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| Ghiaed1994 |
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Hi All,
Today I drove my supercharged Fairmont 5.0L from my parents to my home (about 45mins), before anyone thinks it - not hard at all, after all its double demerits. About 5 minutes from home I started to see white smoke after acceleration......hmmmm I started to worry. I drove up my driveway and noticed the long trail of oil down the road and up the drive way. As I opened the bonnet, a puff of white smoke and puddles of oil.......everywhere. I did notice that the majority of oil was on the drivers side down low - dip stick? I let the car cool, locked it up and havnt moved from the lounge, holiday tv is.......awesome  Any thoughts for the inspection tomorrow morning? Thanks, Nathan
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| user272 |
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No advice but my thoughts are with you
_________________ Best thing about having a TV in your room... It makes it ok to have a beer in bed... |
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| WARMACHINE |
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Take photo's of the split goodness.
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| Nigel |
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Was it a split, or had the oil pressure sender just cracked for you?
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| Ghiaed1994 |
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Hi,
I decided to have a quick look at the car over the long weekend. When I started the car, I checked the oil level and it was at full and the engine sounded strong. I let it warm up and revved it for a few minutes and no additional oil was seen? There is no smoke actually coming out from the exhaust, and the exhaust (minus the usual stuff) was clean and had no signs of oil. Looking further in the engine bay, I notice the drivers side extractor and suspension tower was covered in oil but there was nothing on the block? Looking at the front of the engine there was a pool of oil on top of the timing cover but no signs of oil on the upper/lower manifold and heads? Depending on how work goes this weekend (have to work Sunday and may have to work Saturday) I will degrease the engine bay and give it a good clean, start the car and see if I can find the leak/cause of the oil. Nigel - I will have a look at the Oil Pressure Sender when I get home, is this a common thing with supercharged engines? If it has cracked, is the engine on the way out or is it just a simple as replacing the Oil Pressure Sender. Thanking you. Nathan
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| Nigel |
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Nathan. The oil Pressure sender is a known thing.
The Pressure sender works by putting pressure on a disc (I think its mylar) which then mechanically pushes a resistive sender. The Disc is supposed to keep the oil on the oil side of the sender, so that oil doesnt "Cross the barrier" if you like. But the disc's split. You can normally tell this because you'll start the car, get an oil pressure reading, then it will "fill with oil", and as the pressure equalises on both sides of the disc the pressure reading goes to 0. I freaked out when it happened. So you diagnose this, see plenty of oil pressure in your engine, and go driving. Then the oil starts to pour out of the pressure sender because the outer side of it wasnt designed to hold oil pressure. Mostly, the oil ends up either on front of the engine, or in my case, on the passenger exhaust manifold, then to the Cat, where it turns to (hopefully) smoke, or fire if you push it. Oh yeah - if the leak is bad enough then you'll run out of oil. The best indicator is if you fire the engine up, and oil is more or less dripping from the front/front passenger side of the engine. Might not happen till its warm. The I6's get the same problem. Changing the sender on the V8 isnt hard - but paying for one sucks. Nigel |
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| Ghiaed1994 |
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Nigel,
Thank you for that, I appreciate it. I will give the engine bay and engine a good clean, go for a drive and have a look at the pressure sender. If it is, fortunately I have a spare sender. Will let you know how it goes. Thanks Again. Nathan
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| TROYMAN |
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oil on drivers side of engine / engine bay could be oil leak from lower dip stick seal or you have some blow by pushing oil out of dip stick.?
