Flickering oil light.

[hallsie]

Whats the running pressure for the 350i V8 guys?

Im getting a flickering when warm, but the engine is still sounding sweet, sitting around 2kg/cm2 or about 30 ft on the smiths guage, but Im not familiar with what they should be reading. (and what pray tell is wrong with Bar or PSi?)

I have also noticed a bit of coolant loss, and its losing about 1 litre after about an hours blast, so Im thinking theres a hose leaking somewhere because theres no tell tales form the exhaust etc!

Any thoughts for a saturday night?

Stu

[vampire222]

My pressure is around 3.5 on the oil press gauge. When the engine is running. Obviously goes up if i floor it.

[ferlin]

your oil pressure is good but you need to find that leak cos 1 litre is a lot to lose in an hour.
Is it squirting it out of the overflow pipe from the header tank? Always hard to see that cos you might be losing it on the road. Do you have any air locks?
My oil pressure is 2.0 to 2.2 bar when hot at 1500 to 2000rpm

[E Ponym]

The RV8 engine was designed to run on 20W50 oil, so try that next fill andsee if the light still flickers.

The engine was designed around oil flow not oil pressure and doesn't need a lot of pressure in normal use.

Russ

[The Hatter]

Mines on 20/50, anything less and it sounded awful and the pressure was low. Don't trust the gauge/light anyway go with your ears, if the hydraulic tappets are pumping up OK you're probably alright.

Mine was losing water through the heater pipes under the inlet manifold, they were perforated but I never saw any pools of water as it evaporates so quickly.... But that was after sorting the original crappy tin head gaskets - which may also be your problem. Is the crankcase pressurising and the oil being blown out of the crank pulley oil seal, plus the coolant being blown out of the header tank with the engine cold? Mine was when the head gaskets were iffy. I hope that's not your problem after the 280 work!

[hallsie]

The Hatter said:

Mines on 20/50, anything less and it sounded awful and the pressure was low. Don't trust the gauge/light anyway go with your ears, if the hydraulic tappets are pumping up OK you're probably alright.

Mine was losing water through the heater pipes under the inlet manifold, they were perforated but I never saw any pools of water as it evaporates so quickly.... But that was after sorting the original crappy tin head gaskets - which may also be your problem. Is the crankcase pressurising and the oil being blown out of the crank pulley oil seal, plus the coolant being blown out of the header tank with the engine cold? Mine was when the head gaskets were iffy. I hope that's not your problem after the 280 work!

The heater pipes may be the winner here, theres a wisp of smoke/steam from the distributor area when warmed up, but there's also a lot of water dripping from... well, its coming from the bodywork on the passenger side of the car at the front.
I think I might need to do a bit more research next weekend.
On the oil light, the engine sounds fine, no naughty tappping apart from a slight exhaust blow, which leads me to believe that perhaps an oil change may be the way to go, although it was done recently I cant gurantee what was used in there.

The 280 is still waiting for the inlet manifolds ( X2 ) to be returned, but the guy who has them is ill in hospital. might be quicker and easier to get one on fleabay.

Stu

[barrington]

have a look at the hotter switch on the rad they sometimes leak also look at rad when you under the car and just infront of the dizzy there is a small water pipe this may be leaking as you have steam from this area

[adam quantrill]

Oil light flickering on tickover when warm is fine as long as it goes out as soon as any appreciable revs are used - over 1200, say.

As others have said you might get better results with fresh 20W/50. Luckily I have a couple of gallons of Castrol Classic coming to me soon at trade price ;^)

[dixiebabes]

Stu pray its not the heater matrix leaking cause that is a bastid of a job.

Dix

[hallsie]

If it is Dix, Itll be bypassed and Ill wear thermals!

Stu

[Wedg1e]

The Hatter said:

Mine was losing water through the heater pipes under the inlet manifold, they were perforated but I never saw any pools of water as it evaporates so quickly...

Been there, fixed that Mine has a recurrent leak from the thermostat housing: water seeps out and runs down the valley gasket to form a pool at the rear end of the engine. I thought it was the steel pipes again but an inspection mirror proved otherwise. Rubbed the mating face flat, new gasket, new sealant... and a week later the barsteward started leaking again
Still, it saves the expansion tank from over-pressurising

[RCK974X]

As stated above, in my experience the 2.8V6 lumps leak oil like crazy if you use the modern low viscosity stuff. Crank seals and rocker covers, making them smell and even smoke 'cos it runs onto the exhaust flanges.

They are much happier on stuff like 'classic' Castrol GTX 20-50.

Edited by RCK974X on Thursday 8th December 03:42