[Healeys] Oil pressure in a BJ8

[Chris Dimmock]

Hi Jim. 
Technically, there is no gold inside Healey engines, but when you look at the price of some engine rebuilds, you'd swear there should be! ;-)
If there's brass in the oil, and dropping oil pressure, pull the rocker (valve) cover off and see if the rocker bushes have failed. That's the only brass I can think of that affects oil pressure. 
There are brass little end bearings, but they won't affect oil pressure. 
So first place I'd Look is inside the rocker cover. If you can spin the engine over, with the rocker cover off,  then you can do the "how far does oil squirt" test. Don't wear a nice shirt. 
Good luck Jim
Best
Chris

> On 9 Sep 2016, at 2:48 AM, Jim Frakes <JimFrakes at frakes-eng.com> wrote:
> 
> Gents,
> Two weeks ago I lost an engine in my BJ8. The OEW BJ8 I have had for several years and it was getting tired. Engine ran fine, just the car need to have a complete restoration.
> It just was starting to look ratty after 22 years. I picked up the red one up to use while the OEW was under way.
>  Reportedly, the P.O. said the P.P.O. had the engine rebuilt by Healey Surgeons, but not sure when.
> It looked very good, ran good, 60 PSI oil pressure, but needed a rebuilt tranny, which I replaced. After two years on the road and about 4,000 miles,
> In late HOT, MUGGY, July, after about 300 miles of pretty hard driving (not racing), I noticed the oil PSI dropped to 50, Within another 100 miles, to 40, then within less than 50 miles, to 30.
> We Shut it down and went for the trailer. Dipstick showed fine Gold flakes. Dropping the pan, it was full of gold but none I could sell. To my surprise, there was a DW Pump.
> After reading the thread, I suspect it may be the cause. We have not torn it down all the way yet as I spent the time replacing the engine with another that was ready to go.
> All that being said, I will get to the tear down in early October, hopefully.
> As I understand, I am looking for the type of pump designation, rotary or gear; looking for the number of teeth on the cam 12 or 13, looking for excess wear on the gear teeth and the thrust washer.
> Anything else to look for?
>  
> Jim
>  
> From: Healeys [mailto:healeys-bounces at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Chris Dimmock
> Sent: Friday, September 02, 2016 9:59 PM
> To: richard mayor
> Cc: healeys
> Subject: Re: [Healeys] Oil pressure in a BJ8
>  
> Hi Richard,
> Totally valid concern, but there is one factor missing. The speed your camshaft is driving the oil pump. 
> I've done a lot of research on oil pumps and cam drives since 1998. I published an article - prompted by numerous cam drive/ oil pump gear failures at Bathurst in 1998 and 1999, which I'll dig out. 
> I run the DW pump - but I use the later cam with 12 teeth driving the oil pump. 
> I also run the DW hardened steel cam retaining plate and DW Torrington cam bearing. 
> These are all important points which address your concern.  
> The big difference is if you use the earlier camshaft with the 13 teeth oil pump gear. All the failures I have seen (3 after Bathurst alone) were from the earlier cams with 13 teeth driving the oil pump. It's the 13 teeth cam which is the major issue. 
> It's about how fast you are driving the oil pump. 
> Here's some background for everyone else for completeness. 
> All 6 cylinder C series camshafts have 2 gear drives on them. The gear closest to the back of the camshaft drives the oil pump. The gear closest to the middle of the camshaft drives the distributor, and the distributor drive gear on the camshaft always has 13 teeth on it….
> But there are 2 variants of the oil pump drive gear on the camshaft.
> The first is what I'll call the “sedan” camshaft. It was typically used in early model, low revving C Series sedans,  6 cyl A90 and A95’s, and also 100/6's. I’m not sure whether or not it was used in any 3000’s, or when it changed. This camshaft is relatively easy to identify, as the gear closest to the back of the camshaft, which drives the oil pump, has 13 teeth on it. So it is the same diameter as the distributor drive gear on the camshaft – both 13 teeth. Usually, these cams have beautiful lobes and have never been reground. Because they came from a low mileage sedan.... That's why racers regrind them & use them...
