- Posts
- 11,023
- Location
- North of the Wall
Those of you have been on LZ for a while might remember me rebuilding my engine quite a few years ago now. From day 1 it was pushinh oil through the turbo seals, through the inter-cooler and on in to the engine. It was burning about 1ml of oil to the mile. ie every 200 miles I was having to top up with a tad over 200ml oil. One mistake I made was replacing the oil return pipe with a new one. The new aftermarket ones don't fit properly, kink when you tighten them up, so restrict the outflow of oil. I eventually found a 20 year old original pipe, stick in the LR packet and replaced the aftermarket one. This certainly helped and probably halved the oil consumption.
I bought all the engine parts for the rebuild through Turners. When I opened the cam shaft bearings I noticed the hole in No1 shell was smaller than the original. I called Turners to say they had sent the wrong set and Richard told me they use those shells for their rebuilds as the smaller hole gives higher oil pressure and makes the bearing last longer. Not sure if he meant just the cam shaft or all crank too.
Once the rebuild was done and the oil consumption became apparent I did wonder about this, but thought Turners would know what they were doing and must have used those shells in plenty of engines before I rebuilt mine. I was also thinking that surely the oil pressure relief valve in the sump would be doing it's job. Having tried things like porting the edge of the return pipe and changing the turbo cartridge and buying a brand new genuine turbo I gave up and decided to live with it.
I'm not sure why it's nagging at me again after all this time, perhaps it's seeing the very black and sooty exhaust outlet, or having to lift the bonnet and check the oil levels all the time. Not sure, but it's been on my mind again. I installed an oil pressure gauge during the rebuild and my cold oil pressure is between 3.5 and 4 bar. 3.5bar being 50.7psi. At the time of investigating it someone suggested fitting an oil pressure regulator before the turbo. There were a few comments about them being unreliable and at the time I was thinking the relief valve should sort high pressure and if Turners use those shells they should be ok for me.
I'm wondering about how the oil pressure might vary around the engine and how it might be too high on the line that goes to the turbo, but ok at the relief valve. I've no idea about this.
Now that it's back on my mind, I'm wondering if giving the regulator a go is worth doing. Does anyone know of how the oil pressure might vary around the engine? I've not Googled it yet.
I bought all the engine parts for the rebuild through Turners. When I opened the cam shaft bearings I noticed the hole in No1 shell was smaller than the original. I called Turners to say they had sent the wrong set and Richard told me they use those shells for their rebuilds as the smaller hole gives higher oil pressure and makes the bearing last longer. Not sure if he meant just the cam shaft or all crank too.
Once the rebuild was done and the oil consumption became apparent I did wonder about this, but thought Turners would know what they were doing and must have used those shells in plenty of engines before I rebuilt mine. I was also thinking that surely the oil pressure relief valve in the sump would be doing it's job. Having tried things like porting the edge of the return pipe and changing the turbo cartridge and buying a brand new genuine turbo I gave up and decided to live with it.
I'm not sure why it's nagging at me again after all this time, perhaps it's seeing the very black and sooty exhaust outlet, or having to lift the bonnet and check the oil levels all the time. Not sure, but it's been on my mind again. I installed an oil pressure gauge during the rebuild and my cold oil pressure is between 3.5 and 4 bar. 3.5bar being 50.7psi. At the time of investigating it someone suggested fitting an oil pressure regulator before the turbo. There were a few comments about them being unreliable and at the time I was thinking the relief valve should sort high pressure and if Turners use those shells they should be ok for me.
I'm wondering about how the oil pressure might vary around the engine and how it might be too high on the line that goes to the turbo, but ok at the relief valve. I've no idea about this.
Now that it's back on my mind, I'm wondering if giving the regulator a go is worth doing. Does anyone know of how the oil pressure might vary around the engine? I've not Googled it yet.
