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        General >> Problems >> Oil pressure problem
        
(Message started by: sector-9 on Mar 31^st, 2008, 11:10pm)

Title: Oil pressure problem
Post by sector-9 on Mar 31^st, 2008, 11:10pm

First off I should mention this is not on a Scorpio, or even a Ford engine, but on my Daewoo which uses a slightly lower compression version of the DOHC 2.0 vauxhall engine.

The problem is that the car runs fine, no noises, etc. but if ran at high revs (e.g. 4K) for a mile or so the oil light will come on and stay on and the hydraulic tappets start clacking, even if it is then left to idle. Switch the engine off for a few seconds, restart and the oil light goes out (though the tappets stay noisy unless the engine has been stopped for several minutes), but comes on much sooner if you then do high revs. Also there seems to be an intermittent oil leak from the cam cover gasket.

Now I suspect that running at high speeds is pumping the oil up to the top faster than it can drain down to the sump, pressurising the cam cover and causing the leak, as well as dropping the oil pressure and allowing air bubbles into it. Would anybody care to support this theory?

The two breather hoses leading to the induction system are clear, but the large diameter hose leading down towards the bottom of the block seems to have a lot of sludge in it and I think this may be the cause of the slow draining. What can I use to clear this pipe (it's about an inch diameter and probably 18" long with a bend halfway down)?

The reason I'm asking here is because there's some knowledgable folk and finding diagrams on Vauxhall engines, let alone the X20SED used in the Daewoo, is nigh on impossible using Google...

Darren

Title: Re: Oil pressure problem
Post by Octavian_P on Apr 1^st, 2008, 1:30pm

Hi there

Daewoo was the second national car in Romania, but I'm afraid that my knowledge is next to zero on this cars.
Instead i recommend you to visit:

http://www.gmclub.ro/forum/index.php?showforum=18

It's the biggest Daewoo forum in Romania and it has an English corner.

Title: Re: Oil pressure problem
Post by a900one on Apr 1^st, 2008, 9:25pm

It may be the oil filter gets blocked so when you stop the engine it partly clears.
Try changing the oil and filter and see what happens. I will ask my son about the problem as he is a big vauxhall fan, some daewoo are vauxhall based.

Title: Re: Oil pressure problem
Post by Snoopy on Apr 2^nd, 2008, 7:36am

Does Sound very much as though the drain away oil ways are blocked.

Have you tried giving the engine good run with some flushing oil and then putting in some high qaulity low viscosity oil say 5/30w.

And change the filter.

Title: Re: Oil pressure problem
Post by sector-9 on Apr 2^nd, 2008, 6:33pm

Thanks for the replies - I added about a litre of diesel to the oil at the weeend, ran the engine until hot then drained and refilled with 10W40 and a new filter, however the problem persists.

Last night I removed the crank breather tube and cleaned the inside with a bottle brush so there's no sludge in any of the breather pipes now. I took the car down the main road and pulled into a lay-by then revved the engine to about 6000rpm (not as far as the redline) for a few seconds. There was a thud, the oil light came on, the engine lost power and the whole road was covered in smoke! :o Obviously I switched it off and left it for a minute or two. When I started it again the oil light went out and although it was still smoking, this subsided after about 20 seconds and I was able to drive it a few hundred yards before the light came back on.

I managed to drive it home but on anything even slightly uphill the light would come on after a few seconds so I think it's probably lost a lot of oil either leaking from the cam cover gasket or being forced through the breathers into the induction system (I'm hoping that's why it started smoking and lost power then drove okay afterwards).

I'm now about to go and empty the oil and see just how much comes out - the dipstick is a convoluted thing and with brand new oil being almost clear it's difficult to tell how much is in it. If very little comes out (as I expect), then it's obviously losing it somehow (though there are no marks on the floor underneath the engine). OTOH, if the sump is more or less full, then I'm not sure what it might be...
???

Darren

Title: Re: Oil pressure problem
Post by Tons_of_fun on Apr 2^nd, 2008, 10:13pm

I might be miles off here but the Red top 16v vauxhall engine had a problem with the oil pumps on some earlier models.The strainer & half of the pick up tube had a weak joint & would fall off & into the sump so the engine couldnt quite get enough oil ,which resulted in noisy tappets & overheating.This happened on my old 2.0 calibra (never again) & resulted in a siezed engine :o.HTH.....Craig :)

Title: Re: Oil pressure problem
Post by sector-9 on Apr 3^rd, 2008, 11:03pm

Well I emptied the sump last night and there was way too much oil in it - it read about 3in over the max mark on the dipstick! I'll be lucky if I haven't blown a crank seal or something... :-X

I did notice some 'foam' on top of the drained oil, and the coolant feels oily so I suspect the head gasket may have gone, though hopefully not seriously as it wasn't overheating or anything. I've since started dismantling the top end and found what the cause of the smokescreen was - as I was suspecting, the breather hoses leading to the induction system had oil in them! The bottom of the throttle body, plus the inlet manifold both have an oil coating so it looks like oil got dumped into the engine under pressure.

