Oil Cooler Question - Its Cold!

[Trozzle]

Well given he's done "a few hard laps at the track" I'd say somehow the oil was still managing to flow throughout the motor. Even 5 minutes of driving would completely ruin the engine...

[Rolls]

could have been just not quite enough causing slight bearing wear, worth checking imo even if its a low chance.

[=premo=]

Yeah I'd check it.

I had a thermostat on the oil lines that bypassed my oil cooler if oil wasn't hot however it didnt flow well enough and I ended up with a spun bearing.

Can always try bypassing the cooler by removing the cooler in hose and looping straight to the engine to see if it makes a difference to the low oil pressure you mentioned.

[=premo=]

Also just a friendly reminder to keep coolers and filters as close to sump level as possible so the engine doesn't run dry on start up and potentially get air locks

[Simon-S14]

Well given he's done "a few hard laps at the track" I'd say somehow the oil was still managing to flow throughout the motor. Even 5 minutes of driving would completely ruin the engine...

im hoping it was all ok... i still had plenty oil pressure when running the motor etc. so i guess the pressure valves must have popped. lucky i'd say

[rad100]

is having the oil coolers inlet and outlet on the bottom a bad idea?

[KiwiRS4T]

is having the oil coolers inlet and outlet on the bottom a bad idea?

Depends on what kind of cooler it is. With some designs it will not fill properly from the bottom.. If you turn it on its side and have entry at the bottom that will be ok or have the inlet and outlet at the top.

[3LGODZILA]

is having the oil coolers inlet and outlet on the bottom a bad idea?

not sure mate but putting 2 in the pink and 1 in the stink isnt a great idea, u'll get shit on your pinky, better off putting 3 in the pink

[ezy_09s]

oil analysis, its like $50 and mainlube.com.au do them, highly recommended, will tell you if you have shagged the bearings or anything.

this is something you want to find out now before catastrophic failure, it could be fine though.

+1 for oil analysis ..at least you know exactly what condition your bearings are like.

Or just keep punishing the engine as you normally would ..you will find out soon enough if its good or if its f*cked.

[rad100]

so better off to turn it the other way?

[WHITER33GTS-T]

Some oil "should" have gone through the over pressure bypass built into the factory oil warmer, if you have removed that or a running an RB20 one you will be in trouble

This pressure bypass is all that kept my engine running. My engine still ran fine, no rattles or any bad noise. It was just all the metal in the oil that worried me. It wasnt worth the risk to fix the lines and keep running the car so I had it pulled down.

[Simon-S14]

did an oil change today.... and well... not the best result

dont think i'll need to send an oil sample off. that will be 50 i can put towards a new motor i think

[Rolls]

full of metal shavings?

[Simon-S14]

nah i wouldnt say full. i drained the oil into a clean bottle that wasnt black, cut the side out of it. then poured it into a waste drum and left a bit in there. holding it in the sun reveals the oil to have a metalic sparkle to it. and then right at the bottom was a couple of tiny metal flakes.

so yeah.. pretty clear damage has been done.

[Beer Baron]

bummer. sorry to hear that mate. yeah if the oil has that nice metal film and some sparkle to it chances are that's your bearing coating in there. what a bugger.

[DVS JEZ]

Sell it on ebay

[Rolls]

Sell it on ebay

please don't do this, the amount of dodgy 'perfect condition' second hand goods me and mates have ended up with : /

[WHITER33GTS-T]

did an oil change today.... and well... not the best result

dont think i'll need to send an oil sample off. that will be 50 i can put towards a new motor i think

Hope your result isnt as bad as mine.

My oil looked like mercury with lots of chunks of bearings lol

Edited February 23, 2011 by WHITER33GTS-T

[Simon-S14]

nah mines not that bad. have spoken with a few engine builders and they have all said it looks like the start of some bearing wear and that placing a life span on it is impossible.. could last a day could keep going for another 12 months. Gonna start building a spare bottom end i have anyway i reckon!

[Duncan]

sorry to hear that.

if it has picked up some bearing already, pull the motor. it only gets more expensive (more needs replacing) the longer you run it.

I would know, I've done it often enough lol. My record for a motor with incorrect oiling was 50klm from new to bearing spun