Ok guys so this might be a lengthy post but it might be necessary to help trace my issue.

3 years ago (ack!) a friend helped rebuild my engine. I had trouble starting it but it seems that it was just the apex seals hadn't seated on the housing and wasn't building enough compressoin....so the car basically sat for 2 yrs till I graduated and got time for it. Finally got it to start. I saw I had low oil pressure. grrrr. During this rebuild my friend had heard that removing the check ball and spring from the eccentric shaft was a good mod to do. I didn't know a whole lot at that point so I went with it. needless to say there was no carb orifice in place. So I figured my low oil pressure was due to this check ball and spring missing and just dumping out oil internally. I was getting nearly 0 at idle and 25 psi 3000 rpm.

So I ordered new seals and yanked the engine and put the damn check ***** back in. I carefully assembled the front cover/o ring as per the mazdatrix faq on the front cover O-ring problem. So recently I've been driving the car (sporatically) and still noticed I have an oil pressure issue. Pressure at idle is 12 PSI or so and at 3000 rpm its about 35 psi. Removing the engine the second time I put a kink in the oil cooler line. I thought this might be causing a pressure drop after the kink. I replaced it and the the oil pressure was still low.

Fast forward to this morning. I decided to change the oil. I removed the oil filter and found the O-ring below sitting in the oil filter pedestal. It sure looks like the damn front cover o-ring. but it it somehow squeezed out into the oil line I don't see how it would possibly get to the oil filter pedestal. I wouldn't think it would get past the oil cooler!

oh and I have the atkins thermowax pellet cancelor so its probably not that.

any help is greatly appreciated.

Also, if it is the front cover O-ring....I have heard of people using an 'alternate' size o ring for the front cover which fits better. any more information on that would be great.


This sucks! I'm so tired of this damn car.

 

under the oil pedestal?..look at the pedestal,there are two O rings there,.Between the pedestal and the Mount itself.(I know,I am building up a keg,from scratch!).If they are not there then you would have a oil leak at that location.They sandwich between teh two holes.So get some Vaseline to hold them on and put the Pedestal back on.Good Luck.STYX.

 

FRONT iron oil passage o-ring, just to make sure and relieve your headaches pull the oil filter and then the pedestal mount..if the 2 o-rings are still there then you know that o-ring goes on the front of the iron ...but remember if one of those two orings were to go through the pedestal and towards the filter you would have a nasty oil leak all over the place but i have seen some pretty ghetto gasket maker craps on pedestals before

if that oring isnt there when you put the front cover on or if it comes off its place gets pinched you will get horrible oil pressure...if you dont have it it will give you false oil pressure too

 

Looking at this mazdatrix FAQ
http://mazdatrix.com/faq/oring.htm

That doesn't look like the front cover o-ring.....

any other ideas welcome!

 

it looks like a LIM coolant o-ring to me...

 

Its too small to be that O-ring....plus there is no way that would end up in the oil filter pedestal....

Keep them coming though!

 

Hmmm...The only o-ring that could make it's way into the oil gallery is the front cover o-ring. All others exposed to oil are either around the dowel pins or under the filter pedestal.

You'd know if it was a dowel o-ring because the engine would puke massive amounts of oil from between the irons and housings on the driver side.

Same difference with the pedestal. It would absolutely puke oil from under the pedestal.

Maybe it was an o-ring the fell into the engine during a build?

It's small enough to be the o-ring on the front hub bolt.

 

Thought about that but the front hub bolt....but it has honda bond on it and its clear of hondabond on 2 sides like it was sandwiched.

I have no clue where to go from here on my oil pressure problems.

 

where your getting the oil pressure readings, oem, aftermarket guage?
Hows the oil pump itself?

Process of elimination, if you got no leaks from the pedistal, and between the housings as Mr Cake mentioned. You are down to the front cover and the front bolt orings.

You mentioned honda bond, what other o-rings did you use that on?

GL

 

when i had low oil pressure readings it ended up being my oil pressure sender

 

I removed the stock oil pressure sender and put in a T at the block.
I have my autometer electrical sender tapped into the T and the other side of the T is capped off. I used this to hook up a mechanical gauge.

Would the T cause a difference in oil pressure readings? I don't think so but its worth asking.

 

bump?

 

I'd place my bet on our mystery o-ring being from the front cover-to-front iron. I am curious on how long it took said o-ring to travel that far? If that is the front cover oring it will definitly cause low pressure, but looking at the fsm oil flow chart i dont see how its possible for it to get to there from where it originates from. However, that would explain why you have hondabond on it (i would have used a little to hold that oring in place on the front cover during assembly). Only one way to verify....

 

I just wanted to update so anyone searching could get an idea of what is going on.

Got the front cover off....o-ring missing. So somehow that damn o-ring fell out and got all the way up to the oil filter through the oil cooler and all the banjo connections. I really didn't want to believe it but its true.

I am putting in a 3rd gen oil pressure relief valve spring and a 3rd gen oil pressure regulator while I am down there. I will post oil PSI #'s once I get her back together.

 

it would hve slipped out and fell down behind the front cover directly into the pan. it didnt need to travel through everything

 

If that o-ring had fallen into the oil pan, it would have had to go through the oil pickup tube screen to get to the oil filter. There's no way that o-ring would fit through the screen.

 

After a new oil pump, chain, FD front releif valve spring, FD oil pressure regulator. I see 75 PSI at 3000 rpm :-)

more importantly the O-ring was re-installed.