[Alpines] Oil pressure regulator valve

[£auri]

The thing is, that gauge seems to act at it should, but pressure is too
low  as well at idle as with revs. It seems as it shows all time too
little pressure. I could fill the pipe halfways, and it got better
ratings. First it was about 2 bar too low, now only 1 bar. I can not
remember it exactly, but in my opinion it shows as relief valve works
ok, there is a sharp stop in pressure rising with cold oil, as if the
valve opens. But it all is too low. The gauge worked well before engine
swap, but then there were badly worn bearings and pistons. Engine had
then very low pressure when hot and idling.
We did measure the pump but  we had imperial blades (inches) and we
thought they were metric. So it is possible oil pump is also worn, tough
it did not show much worn.

Lauri Lehtinen
journalist, engineer
mobile: +358 (0) 400 851988

-----Alkuperdinen viesti-----
Ldhettdjd: JACranwell at aol.com [mailto:JACranwell at aol.com]
Ldhetetty: 2. helmikuuta 2009 19:04
Vastaanottaja: lehtinen.lauri at kolumbus.fi; tom.hill at att.net;
kb9csw at juno.com; alpines at autox.team.net
Aihe: Re: [Alpines] Oil pressure regulator valve

Lauri,

Assuming you have the correct tolerance between the bearings, and the
crank, then it is most probably the oil pump, unfortunately.

Personally, I always replace the oil pump, or at least check the
tolerances, as per the manual, when I rebuild.

However the good news is at least you can get to it with the engine in
place, sump off, which is more than you can do on most modern cars.

Other likely causes would be loose or cracked oil feeder to the rocker
shaft, or the bypass valve, as previously noted.

It may be worth trying another gauge, but they rarely fail.

Good luck,

Julian.