Fox 21 Alpha
New member
So long story short I did a rebuild on my stock 91 3SGTE down to the block, having everything machined, reused the pistons, but the crank was grind down, new propersized bearings, the head was reworked, etc etc.
I installed
ATS High Volume Oil Pump
ATS GT28RS turbo kit that includes the turbo, the bored fuel rail, the ECU tune, theromostat
New GSC S1 Cams
Supporting mods such as ron davis radiator and inject cleaning and 255 walbro fuel pump
And general maintenance items such as water pump, new seals almost everywhere, new valves
And some other things here and there
After 50 miles on the rebuild I saw my oil pressure light flickering. Saw I was losing oil pressure at operating temp. Main and rod bearings were chewed to shit, supposedly from a bad start up on the build (had a lot of trouble getting it to run, and then even when it did it was on 2 cylinders for a bit, due to a loose wire). Did another rebuild, more machining and cleaning, new-used oil cooler and a new oil pump cause of debris, and bored to .020 because we were running out of space. I cleaned the turbo best I could but running two cans of break cleaner through the oil inlets and outlets.
This time I used brad penn break in oil, assembly lube, prepressurized the oil system, and got it running a lot faster and better. Got 850 miles and saw signs of my oil pressure dropping (light didn't go off during cranking, flicker lightly under a hard pull or when idling when warm). Checked oil pressure again, and same issue. Was only making about 6 psi at halfway to operating temp, and about 30 psi at 3k rpm.
We took some bearings off, and noticed some light scouring from what appeared to be micro debris traveling through the oil system, but no serious damage as of yet. I still have to check all the bearings since I only pulled half, but not expecting to find anything different in the others.
So 2 questions:
Where could the debris come from if we cleaned or machined the entire engine? Is it possible the turbo retained it?
And where in gods name am I losing oil pressure? It is also turbo related? Could the bearings in the turbo been grinded down on the first rebuild to the point where its impossible for it to hold oil pressure? I never checked the oil pressure after the second build because I thought for sure I couldn't have any problems.
I've now owned this car for 6 years, drove it for a max of 6 months after I first got it, sunk over 10k into it, 5 years of wrench time, 2 rebuilds, and I now pretty much have a paperweight. And thats trying to do thing correctly and smartly with regards to mods and maintenance work and everything.
I installed
ATS High Volume Oil Pump
ATS GT28RS turbo kit that includes the turbo, the bored fuel rail, the ECU tune, theromostat
New GSC S1 Cams
Supporting mods such as ron davis radiator and inject cleaning and 255 walbro fuel pump
And general maintenance items such as water pump, new seals almost everywhere, new valves
And some other things here and there
After 50 miles on the rebuild I saw my oil pressure light flickering. Saw I was losing oil pressure at operating temp. Main and rod bearings were chewed to shit, supposedly from a bad start up on the build (had a lot of trouble getting it to run, and then even when it did it was on 2 cylinders for a bit, due to a loose wire). Did another rebuild, more machining and cleaning, new-used oil cooler and a new oil pump cause of debris, and bored to .020 because we were running out of space. I cleaned the turbo best I could but running two cans of break cleaner through the oil inlets and outlets.
This time I used brad penn break in oil, assembly lube, prepressurized the oil system, and got it running a lot faster and better. Got 850 miles and saw signs of my oil pressure dropping (light didn't go off during cranking, flicker lightly under a hard pull or when idling when warm). Checked oil pressure again, and same issue. Was only making about 6 psi at halfway to operating temp, and about 30 psi at 3k rpm.
We took some bearings off, and noticed some light scouring from what appeared to be micro debris traveling through the oil system, but no serious damage as of yet. I still have to check all the bearings since I only pulled half, but not expecting to find anything different in the others.
So 2 questions:
Where could the debris come from if we cleaned or machined the entire engine? Is it possible the turbo retained it?
And where in gods name am I losing oil pressure? It is also turbo related? Could the bearings in the turbo been grinded down on the first rebuild to the point where its impossible for it to hold oil pressure? I never checked the oil pressure after the second build because I thought for sure I couldn't have any problems.
I've now owned this car for 6 years, drove it for a max of 6 months after I first got it, sunk over 10k into it, 5 years of wrench time, 2 rebuilds, and I now pretty much have a paperweight. And thats trying to do thing correctly and smartly with regards to mods and maintenance work and everything.