Oil pressure slowly dropping!!! Leak?

[obsolete]

Hey, i searched all oil pressure/pump threads and only found one post closely resembling my problem which points to a bearing problem?

This is a s14 SR with a s13 SR block. 10W-30 mobil1 synthetic

When i cold start my car, i get like 60-80 psi, then as engine warms up it slowly goes down to then ultimately hovers around 8-12 psi when fully warmed up and driving. i shut it off when it hits like 8 cause i don't wanna mess anything up. When I rev it at idle, it goes up fine to like 40 or whatever, depending on how hard i rev it.. while driving it goes up normally according to rpms. just at Idle, i feel like it's gonna drop to Zero. what should i look into? I know my front cover leaks a little bit of oil as well as my oil feed line, but nothing major. Drives and boosts fine. no smoke, doesn't overheat. just installed a elec oil pressure gauge and before that it didn't have any monitoring. any ideas?

[TheWolf]

Hey, i searched all oil pressure/pump threads and only found one post closely resembling my problem which points to a bearing problem?

This is a s14 SR with a s13 SR block. 10W-30 mobil1 synthetic

When i cold start my car, i get like 60-80 psi, then as engine warms up it slowly goes down to then ultimately hovers around 8-12 psi when fully warmed up and driving. i shut it off when it hits like 8 cause i don't wanna mess anything up. When I rev it at idle, it goes up fine to like 40 or whatever, depending on how hard i rev it.. while driving it goes up normally according to rpms. just at Idle, i feel like it's gonna drop to Zero. what should i look into? I know my front cover leaks a little bit of oil as well as my oil feed line, but nothing major. Drives and boosts fine. no smoke, doesn't overheat. just installed a elec oil pressure gauge and before that it didn't have any monitoring. any ideas?

What is your idle RPM? if it's to low then a 200RPM bump could significantly change your pressure. It could also be a stuck bypass valve in the pump as well as a bearing clearance issue. Do you trust this oil pressure gauge? Or is it like donk india $15 ebay gauge. The only real way for sure it to put a trusted gauge on there and double check the readings.

[slider2828]

Agreed ^^^

[obsolete]

idle rpm is around 900-1000. is bypass valve same thing as press relief valve? if it's a stuck bypass valve, it would be stuck open, correct? would that allow me to build pressure when driving/revving? I don't know if i trust it. it works fine when driving and gassing it, but just at idle feels like it might die. it's a brand new prosport electric.

[djcobra]

What is your idle RPM? if it's to low then a 200RPM bump could significantly change your pressure. It could also be a stuck bypass valve in the pump as well as a bearing clearance issue. Do you trust this oil pressure gauge? Or is it like donk india $15 ebay gauge. The only real way for sure it to put a trusted gauge on there and double check the readings.


WTF "Or is it like donk india $15 ebay gauge." easy with the racial crap... Guess you have something against us East Indians eh?

Steve.

[Bigsyke]

East Indian named steve?

[djcobra]

So is Russell Peters, what is your point!?

Steve.

[boosted armo]

I'm new to this forum. I'm over on honda-tech usually, but I've been debating on switching to a rwd make so i came here. Anyways, my turbo accord has roughly a 10-12 oil psi at idle and most of the cars over there are typically in the same range. Oil pressure is always high on a cold start up b/c its temperature is lower and does not flow as well as when the oil temperature is at running temps. Usually, it's 60psi for typical Honda's on a cold start. I don't think you have an issue, especially if the readings are going up with the rpm's normally, and the fact that you don't have any odd sounds from lack of oil. I know honda and nissan are different and i'm still learning the world of nissan, but i don't think they'd be far off in this case.

[slow92]

i have an autometer ultra lite ii elec press. gauge. my idle is set at 875-925 and at normal op temps my press is 10psi but if I get on it then my oil press is 8psi at idle but will eventually rise back up to 10psi. so I don't think there is anything wrong with your gauge or with your car. hope it helps

[fliprayzin240sx]

10-30W on a hot ass SR engine?!?! Need to run thicker oil, 10-30 gets too thin when its warmed. I personally run 15/50W (Mobil 1 Syn)...Some folks think it may be too thick but I think its fine. Takes a bit longer to warm up (takes a bit longer for the oil temp to get up), but I'd rather have consistent oil pressure than for it thin out after hard driving and have my oil pressure drop to less than 1 bar (how i blew my last engine, was running 10/40W).

