No Oil Pressure - AAH/EEK

[TaSmania]

Took the 420 for a blat on Sunday - toyed with blatting past a 355 until I realised it was an MR2 jobbie so turned off onto a favourite side road gave the car a boot load of right foot - 6500 change up to second and whoa oil light on and bu**er all oil pressure No noise, ran fine-ish (not at idle) - I had to crawl 5 miles home (no mobile and in the middle of no-where).
Q) 1)Is this the oil pressure relief valve?
2) How do I fit it?
3) Driving at, 1500 rpm home have I knackered the engine?
To cap it all it was meant to be a test drive but the gentleman didn't want the car(he definitely would'nt have after this!)
Help.
GB

[rev-erend]

Sorry no idea - is the oil level correct .. I'm thinking it could have been lack of oil / surge
or maybe a broken oil pump.

[firefox1712]

Tas -

Tas Tas Tas!!!!

You haven't knackered your 420 SEAC have you? Blimey mate - change up at 6500? You must be joking - unless you have tuned the engine to do just this? Knackered bearings? Bent rods/valves? Shattered camshafts?Clatter clatter clatter? Pushrod engines don't do this sort of thing - do they? You need chains/belts for higher revs. Oil pressure relief valve - really?

Maybe the buyer wasn't going to have it after he saw how you thrashed it mate. But then you didn't really want to sell did you?

And I was selling the Ferrari just so as I could buy it!

I feel sorry for you sir and wish I could help. Hope it works out OK.

Sob sob!
firefox

[AM400]

firefox1712 said:

Tas - Tas Tas Tas!!!! You haven't knackered your 420 SEAC have you? Blimey mate - change up at 6500? You must be joking - unless you have tuned the engine to do just this? firefox

You forget Firefox, Tas has a proper SEAC

Could be the relief valve Tas, its behind the large nut on the housing, changed the spring on mine but not the valve so not sure if it comes out easy!

Andy.

[shpub]

Could also be a broken oil pick up pump. Could be the oil pump drive dying. They don't like high revs but 6500 should be OK. Ish but again something else to look at. The relief spring can get stuck as well and cause zero oil pressure so it may not be broken. Worth investigating, changing the oil and flushing out the oil cooler and see what happens.

You may have knackered it driving the five miles home. Has been known but equally has been got away with. Only an investigation will tell.

[wedg1e]

I wouldn't drive 500 yards with no oil pressure, never mind 5 miles, at any revs.
This is not to say that even with the mains and big ends down to the copper, it'll still seem OK and you won't really be able to tell....
I have often gone past 6000 rpm, not often to 6500 - but then the rev limiter is at 6000 at the mo anyway.
I'd say you'll be very lucky to get away with no crank damage.

[waynester]

Tas..better start on that letter to Santa!
Dear Santa, my TVR needs new...etc etc etc etc, lot's of love TaS!!!
Seriously, hope it's ok mate.

Wayne

[TaSmania]

Cheers chaps.
Hopefully it's the relief valve as this is what happened to Ian at Mania but I'll drop the engine out and the sump off and then bearings to do a thorough check. The motors a solid lifter jobbie so is happy to 6,500. Could have been worse my TR8 rally car snapped a crank and my SD1 rally car split the block between the crank and cam.
Ho hum guess I'll keep it now then
Delicate negotiations now required as funding for the Yellow 420 SEAC to sprint and also build the rally Wedge.Hmm
GB

[rev-erend]

Tas - a man with your knowledge really should have know
better than to drive it with no oil pressure .... although I can imagine the enbarrisment if you are on a test drive and have to stop and call the AA.

[jvaughan]

Bad luck .. sounds like the oil pressure relief valve. mine went in a similar fashion on a track. the replacemnt itself is about £10, but expect about £300 labour from a garage to replace

[HarryW]

jvaughan said:

Bad luck .. sounds like the oil pressure relief valve. mine went in a similar fashion on a track. the replacemnt itself is about £10, but expect about £300 labour from a garage to replace

How long after that did the crank fail Jason , just wondering if they were connected at all.

