I have an 88 non turbo with 55,000 original miles. I do not beat on this car at all because it is my daily driver. But, I am driving down the street with a friend of mine yesterday when my oil level light starts beeping, hellishly loud by the way. I pull over to check it out, and notice there is oil all over the ground following my car. I open up the hood and there is oil everywhere. Since I was close to my friends house, we just pushed it there. Even when the oil light came on, it was accelerating fine and there was no other problems. I think it just may be a seal or some kind of hose that went, and the fan threw all the oil everywhere. At least I hope. I'll keep you guys updated.

 

Check your oil cooler lines first, the OEM ones are famous for this. Pay particular attention to the sections that run past the radiator edges...

 

Heh. Check your eshaft bolt.

If you shut it down as soon as you heard the buzzer, the engine should be OK. Obviously clean it up & figure out where it's leaking from, but I'm willing to bet the engine is still OK.

-=Russ=-

 

good call Wayne, it was the oil cooler line. There is a huge problem though, the oil coming out looks like thick creamy, ahh, coffee. I guess that is coolant mixing with the oil and it overheating. My temp. gauge never went over a quarter high. I have no idea how it would over heat. Another think is that an apex seal may be gone and I'll need a rebuild, at least that is what I am being told. *Sigh* Oh well, I guess I'll "HAVE TO" put an FD motor in it. haha. Either that, or do a street port and build up the n/a 13b that I have now. We'll see.

 

Are you sure it's coolant in the oil?!? There may be another logical explaination for the condition of the oil, other than the coolant system overheating. An ignorant suggestion: If there was only a small amount of oil left in the engine, the oil might not be able to perform its proper cooling duty and the oil itself got overheated and was cooked. This could mean that the whole engine didn't overheat, perhaps only the rotors, e-shaft, etc. or they just got very hot. This sort of overheating might not be terminal as in typical overheating it's the housings that are damaged. My previous engine looked like it was mildly overheated at one time as brown oil was baked onto the engine, but the engine wasn't damaged enough to effect it's operation.

If you're convinced that it's blown, get out the old piston engine compression tester and find out, but your description gives no indication of apex seal failure.

 

I know what you mean, there is really no evidence that the apex seals are damaged, but there was a crap load of oil on the ground and all over my engine bay, that is where all the oil went. We'll see in the next few days what is going on with the seals.

 

Dude, nothing is wrong with your apex seals, or anything else, most likely. The white cream you saw is basically what happens with the oil when it gets sloshed around in a cool state...very small bubbles that look like froth.

Put oil in it, a new line, and fire it up. IT shall live a long and prosperous life.

 

The line has been changed and there is no more oil flying around anywhere. But when I started driving it, about 10 minutes up the road, the temp shot up to about 3 quarters of the way up, and it stalled. There is oil in it and the radiator has just been filled. *Sigh*, I don't know. Think it may be the seals now? It was idleing fine. Oh oh, when the line blew, it was the first time I had turned on the A/C. When the car overheated today, it was like a few minutes after I turned on the A/C. Could that have anything to do with it?

 

A/C compressor partly seized up, causing massive engine drag & subsequent overheating?

What happens if you don't turn the A/C on?

-=Russ=-

 

So how long have you had this car? The oiling system and the cooling system are pretty much independent of one another, so I wouldnt see how a busted oil line (and possible subsequent loss of oil and possible oil system damage) could cause overheating issues with teh cooling system. Stay away from the a/c for a while. IF it continues to overheat, then you may have a seal failure. They still don't seem to be related, though.

 

I usually don't use A/C. I put it on the first time to get rid of fog in the rain, and the second time was too cool off the lady friend. That is the only times I have used the A/C in the 2 or 3 months I have owned the car, and the only time I have had problems. I don't know if this has anything to do with, well anything, but my air pump is not connected to the belt. The belts have been shortened or whatever, and the pump is just sitting there with no belt or hose on it.

 

You can have slippage running only one belt on the water pump/alternator...notice that the air pump also drive the water pump, with a 25% contact patch. The alternator only drives the waterpump with about a 15% contact patch if that...so by removing the air pump belt, you've cut the grip on the water pump and fan by more than half. So, when the fan stiffens up to cool the car down, it can actually slip. When you turn on the a/c, the system produces more heat up front (in front of the radiator), which must be dissipated to keep the engine coolant cool. So, the fan must work harder to do so. IF the fan isn't up to par, or if it slips, then you ahve overheating. Check into that.

 

you all know alot about 7s. whouldnt it help to have dual belts on the alternator and water pump while keeping the air pump dissconnected?

 

When you remove the air pump belt and keep the stock clutch fan, it is highly recommended to run a dual pulley.

 

but why would you remove the air pump anyway? space?

 

many have removed emissions .. if you do that then you've eliminated the use for the air pump, and its dead weight ... on the turbos anyway

if you have an N/A you still need it to operate the 5th and 6th ports ...

that might be series specific ... someone else will come along and school us both

 

The air pumps only real purpose in life is to keep the cat convertors healthy. ON s5 nonturbo cars, they also operate your 6 ports and vdi for additional top end power. ON the other models, it's just an emissions device. Most people remove them for ease of working onthe rest of the car, less clutter, etc.

 

I am running dual belts right now.

I drove the car later on today after it had cooled off. I had the heat on full blast and turned the motor off everytime I stopped at a light. The temp. gauge didn't go over 1/4 of the way. I left it my friends garage, again, to see if he can find anything else wrong with it.

 

I got it back again. There was no vacuum leaks, and my compression is fine. I don't know why or how it overheated that day, but it hasn't done it agian, and today was hotter then yesturday. Well, thanks for all your help and suggestions guys.