Oil Pressure

Post by **TerryG** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 7:49 pm

I dont know if this is a good or a bad thing. When driving my new mog home yesterday night it developed a missfire after about 15 miles. After a quick investigation I saw it was dripping oil out of the bottom of the filter box. first thought was "OH $%^" It appears to have been getting into the filter through the breather in the top of the rocker cover. OK, easy fix disconnect the breather from the filter box, 5 miles later no missfire and engine was running sweet (seemed to red-line at 70 in top though!) 20 miles later stop to fill the tank, get some 20w50 from the garage and fill the oil up to the "MAX" line (The oil takes quite a long time to drain from the rockers). 50 miles further and there is a loud "BANG" noise as my sun-visor takes off and disapears. while i'm stopped to look at the damage the car appeared to start overheating (flat out over hills for 50 miles so not unreasnoble) so i started driving again at 30 mph and the temp came straight back down in about 1/4 a mile. Build up speed again. 10 more miles and i noticed the oil pressure guague that was sitting at 80 is now only at 50, my mini has one of these fitted and it normally sits at 50 idle and 65 running so i thought no big deal, it must be losing oil through the breather and its a bit low, another mile and the pressure starts dropping like a lead weight. i pulled over straight away. opened the bonnet. Oh dear. the oil cap has blown off and the entire engine bay is black. RAC to the rescue they towed the car the last 180 miles home. Thismorning i decided that i was realy [EDITED] off with the car so i left it until thisafternoon to have a look at it. i replaced the rocker cover with one from an MG Metro without the breather hose. filled up the oil (which was off the bottom of the dipstick and still took aged to drain down from the rocker) started it, first time on the key, phew. When the car is idling the oil pressure is 65 and at revs its 80, does this indicate a problem? The car is fitted with a 1275 Ital engine and has all the ancilary odds and sodds attatched. (the engine bay pre oil-spill can still be seen here http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... RK:MEWA:IT )

Sorry for the long post,l have wanted to have a rant about that car all day.
Terry.

Post by **Kevin** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 8:28 pm

Well a full 1275 conversion is capeable of 90 mph so cruising at 70 should be no problem, but 80lb oil pressure sounds a bit high I wonder if the oil pressure relief valve is jammed not sure if it will give your symptoms, its usually its a flickering oil light as it sticks open.
As for changing the rocker type for a sealed one you need to be careful as some engines will over pressurise the crankcase if the wrong sort of breather method is used, also I wonder if something is partially blocked as oil should not take forever to drain from the rocker as the weather is not that cold.
It has still got the breather unit fitted to the timing cover I suppose ?

Post by **aupickup** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 8:40 pm

for what it is worth, there sould be no breather from the rocker cover.

should come from the timing cover on the 1275

Post by **TerryG** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 8:41 pm

errrrr.................. i have no idea what one looks like. Trying to describe it as i have limited mechanical knowledge a short pipe that comes out of the front of the engine with a larger cylinder on it? if thats the case then there are two one on the front of the engine and one on the side both connected to a hose that runs down through a hole in the chassis to dump whatever normally is in it onto the ground. The car didnt want to go above 65, it would do 70 at a push but didnt like it.

Post by **aupickup** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 8:49 pm

well there should not be one coming from the side of the engine if it is a 1275.

where is the oil filter on your engine?

Post by **TerryG** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 8:52 pm

looking at the front of the engine its on the left pointing upwards at a 45deg angle

Post by **aupickup** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 8:57 pm

well it is a 1275 then
i know in extreme case of oil leak due to pressure, then an extra breather can be put on

Post by **TerryG** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 9:09 pm

the breather on the top of the rocker was dribbling oil until i removed it. the car runs fine its just that the pressure is a bit high. I think the low top end is because of a lousy final drive ratio. I've never had a traveller before but so i dont know how one should perform with a 1098 but this one seems a bit gutless. I'll see if i can persuade kevin to take it for a spin on wednesday and let me know if its "normal"

Post by **aupickup** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 9:16 pm

ihave a van with an ital 1275 engine and saloon diff and it is quite spritely.

80mph no problem, will do more but it is a van and suffers from the wind

good acceleration

Post by **TerryG** » Sun Mar 06, 2005 9:29 pm

I havent driven a minor for 3 years so i might be remmembering my 2door 1968 saloon wrongly but i'm sure this traveller is slower, i have a speeding ticket in my saloon for 88mph!!

Post by **bmcecosse** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 1:35 pm

It really sound like your engine is well past it's best - the oil dribbles from the air filter are simply fume condensing from the block - caused vby excessive blow-by from the rings. YOU left the oil filler off, and so lost all your oil (did you not smell it !) - and you were lucky not to have a fire. If the pressure dropped very low due to low oil level then you will now also have damaged the bearings. You must make sure you have good crankcase ventilation of the engine will start to leak like a sieve.
BTW - your air filter will now be saturated with oil/fume - and will be seriously restricting the air flow into the engine - take it off - how's the performance now ?

Post by **TerryG** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 2:05 pm

The car was throwing oil out of the breather so it must be more than condensation. The filler cap was replaced as both myself and my father were leaning over the engine and he remmembers me putting it back. The A series is a tough old block, it'll take more than oil pressure dropping to 25/30 before i cut the engine to kill it. I'm taking the car for a run to meet the guys (and girls) from the herts branch tomorrow so i'll see how it behaves then

Post by **Kevin** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 2:18 pm

I'm taking the car for a run to meet the guys (and girls) from the herts branch tomorrow so i'll see how it behaves then

Can we please ask that you dont do a Chris SLICK Morley in the car park

See you there Terry

Post by **TerryG** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 2:33 pm

Chris SLICK Morley

?????

Post by **Matt** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 2:35 pm

you dont do a Chris SLICK Morley in the car park

Bring a drive in drip tray!

Post by **Kevin** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 3:14 pm

I will explain about last years website rally at Gaydon tomorrow Terry

Post by **TerryG** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 3:31 pm

could prove interesting

Post by **Matt** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 3:41 pm

Well when you see Chris' Profile pic you will see a lot of water under the car... imagine thats oil and then you are close ;)

Post by **TerryG** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 4:03 pm

when the RAC lifted my car off the hard sholder it looked like the exxon valdez had just hit an iceburg! espicially obvious as it was a concrete section of road!

Post by **Chris Morley** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 7:28 pm

Well when you see Chris' Profile pic you will see a lot of water under the car... imagine thats oil and then you are close

Not even a half a pint was spilled - you do exaggerate Matt!

Sorry to hear of your eco-disaster Terry.....