oil pressure light slow to go off at start up

[scrap487]

I might just be overly paranoid here about every little detail buuuut heres my story:

 

Freshly rebuilt ej25 with about 3500 miles on it, changed the oil+filter 3 times in the first 1200 miles and twice since then. How long is the oil pressure light typically supposed to stay on for at start up? if it sits for more than a couple hours the light is seeming to stay on longer than I remember it did the first few weeks after I put it in the car; about 1 second, accompanied with a bunch of noise that goes away soon as the light goes off. Changed the oil last weekend and it's still putting out a fair amount of metal shavings. Every once in a while I'll get a puff of blue smoke at start up(only happened once this last week), but I think that might be due to the rings not being completely set yet. Do I have anything to worry about or is there something I should look into? I'm planning on hooking it up to a oil pressure gauge on thursday to see what its actually putting out.

 

I searched around for a bit but had trouble finding anything helpful

 

thanks

Edited September 29, 2010 by scrap487

[forester2002s]

...it's still putting out a fair amount of metal shavings...

 

Can you elaborate?

[Legacy777]

If it was rebuilt properly, you should not see any blue smoke.

[scrap487]

shiny specks in the oil

[Fairtax4me]

Did you use a zinc additive in the oil? You're supposed to do that for rebuilds or new builds, especially when you install a new cam.

[scrap487]

I didn't know that was recommended for rebuilds, I was told go cheap oil for break in than switch to a synthetic. I've been using castrol gtx 10-30. Would it make any difference at this point?

 

I'm pretty sure after thinking about it the blue smoke every once in a while might be due to the PCV system, not the quality of the build.

 

Whats normal for these engines, should the light go off instantly or how long does it need to run to build up sufficient pressure, it usually in the mornings it takes the longest, and that's 1-1.5 seconds or less. The guy that built it said he shimmed something so it should put out more pressure but i have no idea how the oil pump operates on the EJ series engines.

[ShawnW]

The bearing clearance might be too far out so it takes a little longer to fill the voids. I don't like that you are hearing noise before the light goes out either. That needs to be torn down and inspected in my opinion. None of the ones I rebuild do that.

[forester2002s]

...in the mornings it takes the longest, and that's 1-1.5 seconds or less...

 

That sounds normal to me, especially after sitting overnight.

[Fairtax4me]

My oil pressure light flickers for maybe a half second at startup then goes out. My engine is 179k miles young.

[Gloyale]

Sounds like the check valve isn't working, and the Pickup tube is going dry on startups.

 

Perhaps the Rebuilder didn't use the right o-ring on the pickup tube? Could just be a Shiety oil filter though too.

 

Or possibly as was suggested the bearing clearnace may be excessive.....this would also explain noises, and shavings.

 

I say you should pull the pan, and inspect the pickup tube. Also look for any signs of bearing failure.

 

Change the oil and use a good Wix, NApa gold, or Subaru filter.