. The actual thrust bearings themselves are a little shiny particularly on the one side but i dont think they are bad at all but im gonna go with new ones for the built motor

[bobafett]

just passing on this info, but according to the shop that built my motor, when you order 'ACL' bearings you may not be getting actual high quality tri metal ACL bearings. I was told that its a crapshoot and sometimes your basically getting cheap parts in an ACL box; then again sometimes you get the good stuff.

sean also was a huge fan of king bearings.

[rjudgey]

I've never had any dodgy ACL bearings and i've used about 12 sets of mains and big ends in the last 5 years and only once had i damaged one and that was due to running out of oil on the highway at constant 100mph.

[AccordEpicenter]

how much were the kings and where did you get them? I cant seem to find acl's anywhere, at least for an a20???

[bobafett]

I've never had any dodgy ACL bearings and i've used about 12 sets of mains and big ends in the last 5 years and only once had i damaged one and that was due to running out of oil on the highway at constant 100mph.

.

good to know. i wonder if it has something to do with the american distributors of the bearings then??