[obsolete]

feeling more at ease now. thanks everyone. what kind of noises would it make if something were wrong with oil press? I'll def try thicker oil. would I have to drain oil to replace oil feed line? i'm thinking it's all in the pan so i shouldn't have to.

[boosted armo]

Your choice of oil should also be dependent on the climate around you. I have heard that sr's are pretty oil dependant and I wouldn't doubt they get hotter than other 4 cylinders if they started using those ribs to help with heat dissipation on later red sr20's and all black top sr20's. Idk if I would do a 15-50 but i do know I would never trust any Mobil 1, especially if I was dealing with a hotter than usual motor. I know for a fact that on the API scale Mobil 1 will "break-up" and read as a lower weight in high temperature conditions. Break-up isn't the best word to use but it gets the point across in this case. Several motors have been lost due to Mobil 1 being the problem. I can't find links for it right now but I will give this link for oil tests.
http://www.animegame.com/cars/Oil%20Tests.pdf (http://www.animegame.com/cars/Oil%20Tests.pdf)
Finding a good oil test is hard to find, but this one is the best one I've come across. I would either use Royal Purple or Brad Penn. Check this independent video done as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYV8OD8Ohlg

I know I'll get flamed for saying Mobil 1 is bad since I'm new on this forum, but my opinion is based on fact.

[jeremy242]

I believe the term you are looking for is "thermal break down" If not my bad

[teamsprock]

Running thicker oil is far from the best idea, 15W50 is too think unless you have a built SR with wider clearances. I always laugh when people say they'd rather have it take longer to heat up and have thicker oil, what most people don't realize is hot thin oil coats things and gets in cracks much better. If your oil is too thick you'll kill bearings a lot quicker as well as wear out your cams. If your idle oil pressure stays at 8 psi your fine, even as long as its above 5 your still fine, what you really need to know is your oil temp compared to the psi, if its getting too hot you may have other issues. Most gauges can barely show the difference between 5 to 10 psi.

[obsolete]

boosted - checked out the tests of diff oils and seems like royal purple is a winner.

There are a lot of threads here bashing royal purple though, and swear by mobil1. i wonder why that is.

team - what does the correlation b/w oil temp and pressure look like?

[teamsprock]

I don't have an exact correlation although I could since I test oil ha ha. One day I'll do a viscosity curve on some major oils. But what I was getting at is most of the time people see low oil pressure its one of two things, a bad oil pickup seal/broken pickup or an engine with some blowby warming the engine up a little. I've had fresh engines that had the same pressures as you describe and they ran for 4 years, I only pulled that engine apart to add some more parts. It still looked nice and clean and would have probably ran for many more years.

[boosted armo]

I'll need to read some of the royal purple flaming threads sometime. I have no idea why people would be against it. Honda-tech members (one of my main forums) swear by brad penn. They've had nothing but good results and the man in the independent video decides to go with that rather than RP after his tests. Also, idk if anyone realizes it, but most engine wear occurs during a cold start. There is no oil to lubricate anything and unless you're in 100+ degree weather all day, every day, then i don't see a reason to go more than like a 10w-30...even on an sr. But I'm new here with plenty to learn.

[teamsprock]

You are correct though whether your new or not. Unless you have a built motor with larger clearances then you really should be sticking to 10W-30.

[slider2828]

10-30W on a hot ass SR engine?!?! Need to run thicker oil, 10-30 gets too thin when its warmed. I personally run 15/50W (Mobil 1 Syn)...Some folks think it may be too thick but I think its fine. Takes a bit longer to warm up (takes a bit longer for the oil temp to get up), but I'd rather have consistent oil pressure than for it thin out after hard driving and have my oil pressure drop to less than 1 bar (how i blew my last engine, was running 10/40W).

Well I ran a lot of oil in my SR....

Mobil1 = broke down or turned black at about 500 Miles driven. POS....

Royla Purple = broke down or turned black about 1200 Miles driven... Better but still junk...

Redline = 3500 mile break down. Awesome oil... I currently use this, no lifter noise and removed over 50% of CAM slap noise. Running 264 step1 HKS on BC Head stuff...... (I heard running this on street vehicles isn't a good thing), but based on personal tests, car boosts MUCH faster and runs a LOT smoother.... I run 10-40....

10-50 is way over kill unless the motor is developing some oil leaks, but 10-40 is way good enough.... but I run a greddy oil cooler.....

Oil pressure on startup is NOT 10 PSI on SR20DET. On totally cold start up, oil pressure is about 50-60 PSI, running temperature oil pressure is about 10-15 PSI.....