Zero Oil pressure!!!!
07-01-2011, 12:28 AM
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Zero Oil pressure!!!! Guys - I have been trying to isolate a problem with my Camaro for a bit now and am at a loss.
Symptoms:
Zero oil pressure and check gage light
it was not a gradual decline in oil pressure it happened instantaneously shortly after a cold start. It did not run for a more than a minute before I shut it off and had it towed home.
At first we thought it was the oil pump or a possible spun bearing so we started tearing into it. we removed the oil pump and took it apart but it looks fine, gears were intact and pressure valve spring was fine.
We have not removed the oil pan as of yet as it requires more teardown as I need to rip out the tranny. My problem is this....I have a hard time believing that the oil pump went as to the naked eye it looks fine. Also when the engine ran it ran fine there was no noise or sound as you would expect from a spun/missing bearing main or cylinder.
Also before we start on extended teardown we tried one more trick to see if there if there was physical oil pressure since we don’t have a external oil pressure gauge. Which included putting just the timing cover back in and the oil pan back on and filling the pan with oil but removing the pan and letting it run for a couple minutes to if we make a big mess. As the oil filter is not on you would quickly see if you had pressure or not.
We did that and again the engine ran fine, I could tell it was a little off but we saw no oil coming out of the oil filter hole. so there is deff. no oil pressure and given that the engine does run fine I can also hypothesize that the bearing are fine.
so as of right now I can only come to 2 conclusions. 1 - the oil pump is bad 2 - the oil pickup tube is either broken off or plugged which the later would also be unlikely as you would get a gradual loss of pressure from a plugged screen on the pickup tube.
Has anybody run across this or have any suggestions on what else it could possibly be? At this point I am baffled.
Steve
Symptoms:
Zero oil pressure and check gage light
it was not a gradual decline in oil pressure it happened instantaneously shortly after a cold start. It did not run for a more than a minute before I shut it off and had it towed home.
At first we thought it was the oil pump or a possible spun bearing so we started tearing into it. we removed the oil pump and took it apart but it looks fine, gears were intact and pressure valve spring was fine.
We have not removed the oil pan as of yet as it requires more teardown as I need to rip out the tranny. My problem is this....I have a hard time believing that the oil pump went as to the naked eye it looks fine. Also when the engine ran it ran fine there was no noise or sound as you would expect from a spun/missing bearing main or cylinder.
Also before we start on extended teardown we tried one more trick to see if there if there was physical oil pressure since we don’t have a external oil pressure gauge. Which included putting just the timing cover back in and the oil pan back on and filling the pan with oil but removing the pan and letting it run for a couple minutes to if we make a big mess. As the oil filter is not on you would quickly see if you had pressure or not.
We did that and again the engine ran fine, I could tell it was a little off but we saw no oil coming out of the oil filter hole. so there is deff. no oil pressure and given that the engine does run fine I can also hypothesize that the bearing are fine.
so as of right now I can only come to 2 conclusions. 1 - the oil pump is bad 2 - the oil pickup tube is either broken off or plugged which the later would also be unlikely as you would get a gradual loss of pressure from a plugged screen on the pickup tube.
Has anybody run across this or have any suggestions on what else it could possibly be? At this point I am baffled.
Steve
07-01-2011, 12:45 AM
#2
I would think its more of something in your pick up tube by the sounds of it. Find it kind of hard to believe that its clogged but you never know. Its a pain in the butt, but your going to have to open here up to take a look. I dont think the oil-pump gasket going bad would do all that either. Sorry to hear about your trouble fella.
07-02-2011, 08:29 AM
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I guess I will have to bite the bullet and continue the tear down.....
also I have read that even though the oil pump might look fine that there is no way to actually know if its good or bad.....just not sure how true that is as its mechanical and it looks fine from what I can see.
also I have read that even though the oil pump might look fine that there is no way to actually know if its good or bad.....just not sure how true that is as its mechanical and it looks fine from what I can see.
07-02-2011, 08:45 AM
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Yet another reason to have hooked up a mechanical guage to confirm actual oil pressure before tearing into anything. May be too late for you, but should be step #1 for all others with a similiar indication, always double check with a mechanical gauge or at least replace the sending unit. I had the same problem with my '07 LTZ Suburban. No oil pressure turned out to be because of a $30 sending unit. Good Luck!
07-02-2011, 10:26 AM
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I know there is not oil pressure as we removed the oil filter and started the engine. If there was oil pressure there would have been a huge mess under the car. If it made a mess I would have looked at the sending unit. but given that I just replaced that last year I find it unlikely that a sending unit would cause zero physical oil pressure.
