My oil pressure guage has been reading a litle low lately and no it reads 0. I thought it was the sender unit, but then as I was driving, she stopped working as if there was no Fuel. After a couple of minutes I tried her again and she started rough and then smothed out in about 10 seconds. I got it towed home just in case.

I have replaced the sender unit and am about to replace the fuel pump with a Denso. But the oil Pressure is still 0. I starated and removed the oil filler cap and there was no pressure there either.

I want to put in a guage in the engine compartment to double check...

My Questions are... does the dash gauge fail? could the oil pump be dead? how does the metering pump play into this? Bypass valve? Or any other things that might relate to this...

Thanks,
Dave

 

the sender is what fails, it gets clogged and usually only requires a cleaning. thats not to say the gauge is impervious to failure.

If your in doubt oil pressure gauges are cheap enough to install under the hood just as a check. the oil pump is mechanical so a failure of that would be pretty rough. the omp wont effect oil pressure unless its literally pouring out all your oil.

the oil filler cap should not be under pressure so that is not anything to worry about.

 

Did you recently have a rebuild or have the oil pan re-sealed?

If there was too much RTV used to seal things, the excess could have worked loose and some of it could be blocking the oil pump intake screen.

 

I replaced the sender unit with a new one.

I had my engine rebuilt by Rotary Power over a year ago. this just started happening. Maybe it took this long to work loose.

I guess i will install a gauge under the hood.

 

Try to verify oil pressure with a different gauge, if it's good, it might be the dash gauge, or the connection going to the dash gauge is messed up.

 

Well I installed an external guage in the engine compartment... The pressure is really at 0! I even disconected the guage from the hose and no oil came out of the hose.

Any suggestions as to what to do next?

I don't really have the time or space to pull the oil pan. If this is the case, which shop would be the best for this type of work. I don't know if I want to take it back to Rotary Power or not.

 

have you checked the oil to see if you have any?

if so daveW maybe right. unless the oilpump went bad.

 

Oil pressure problems with a rotary are pretty uncommon. I'd call up Rotary Power and get their take on it, being that they built the motor and (i'm assuming) it's hasnt been touched since.

 

Yes there is oil... I have had the car for over 5 years and check and change the oil on a regular basis.

I called and talked to Jeff at Rotary Power and he thinks it might be the thermal pellet that has failed. I only have 12K on the motor since it was rebuilt just under 2 years ago.

 

well that sucks hope they have some kinda warranty?

 

where can i find this 'sender' ?

im having same problem these days.

 

Right under the oil filter.
its the round thing with a wire hooked to it sticking out of the block.
right beside the quick disconnect for coolant.

 

I think the warranty is a 1 year or 10K miles.

 

well that just blows!!

sound like my luck.

 

thanks bryant

 

I thought the thermal pellet causes the oil to bypass the rotors, but does not cause zero oil pressure, just a reduction in oil pressure. There was a TSB or something similar on this (thermal bypass problem) that I remember reading several years ago.

Dave

 

Dave, you're correct. I'm not really sure how it could fail? On every build I use a thermal pellet replacement that allows full lubrication under all conditions. Car warms up a little more slowly, but it's worth it.

 

I am shocked that builders would still use the stock thermal pellet. Not worth the risk.

 

From what Jeff said, by using the stock Pellet the oil pressure to the turbos is reduced causing a reduced amount of smoke at startup. So if this would fail then there would still be presure, but no oil to the rotors.

So after reading all this it sounds like the pump, intake screen or OMP. I have not looked at the FSM on how the OMP could or would cause this.

 

omp wouldnt cause no pressure unless broke line and it drained all your oil out.

 

Well I got the car back today... It turned out to be the OMP after all. It was stuck open!?!

Now it smokes on warm up and also when in boost. I think my turbos are now shot, or at least have blown oil seals. I think I might go for a set uf BNR's.

EFIN money pit!

 

yeah i've been having the same problem lately and can't figure why my oil pressure keeps dropping. I have a Faze oil pressure gauge that came with the sending unit and was put on a year ago. My car also blows blue smoke during start up and wot or boost. I'm about to swap out the omp to see if i got the same problem.

 

is the OMP that little fuel filter type looking thing right under the throttle body...actually connected to the bottom 2 bolts that hold the elbow pipe on?

 

Nope, if only it were that easy to get to. that is the charcoal canister for the fuel vent line.

The omp is located on the front driver's corner of the block, behind the front oil return line. Not fun to swap out with the motor in the car.

JP's 93 FD, I'd recommend getting a new oem sending unit and checking your oil px with the stock gauge. aren't faze a really cheap low end series of gauges? you may be having turbo problems, I think swapping out OMPs is a really poor shot in the dark at this point. Lots of work that may not be needed.

 

this faze gauges is just temporary, but I think i might just get new oem sending unit like you said. what do you mean turbo problems? I just put new 99 spec twins a couple of months ago. I'm swapping certain parts that might be causing the problem i'm having. It might cost me a lot of money but i'm goin to replace it sooner or later. I guess i'm learning the hard way.