RallyKeith Posted October 4, 2007 Share Posted October 4, 2007 95 EJ22 that I think could be running a little low on oil pressure. I get noisey lifters for the first few minutes when I start the car after it's been sitting over night or the 9 hours I'm at work. The motor has 208K on it, so I was thinking that maybe the bearings are worn enough that the oil pressure is down and with the age of the lifters some are deflating and it's taking a while to re-inflate them after startup. So I was thinking that installing a cheap oil pressure gauge defenitely wouldn't hurt, but I'm not sure where to connect it to the engine. Should I just pull out the dummy light sensor and tap in there, or is there another place? Also, before anyone asks, the oil pressure dummy light goes out within 2 seconds of starting the car. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frag Posted October 4, 2007 Share Posted October 4, 2007 95 EJ22 that I think could be running a little low on oil pressure. I get noisey lifters for the first few minutes when I start the car after it's been sitting over night or the 9 hours I'm at work. The motor has 208K on it, so I was thinking that maybe the bearings are worn enough that the oil pressure is down and with the age of the lifters some are deflating and it's taking a while to re-inflate them after startup. So I was thinking that installing a cheap oil pressure gauge defenitely wouldn't hurt, but I'm not sure where to connect it to the engine. Should I just pull out the dummy light sensor and tap in there, or is there another place? Also, before anyone asks, the oil pressure dummy light goes out within 2 seconds of starting the car. Keith The oil pressure light takes too much time to go out, it's almost instantaneous on my car. I installed a T fitting where the idiot light sender connects and installed the gauge at one end of the T and the sender at the other end. I dont remember what the size of the threads were though. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skip Posted October 4, 2007 Share Posted October 4, 2007 Hi Keith, First shot would be a change to Castrol 20w50 If you need some info on the oil pressure mount/thread size, location ect. try this post Oil Pressure sender Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcupine73 Posted October 4, 2007 Share Posted October 4, 2007 You can tee in at the oil pressure switch under the alternator. It can be a little tight under there to work. You probably also need adapters. The thread on the block for the pressure switch is 1/8" bspt (british standard pipe taper thread). 1/8" npt will start to thread in there but it is not the right fitting and could leak. You can get adapters from mcmaster.com or other places. That said, I know I saw on endwrench.com something about that kind of ticking and it said it could be a partially blocked oil passage which lets the HLA's then bleed down and takes a while for them to rebuild pressure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RallyKeith Posted October 4, 2007 Author Share Posted October 4, 2007 That said, I know I saw on endwrench.com something about that kind of ticking and it said it could be a partially blocked oil passage which lets the HLA's then bleed down and takes a while for them to rebuild pressure. I had that issue over a year ago and 25k miles. I cleaned everything out well then and the problem went away. I should probably pull it apart and check everything again to be safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RallyKeith Posted October 4, 2007 Author Share Posted October 4, 2007 The oil pressure light takes too much time to go out, it's almost instantaneous on my car. Notice how I said within. I haven't actually timed it (and I doubt anyone has ever truey timed it) but I've driven MANY a subaru and this one seems no different in regaurds to the oil light timing. I should have said within 2 seconds of begining to crank since my car also fires in under a second and within a second of it running the light is off. It all depends on how fast the car "starts" and when you start timing. Long story short it seems normal in regaurds to the dummy light and that was what I had originally meant. Sorry about that. Hi Keith,First shot would be a change to Castrol 20w50 Based on the above posted possiblity of partially blocked passage ways, heavier oil would only make it worse. One thing I've learned is that Heavier oil on a modern engine is not always a good thing. In some cases with the tight tolerances that are held on modern engines you can begin to starve the bearings at low RPM and with modern high compression you are often running awefully close to detonation. This combination can be bad, and that is exactly why I don't typically run heavier oil than recommended. In this case I want to install the pressure gauge to fnid out if in fact I am running a little low on pressure, and then I would consider switching to the 20W50 once winter is over. For now it's a gauge and some cleaning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skip Posted October 4, 2007 Share Posted October 4, 2007 I agree to dis-agree "Based on the above posted possiblity of partially blocked passage ways, heavier oil would only make it worse." The low viscosity oil will flow past your worn main bearing easier lowering the pressure. The somewhat thicker oil will build more pressure to push the oil through the passages. Check for a back flow valve in your oil filter "In some cases with the tight tolerances that are held on modern engines you can begin to starve the bearings at low RPM and with modern high compression you are often running awefully close to detonation." I doubt your 205 kmi engine has these tolerences or the high comp. (High comp + high vis oil => detonation?? why because the rings seal better??) Good luck -> many miles of smiles unsubscribe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RallyKeith Posted October 4, 2007 Author Share Posted October 4, 2007 Check for a back flow valve in your oil filter I honestly haven't been looking at the filters lately. I always buy the Purelator Pro Dark Blue filters. They had them in the last time I looked, but lately I just grab it off the shelf and never look inside before filling/priming it with oil. (High comp + high vis oil => detonation??why because the rings seal better??) No, what I meant was the high compression the motors are engineered with, coupled with low air/fuel ratios engineered to get higher fuel economy, and the high timing advances engineered in to increase the low end power output = detonation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoodsWagon Posted October 4, 2007 Share Posted October 4, 2007 Check for a back flow valve in your oil filter Or just change the filter out for another one. It seems that if the engine is taking a noticeable amount of time to build pressure, the oil system is leaking down. A faulty or missing anti-drainback valve in the filter could easily do this. Next time you change the oil, warm the engine up, chuck a quart of ATF into it and let it idle for five minutes. DO NOT DRIVE IT. Drain the old oil out and put fresh in, the ATF gets a lot of the crud out of the engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now