worth it changing the oil pump or go ahead and pull it out
i changed the oil/filter thursday and nothing out of the ordinary. drove about 15 miles immediately after and again no issues. later that night i brought the car out to a local meet and the motor sounded "different."
ive paid close attention to it over the past couple days and the motor is noticeably louder. there are a couple more prominent top end ticks that have never been there before and i listened underneath the car with it running on a rack and from under the car i dont hear rock knock or any bottom end knock that i have heard before but the motor is noticeably more noisy. i changed the oil filter again for ***** and its still there.
it doesnt come about until the engine is warm and has a few miles, when cold everything sounds fine. i also noticed when warm the oil pressure gauge will fluctuate at idle and bounce around the 35 psi mark (35-40 psi is where it has always been when hot but it has never fluttered before) and i noticed it fluctuating while cruising a couple times but it hasnt actually been lower than normal cruising or at idle
i have the oil filter i put on when i did the initial oil change (do not have the one that was on there prior) and as soon as i can locate a filter cutter i plan on cutting it open to look for shavings and what not
does this sound like bearing issues or would it be worth it to change the oil pump out, currently the stock one with 108k miles. obviously if i cut the filter open and find shavings i know where im going from there.
thanks
havent been hard on the car since i noticed it but heavy throttle oil pressure gets 65-70
Last edited by Tally TransAm; Mar 21, 2011 at 07:01 PM.
do you own a diagnostic vacuum gauge?
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cant find an oil filter cutter locally so im gonna get that and an oil pump coming and tear it down this weekend and see what i can find. hopefully it turns out to be something other than bearing cause im really trying to make a race next weekend, but well see what happens.
thanks for the input so far
got an oil filter cutter and opened the old filter and nothing out of the ordinary, no shavings or glitter. drained the oil and ran some through a coffee filter and same thing.
pulled the valve train and everything was normal. no loose rockers, everything was fine.
replaced the oil pump today with a melling 10296 with the blue spring. oil pressure is about 10-15 psi higher across the board which is nice. i let the motor idle for approx 30-35 minutes to let the oil get to full temp to both burn off the condensation from the motor being open for a couple days as well as see if the noise and fluctuating pressure returned. the noise seems to be gone, the motor is substantially more quite than before. however i notice the oil pressure gauge fluctuating the same as before, only about 10 psi higher. heres an interesting note though, while i was staring at the gauges i saw the fuel level gauge bouncing slightly as well, so i dont know if there is a voltage issue or issue with the cluster itself
havent gotten a change to drive it yet as a result of it raining
i havent convinced myself yet that my paranoia with this car doesnt have me chasing a ghost so any thoughts on if i should keep hunting this down or let it ride until something real happens?
so heres a random dumb question regarding this statement
ive driven the car approx 30 miles for a total of about 45 minutes since i finished the install today and im still getting steam out of the breather tank from condensation from the covers being off (been cold and muggy the past couple days)
im assuming this means i need to change the oil again for the third time in two weeks. obviously itll get done if it needs to get done, but **** this is annoying
PS, are all the plugs clean and evenly burning too? loose plug wire?If the oil,and fuel are both bouncing its rpm related but whats causing it only you can pin point
Ide check the fuel pump voltage first and go from there as it should stay constant no matter what your engines doing,Right?
Last edited by barnat; Mar 30, 2011 at 08:39 PM.





