Low oil pressure
 

My S5 T2 has about 9-10 lbs/sq ft oil pressure at idle and only goes up to like 40 lbs at 3000 rpm.

My first thought was the front cover gasket. When I removed the front eccentric thermostat it was covered in oil.

I've had several T2s apart but I can't remember if it is normal for it be oil coated. If it isn't, could that cause my low oil pressure?

If it normal, what do you guys think could be causing this?

ashley

seems normal, I get like 80lbs but I have upgraded the oil pump, 40lbs is normal right?

Hell, 10-40psi is what my car has been running for years.

Ideally you want 10psi for every 1000rpm. "Stock" they should be 15-30 at idle, and 65+ at 3000RPM. But as long as it's there, and rises with RPM, you should be OK.

i cant recall my NA ever having 65+, it was NA but still

I had 65+ at 4000 on my last rebuild.

Thanks guys. I'll just leave it like it is. There are other things to work on. :)

cold pressure will obviously always be higher

^No. Not with that stock thermo-pellet in place. Most of us are not on our stock engine ;) so we put the solid piece in there and are used to seeing high pressure on a cold motor.

well, if the engine has a lot of miles or so it will drop the oil pressure.
The clearances inside the engine between the bearings will become bigger. To create pressure you need to restrict flow, if the bearings are wearing out a lot that just means more flow but less pressure.
Another reason can be the thermo pellet in the eccentric shaft can be stuck "open" causing oil pressure to drop because of bypass and no oil into the rotor to cool it.

I learned a good trick the other day to place 3 3/8" lock-nuts on the thermo pellet before putting the eccentric shaft bolt on. Any cons or flaws to this?

you mean this
http://fc3spro.com/TECH/HOWTO/OTB/otb.html

Only con I can see is that warming up will take longer since oil will be squirted into the rotors to cool them, so longer warm up, more gas will be used during cold starts.
It basically blocks the bypass passageway. When the engine is cold, the thermopellet is contracted allowing oil to pass through, since they pass through, not enough pressure is built up inside the shaft to let oil spray inside the rotors. Once the engine warms up, the pellet expands pushing it forward to block the oil passage to the oil pan allowing pressure to build in shaft, and oil spray inside rotors to cool them.

colder oil has higher viscosity, meaning it is thicker, thicker oil= more oil pressure until it warms to operating temperature.

i have about 60 psi at idle cold and about 110+ at idle hot...

what?

i get 60-80 now. i had the same problem and people told me that 10-20 at high rpms was fine.............wrong. to get your oil pressure back up and to get better oil pressure, you have to take off the front cover and replace the o-ring that blows out that seats up against the engine to the cover. they like to get brittle and blow out on one side. now, you can get higher oil pressure by taking off the oil pan and removing the oil pressure control valve on the underside of the engine. put it in an exhaust pipe bender with the tip of it towards the press and gently push the tip in about half way. i did this and have wonderful oil pressure. banzairacing.com shows you how to do so.

Thanks, I ordered the parts for the front cover. Might as well remove the cover and take a look at it.

ash

that is too high.
Oil will leak from the oil o-rings at high rpm.

Before you go pulling your engine apart, you may want to confirm the oil pressure with an outboard gage. The stock OP sending unit is known to lose accuracy over time.

who told you 10-20 at high rpms was fine??

have you ever taken the front cover off before? if you or anybody else has, you or they might have pinched that o-ring while reassembling the cover. i have done that once before and it is not hard to do. make sure you use something like trim adhesive to hold it in place while you assemble everything back together...

NOT FOR STOCK.
Check the FSM ;)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...e/oilpress.jpg

Thanks for the input but I already checked it with a mechanical tester.

Before I installed the engine, I replaced the front and rear seals but I didn't have the front cover off.

When I get around to pulling the front cover, do I need the be concerned with the needle bearing falling down?

How about when I changed the front seal, could it have fallen then? The engine was mounted on an engine stand but I don't think it was perfectly level, close, but a few degrees off.

No, I don't think you do.
Cold idle pressure>hot idle pressure every time.