Speaking of which, this is apparently a common problem with the XE engine (which mine isn't but similar enough) and involves butchery of the breather system inside the cam cover. Maybe I don't need to decapitate the engine to fix it but I think I shall anyway as I want to rod out the oil drain holes in the block to make sure the oil isn't getting stuck up top. Glad I am though, as I've found a few loose & missing bolts already - guess I'm not the first to have problems with the engine. :-/

Finally, I'm going to drop the sump and check the oil strainer and pickup pipe as suggested, and possibly the oil pressure relief valve too, though I think the pump is doing it's job okay.

Darren

Title: Re: Oil pressure problem
Post by peteHull on Apr 4^th, 2008, 9:36am

Sounds to me as if the previous owner has had problems and through missdiagnosis has put the problem on oil and tried to solve it by putting more oil in... ???

Hope it doesn't turn out too expensive....

Pete

Title: Re: Oil pressure problem
Post by sector-9 on Apr 7^th, 2008, 12:42am

Well I've removed the head (bloody stupid design having to remove the camshafts to access the head bolts!) and I'm dismayed that the head gasket appears to be fine, plus the oil drain holes seem to be clear too. I'm waiting for a gasket set to materialise from ebay so I can start putting the top end back together, but in the meantime I'm going to turn my attention to the bottom end, namely the sump and oil pickup tube. Now whereas I've previously done headgaskets - and one of them even worked - I've never done anything on the bottom end before. 8)

I'd like to remove the oil pump from the block and check that; I doubt it's the problem as there is good oil pressure up top, but to remove it I'd need to remove the crank sprocket and bolt. On a manual car I'd stick it in top gear and have somebody stand on the brakes, but this is an auto and I don't really want to remove the starter motor - there's already a growing mountain of bits which I'm struggling to remember where they go! There is the option of spinning the engine over on the starter motor but I'd rather not connect the battery up again with the engine in this state, not to mention the amount of fault codes it'd cause...

Darren

P.S.

I think the engine has previously had a cambelt fail, hence the prior head removal. This would explain the gouged timing belt cover which has been worn through by the belt and idler pulleys ::)(not the current ones as they're in good condition)...

Title: Re: Oil pressure problem
Post by sector-9 on Apr 10^th, 2008, 10:27pm

Just an update for those who may be interested...

Well the gaskets arrived, but because they're for a Vauxhall engine, one of them is wrong - not bad going though that the rest of them are all correct. I've also blasted through the oil galleries in the head with compressed air so there's no blockages top side. I've also worked out how the oil path from the block to the head and back to the sump and it appears that there are more than just the three small drain holes I thought there were, though I don't seem able to rod them out.

I've also removed the sump tonight and there is a splash guard beneath the crank bearings which I need to remove. Once this is off I should be able to see where the main oil drains come out and try rodding them again. I'll also be able to remove the oil pickup strainer and oil pump to check them over, and with any luck should be able to start rebuilding the engine next week. Fingers crossed it doesn't leak and the problem is cured because if it ain't, I don't have a clue what the problem is or how to fix it!

Darren

Title: Re: Oil pressure problem
Post by Dave on Apr 18^th, 2008, 1:40pm

Which Daewoo is this out of interest? I know it isn't the Matiz, but did notice a silver one parked next to your Scorp in a pic many moons ago.

Title: Re: Oil pressure problem
Post by sector-9 on Apr 18^th, 2008, 11:45pm

It's a Leganiza - the silver one in the photo is my parent's Matiz which they've had for a few years. I only bought my Daewoo last month but I've not really been able to use it since...

Darren

Title: Re: Oil pressure problem - fixed!
Post by sector-9 on Apr 20^th, 2008, 7:25pm

Well the car's finally up and running. Got it started yesterday and took it for a 20 mile run to make sure nothing fell off or leaked. This morning I thought I'd better check the sump plug before I set off for Bradford as I couldn't remember if I'd tightened it properly when I refitted the sump - glad I did as it was so loose I could spin it with my fingers and it wasn't many threads from falling out altogether! :o

Anyway, I got to Bradford and back without any problems other than drinking fuel on the way up (way back seemed fine but then I was sticking to 70...) and refitted the last remaining splash shield. Still not sure what the root cause of the original fault was - perhaps a combination of lots of little things? Still, at least it's now got new gaskets from the head upwards, plus a timing belt which was on my to-do list anyway, and it can now hold high revs with no warning lights coming on. Wonder how long it'll last...

Darren

Title: Re: Oil pressure problem - fixed!
Post by peteHull on Apr 21^st, 2008, 6:37am

on 04/20/08 at 19:25:05, sector-9 wrote:

Wonder how long it'll last...

Darren

Long enough to get it through the auctions? ;D ;D

Pete

Title: Re: Oil pressure problem
Post by sector-9 on Apr 21^st, 2008, 11:08pm

Hopefully it won't come to that - I'm fitting a towbar to it so I can borrow my parents caravan again. Thinking about it, apart from atrocious mpg and loud engine, the diesel Scorp wasn't a bad towcar, and boy am I going to miss that cruise control!

Darren