> The other camshaft, typically found in later C Series engines and later 6 cyl Healey's, later Wolseleys  etc. (I'll call Healey cam) has 12 teeth to drive the oil pump (and still 13 to drive the distributor). Easily identifiable because the two gears on the camshaft are different diameters. It effectively drives the oil pump 8% slower than the earlier "sedan" cam at the same revs. 
> So I'm guessing your "souvenirs" all have 12 teeth cam drives. Just like all those that blew up with the same symptoms at Bathurst in 1998 and 1999. 
> Denis Welch explained to us, face to face, the lack of lubrication to the cam/ oil pump gear drive issue, at Bathurst in 1998. He even drew a picture of how you can tap into an oil drilling in the block, that you thread a piece of brake line into, to squirt oil directly on the camshaft/ oil pump gears, to keep them lubricated. But he also said - NEVER run a 12 tooth cam/ oil pump drive cam over 5,500 rpm - irrespective which oil pump you use - because 5,500 rpm on that cam is driving the oil pump closer to 6,000 
> If you use a standard Healey crankshaft, (so you aren’t going to "regularly" rev it over 6,000 rpm) and fit an upgraded oil pump (e.g. the Denis Welch hi volume pump) with a sedan 13 tooth cam - you will have huge oil pressure. Because the “sedan” cam is driving the oil pump 8.33% faster than the “Healey” cam at the same engine revs.  
> And if you rev the engine with a ‘sedan’ cam at 6,000 or more for any prolonged length of time, the oil pump gear on the cam will strip and you'll have no oil pressure at all. Because although the engine is pulling 6,000rpm, the oil pump is being worked as if the engine was running at 6,500rpm –i.e.  8.3% faster… and if you were pulling say 6,400rpm – the oil pump is being driven as if you were pulling over 6,900 rpm.....
> The cam gear that drives the oil pump on the C Series engine has very poor lubrication (it’s based on the BMC ‘splash and drip’ lubrication theory). There is no pressure fed oil to the two meshed gears – the oil pump drive gear on the cam, and the oil pump drive spindle gear. So as you rev the engine  harder, the “dripped and splashed oil” gets thrown off the gears, and they run dry, wearing through the hardening relatively quickly, at sustained high RPM. This process is all dramatically increased if you are running a “sedan” cam, as the oil pump gear on the cam is driving the oil pump spindle gear 8% faster....
> You also mentioned the steel camshaft retaining plate failures. Denis Welch also offers a Hardened steel version of this plate, and a Torrington bearing - which together solve the second issue of wear in this area. 
> The ultimate solution is the DW gun drilled cam, which makes the camshaft part of the oil gallery, and lubricates under pressure the cam lobes and oil pump drive gear and the distributor drive gear. These didn't become available until around 2003. 
> We pulled the sump off my engine, and pulled the oil pump, after the numerous Bathurst blow ups in other guys engines from this issue. See http://www.myaustinhealey.com/mechanical_restoration.html 
> So your concern is valid, Richard, but the missing piece of the issue is the cam gear teeth. Mine is 12. My concern was alleviated after we pulled the pump after 3 years driving and some 20 track days. 
> A 13 teeth cam drive would definitely be a concern, in an engine revved over 5,500
> If anyone is running the earlier 13 teeth cam with a DW pump & Penrite HPR they'll have better oil pressure figures than me at the same rpm. :-)
> Best
> Chris
> 
> <image005.png>
> 
> On 2 Sep 2016, at 11:30 AM, richard mayor <boyracer466 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Chris,
> 
> I hate to be negative about your good oil pressure but I fear you may have a problem.  I am assuming that you have the "high pressure" oil pump from DW.
> 
> 
> ......... Many of us racers have used the DW "high pressure" oil pumps and discovered that at some point, all of the teeth on the cam and driving spindles have been ground off to such an extent that we have lost all oil pressure.  
>  
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