Hello Folks,
Need some help here diagnosing a loss of oil pressure? I have an 86 13B in my first gen and I have swapped the front cover with a GSL-SE front cover. I was at the track and everything was fine. All of a sudden the oil pressure dropped. At idle it was about 10 psi and if I revved it the pressure would rise to about 45 psi.

I figured that I blew out the “O” ring between the front cover and the block. But, I have just pulled the front cover off and it does not appear to have blow out or be miss-shapen at all.

Do you have any suggestions of what happened, how to diagnose it for sure and how to fix it?

Thanks

 

are you going by the stock oil pressure guage? they are very inacurate!!

try using a mechanical guage, i think your oil system is fine

 

I was using the stock one, but the engine is out of the car now and the front cover is off. What can I do to test the oiling system now?

 

Put it back together and start it up with a mechanical gauge hooked up where the original gauge sending unit was. For ***** and giggles, you could replace the pump, but I don't think much wear occurs on that type of oil pump.

 

There is a FAQ at mazdatrix website. thats a common problem with the 86+ motors.

 

Jeb,

Are you using the the second gen eccentric shaft?? If yes, have you replaced the thermo-wax, oil bypass, accelerated warmup thing. If/when that fails the oil pressure does exactly what you are descibing.

Ryan

 

Hey Ryan,
Good to see you around! This is redwood's old engine and I put in a Atkins soild thermo pellet. I hope school (and life) is going well for you.

I will check the mazdatrix page as well. That is where I got the info about the front seals blowing out. The last time I looked was a year ago, there may be more info for me there.

 

Any other thoughts or suggestions out there !?!

 

Say can I get any further input on the " thermo-wax, oil bypass, accelerated warmup thing."?? Also I've seen elsewhere that as low as 30 lbs is considered "normal", is this so??

 

The thermo item only applies to the 2nd gen engine not a 1st gen.

30lbs at what RPM?

 

and he needs to research its function...what a noob.

 

I am usually at 30 at 2k.... Definitely look up on the thermal pellet as said.