Re: my high oil pressure.
William Hartwell Woodruff <woodruff@engin.umich.edu> sez:
|>
|> A bad oil pressure relief valve is a fairly serious problem.
|> I think it is worth your effort to fix it. Generally they can be
|> removed from the engine w/o difficulty. A good cleaning is usually
|> all that is necessary. The thing that concerns me is why the
|> valve is not working in the first place. It might be indicating
|> something more serious (wrong oil, clogged system). I've seen engines
|> fail because the oil system got clogged with old oil goop.
|>
|> Woodruff@caen.engin.umich.edu
Last night I found the oil pressure relief valve. I didn't make a serious
attempt to remove it, though because I really couldn't get to it from above
without removing the carburator and the exhaust and I didn't have time
to jack up the car and try from down under. Two questions - can it be
removed from below and if it can do I need to drain the oil before removing
it (i.e. will removing it drain the oil for me :-) ?
I am beginning to think there is a problem. With the oil cooler out, the
pressure is still too high until the engine is hot (I think the oil cooler
kept the oil cool and thus the pressure high.) I still haven't ruled out
a faulty pressure sensor, since it may have gotten banged up a little during
the installation of the oil cooler (detaching the old hose from the back of
the block was a b*tch!).
Assuming the pressure relief valve is bad, will I be able to get it out?
Someone mentioned it might be stuck. Let's say I get it out, cleaned up
and it no longer sticks so I have a nice 70 psi oil pressure. Something
still bothers me. It seems to me that a bypass valve isn't supposed to
open all the time. What I mean is, it doesn't seem that I should always
have 100 psi brought down to 70 only by the bypass valve. It seems that
something is wrong making it run at 100 psi in the first place.
If there is crud in the oil passages that is causing the pressure to run
high is there anything I can do to get it cleaned out (short of ripping
the engine apart and having it hot-tanked)? Maybe a good snake oil?
BTW, I'm running Castrol 20W-50. I suppose I could switch to a lighter
oil but this seems like it would only treat the symptom.
Stories of oil filters getting blow though the hood kind of make me nervous.
I guess I'll just have to drive really fast to keep that oil temp up :-)
Thanks again,
Bob
p.s. In the meantime it is just too nice out, so I've been driving it
anyway watching for an oil well to sprout in front of me.
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