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| Ghiaed1994 |
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TROYMAN,
I did think it was blow by through the dip stick, but there is no excessive oil under the dip stick cap or down the dipstick? The main areas of Oil are: Drivers Side Suspension Tower. Drivers Side Extractor. Top of Timing Cover (In the recesses). Drivers Side Cross Member. There is no oil on the Upper/Lower Manifold, Rocker Covers, Passenger Side Suspension Tower, Alternator, Power Steering Pump etc. Its also weird because there really isn't any splatter marks like as if it were hitting the belt and being flung around or if it were spitting out and hitting something. But out of curiosity, if it were blow by - besides rebuilding the engine what are my choices....?Keep you all posted. Thanks, Nathan
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| TROYMAN |
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without knowing your car its hard to say exactly, but are you still running a pcv? and does it have a catch can?
if it is blow by you can add extra breathers to rocker covers and run them to a catch can.. or the crank case is pressurising from boost and your still running a pcv it could be as simple as a busted pcv allowing boost to push oil out?? but to have oil on top of timing cover could be the front manifold seal leaking and oil is running off timing cover down drivers side of engine?? |
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| Ghiaed1994 |
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Hi All,
I ended up working all weekend so didn't get too much done. I did take some photos: Picture of the Engine: Attachment: IMAG1406.jpg [ 47.94 KiB | Viewed 511 times ] Oil on timing Cover: Attachment: IMAG1408.jpg [ 46.34 KiB | Viewed 455 times ] Oil on timing Cover: Attachment: IMAG1409.jpg [ 45.69 KiB | Viewed 449 times ] Oil on Suspension Tower (Drivers): Attachment: IMAG1410.jpg [ 53.74 KiB | Viewed 406 times ] Oil Leak on Floor (Still Dripping): Attachment: IMAG1413.jpg [ 54.06 KiB | Viewed 452 times ] Oil on Oil Pan: Attachment: IMAG1415.jpg [ 32.26 KiB | Viewed 451 times ] I still havnt de-greased or had a real good look, but from what I can see the oil appears to be leaking from the front of the engine bay (the oil pressure sender seems ok) I know it sounds weird but from the transmission piping......did I mention its an auto? I was driving the car pretty hard when the problem started - could be a transmission leak. I know engine oil and transmission oil are different - but to be honest I really havnt paid attention to what oil is leaking as I just assumed the worst...cracked engine. I'm running the Standard PCV Valve - connected as per the factory. Thanks again for all your help - lets see if I can get the weekend off!
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| Ghiaed1994 |
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All,
Have done some further investigation, we have found that the pools of Oil on the front of the Engine are from bolts which had been forgotten to be torqued (my bad), and the trail of Oil.....lets just say "what do you mean a rear main seal needs to be there.....?" - It was a mess! Bought a new seal from Peps $12.50 - Just need to set a side a week end to put it in. While ive got the transmission out, ill do a service and install a new Heavy Duty Cooler and the 3.45 LSD. Thanks for your help guys. Nathan
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| Ghiaed1994 |
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All,
Ive installed a catch can but want to be sure I've got it right. I'm going to use the PCV valve run it to the catch can (catch can will have a breather) then run it from the catch can to the drivers side rocker cover. The original tube from the rocker cover filler and throttle body will be removed and blocked off at throttle body. Does this sound like it will work? Any help is much appreciated. Thanks, Nathan
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| xcabbi |
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If you do it like that you will blow your rear main seal out as soon as you give the car a rev. I made the mistake of doing that on a VL turbo years ago and we had an oil spray everywhere because we blew out quite a few seals.
The right way to do it is to leave the pcv plumbed up as it is from the factory then run a line from the rocker cover to the catch can. Then from the catch can plumb it back into the factory location. Since you are supercharged you should plumb it into the intake between the air filter and supercharger as that is where you will get the greatest amount of vacuum. Then you can block off the vacuum line on the throttle body. Breathers that vent to atmosphere are technically illegal as they don't filter all of the oil out of the air. |
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| Ghiaed1994 |
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Xcabbi,
Ooops! I had it plumb from the pcv to catch can yesterday and went for a 4hr cruise.....I wonder what damage I've caused...? I've been checking a few car mags and majority of the plumbed as you mentioned, plumbed from both rocker covers to catch can then either back to the supercharger intake or just to the filter on the catch can (obviously simpler but as you said bot the best). I will have to re-plumb it. Do you have recommendatiobs for hose sizes? Thanks, Nathan
_________________ 1994 ED Fairmont Ghia |
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