Thread: No Oil Pressure after cam install. Help/Advice??

Hey all. I am sending this to a few of you guys to see what responses I might garner
Note: The entire trip home is circa 40 miles.

Back story:
Tuesday night we installed a set of S4 cams and put in some 85W140 Valvoline gearbox fluid. On the way home, I decided to stop 2 times in order to check to make sure there were no oil leaks. I found one when I initially stopped for gas by the valve cover gasket (right by the distributor) and decided to just top off the oil.

1st stop (20 mile marker):
On the first stop, the gasket was leaking as expected. I also got into boost once to see how much the extra pressure would push the oil through the leak (torn gasket come to discover) and as expected, it pushed a little more oil by the fault than under regular diving conditions. Not much to be concerned about and I made sure to keep an eye on my oil pressure gauge (read circa 55 - 60 psi at 4k rpm).

2nd stop (35 mile marker):
On this stop is where things got "interesting". I saw a wiff of smoke and when I popped the oil for my second round of checks, the oil cap had flown off and spewed oil all over the engine bay!! I shut her off immediately, checked my oil level, went ahead and poured whatever remaining oil I had left and reinstalled missing oil cap. I restarted her and oil pressure looked good, so I drove the remaining 3-5 miles home. (I am pretty sure the cap was not fully secured initially and the 2nd boost attempt sent her rocketing off the valve cover)

The following day, I took her out again to check things over and drove around for a few more miles. However, I began to realize that the oil pressure was gradually dropping from where it was prior to the night before. At this point, the warm pressure at 4k was circa 45psi.

The following morning, I started her again and now, the oil pressure registered even lower cold (40 psi on startup cold) and 30 psi at 3500 fully warmed up (and dropping).

Now, at this point, I purchased a valve cover gasket set and went ahead and removed the valve cover to replace them. Upon removal, I found several pieces of shop towel (maybe 2in^2 area) around the valve springs (shop towels were used to fill in the spark plug holes to prevent any debris from falling in) and a tear in the valve cover gasket. I went ahead and removed the small pieces, installed new gaskets and orings for the valve cover bolts and went ahead and started her. I figured when the paper towels were removed from the spark plug holes, maybe a piece or two fell off upon removal.

At this point, the oil pressure is ZERO cold and does NOT increase with revs!! The bottom end has a very faint knock and now I am a bit miffed as to what is the cause of zero oil pressure!! Also, the oil light flickered a bit on this startup and I went ahead and poured a bit more oil in and the light flickering went away but still had zero oil pressure.

Any idea on what would be you folks' course of action, recommendation or what you think may be the problem?? I am bit miffed at this point as oil level is at the upper (high) mark at this point. Is there a way to check if the oil pump is gone or if either one of the oil galleys is blocked with some debris??

Thanks much!!

P.S I would like to thank Ben for his suggestions in this problem. I posted this to get a few more opinions

Thanks

You fucked up.







Take the paper towels out ? Clogged oil pump?

Paper towels were taken out before startup and checked (as mentioned??)
As I said, it looked like a very minor piece broke off from the paper towel (which by the way, these are the blue shop grade towels).

What, does no one use shop grade paper towels to fill spark plug holes anymore??

Drop the chain?

And I never put anything non-engine in my engine.

Take off oil pan-s? Look for debirs? ....i dont know if I woulda driven it like that,but I know those blue scotts shop towels are stong,,, not lile you pull out the shop towel and it just tears off........


I ALMOST forgot to pull out paper towels in,the head-intake openings, when porting port matched my intake manifold....i was like oh shit im forgetting something

What do you mean? Do you mean take off the front cover and go to town??

Drop the oil pan and check the pickup tube. More than likely you have a problem there or with the oil pump. Oil pump can also be replaced with the engine in the car if need be.

While your in there, check the pickup tube for blockage including the oil pan if the oil pan is dented at all and by that i mean the center of the pan especially near where the pickup tube sits is needs to sit lower or at worst even. If its indented at all it needs to be banged out. Check the pickup tube for cracks as well. Ive seen them crack over time on very rare cases. Pull the pickup tube off the pump and check the gasket there as well. If everything with the pans and pickup tube and gasket look fine i would probably just replace the oil pump.

How much gear oil did u put in

Also what type of gauge are you using? Definitely seems like you have a problem though. Being both your gauge and the dummy light were flickering.

I would recheck the way you have all your breather pcv hoses routed to make sure you not pressurizing the crankcase as well. That could probably been what damaged your oil pump.

Its seeming like its definitely an oil pump related problem as it got worse and worse then just stopped working. Also i would recommend if you get as far as replacing the oil pump that you change your oil filter as well and put a good filter on, either oem or mobil1 filter.

I can only give you ideas of what to look for other than that. Your on your own.

how old is the oil filter? what brand?

i seen a crap ass pureolator crush on a car @ around 5K miles.