Harry

[father ted]

6,500 RPM, having been in the motor with Tas'...i can concur...he drives like that all the time this man was born FAST!
Good luck Garry ,hope it's a little bill (like Bill Oddie but with less facial hair)

GB drives his Tivs like they want to be (i.e. gagging for it..... i dunno ,any excuse NOT to sell the SEAC )

JVaughan, Tas' has a cast of thousands working for him,he does not pay labour costs ,they work on his cars for love (this ,is in fact a rather big lie!!!)

lots of love , the Tas admiration society (or TAS for short )

>> Edited by father ted on Tuesday 9th December 20:32

>> Edited by father ted on Tuesday 9th December 20:35

[campbell]

Hi Garry i hope your SEAC engine turns out to be ok but if your looking for funding, fance selling the 16''s to me?
Any way let us know what the problem was in the end.

Campbell

[danny hoffman]

I would imagine the camshaft would suffer the most damage as at least the crank would be sloshing around in the oil in the sump.

Don't suppose you want to do a part ex for a 350i (with oil presuure)? Or even a straight swap?

[Ian V]

Hi Garry,

Sounds identical to what happened to mine at Mania. Large boot full of revs and light on, no oil pressure. I got away with only replacing the relief valve, but then again I only had a few hundred yards to get the car back to my parking slot.

Hope all is well (fingers crossed).

Ian

[TaSmania]

Thanks all.
Rev - Agree - daft to drive but felt it was the lesser of several evils as I realy was in the middle of no-where.
Jason - here's hoping it's only a tenner - my lads charge £23/hr so no dealer prices here so I hope it'll be cheaper mind I do want to take the engine out and give it a going over.
Ted - thanks as ever - always within the speed limit but quick and sideways getting there
Campbell - good try! - they are Mercedes 16" items try ebay.de!
Cheers all
GB

[firefox1712]

Tas -

O.K. I stand corrected. Solid lifters and it will rev (happily?)to 6500? Should I try it with mine? But then I don't know the full spec of my engine. I must say £23 per hour sounds OK - I went from someone charging £25 and no VAT to my current chap at £45 plus VAT!!! Perhaps I am quite mad - I just got fed up with being rooked by the others and my cars being damaged!

firefox

[Tasmania]

SH as ever was right. Oil pump drive broke - the bit that locates into the dissy. New one fitted and it's running as well as it ever did (sweet when rev'd - lumpy lower down - need to get Mark to have a look).
Initial looks at bottom end and bores look good (borescope and removal of one main cap). Need to check a few more on the bottom end and drop the heads off to check fully but fingers crossed it wasn't as bad as first thought.
Just having moulds taken of the wheel arch extensions and then it'll go for the engine final checks. 400, 450 or SEAC arch extensions now available as well as SEAC wings (Why've I got the moulds? - if using the car to compete then it'll get used and thus bumped - be prepared like a good boy scout!!)
GB

[father ted]

I thought i was the only one here who used a borescope! good luck for the rest of the 'inspection' Garry...hope all is well ,will bring my 400 down to see how you and the yellow peril are progressing.....I am almost ready to let 'old tatty' transform into a beautiful butterfly and meet 'the public'....glad to see you are keeping her and that the ranks of urban clearway hooligans are not going to be diminished by your 'momentary lack of clarity'
GREAT NEWS

BIG BAD WEDGE

[wedg1e]

father ted said:

I thought i was the only one here who used a borescope! BIG BAD WEDGE

Borescope? Pah, prehistoric technology. I have an £18000 Videoprobe in my workshop... (It will work again, one day... )
The latest videoprobes have stereoscopic viewing tips, so you can actually make a reasonable stab at measuring the size of a defect before you go in with the spanners. This has arisen from the aerospace industry, where an apparent defect might be so small as to be not worth chasing. On the other hand, hundreds of man hours of stripdown to find a speck of dust wouldn't be very cost-effective!

Ian