HELP PLEASE!!! OILING ISSUES?!?!?

[mk3 for life!]

I recently built my engine from the ground up, and used the chilton manual for everything. I just recently read that BHG's are due to improper torque to the bolts, i followed the book and set them at 58 ft/lbs. it ran fine for about 2800 miles and then started actin like a bhg, lots of steam pouring out the pipe, on hot starts only, and the symptoms disappeared after about 30ft of driving. I retorqued the bolts (they were 10lbs loose) and it seemed fine again. then one day it started again and it got worse. and then (all on the same trip) it started reading low oil pressure, and within 5 min's it was almost 0, i made an underpass u turn and heard a knocking, instantly i shut her down and coasted into a parkin lot, and towed her home. cant see any water in the oil or vice versa, tried to spin the pump drive gear with an air ratchet and no oil could be seen comin up to the cams (dont know if it's even possible to do that just thought i would give it a try) im gonna go ahead and pull the motor. just wanted to know if any one has any input on this. oil pump? pickup? drive gear assembly? maybe the bhg has somethin to do with it? im out of theories

 

[jetjock]

Bummer. My theory is 7Ms are intolerant of sloppy work done by noobs using other than factory documentation and no research.

 

[mk3 for life!]

yea im kinda new to supra engines, i think the only place i went wrong was using the 58 ft/lbs on the head bolts, all the tolerances in the block were witin specs. I shud of bumped it up to like 70/75 on the head bolts, and went ahead and bought a brand new oil pump (no sense in cuttin corners especially with lube systems)

 

[CRE]

It could be a BHG, it could be loosing oil into the plug galley from the cam covers.

Start with checking the following:
Coolant for contaminated with oil.
Visible oil leaks. (especially check for oil coming from the timing belt cover or distributor)
Oil in the spark plug galley.
Oil blowing out of the the dipstick tube.
Check the spark plugs for signs of burning oil.

EDIT: are you using OEM bolts or ARP?

 

[mk3 for life!]

i did notice a lil bit of oil outa the back of the cam covers and some on the #6 plug wire, but would an oil leak like that cause no pressure? and it did seem like the coolant smelled a little like burned motor oil

 

[johnathan1]

The cam covers leaking would cause a drop in oil level over time, if they were leaking bad enough.

NEVER USE THE CHILTON'S MANUAL! ONLY use the TSRM!!

 

[CRE]

Check the coolant while the motor's cool, look in the rad for any small oily bubbles floating on top... or find somewhere to get the coolant analyzed.

Have you drained the oil to check for coolant?

If the cam covers are leaking badly enough and the oil isn't checked very often you can loose more than enough oil for the oil pump pickup to run dry while accelerating, decelerating or turning. Also, keep in mind that our oil guages are slow to respond, the pickup could have run dry a couple seconds before the guage reported it.

It really sounds like more than just a leak though. The HG might have been trashed before you retorqued it.

How the compression?

 

[mk3 for life!]

havent had time to test every thing, with work and skool and what not, im pretty certain the headgaskets gone, but i just dont wanna have to pull that oil pump, is there anyway to spin the gear fast enough to pump some oil thru everything?

 

[CRE]

If you pull the timing belt I imagine an impact socket would do... probably best to pull the cam covers and just turn it for a second... but even if it flows it's still no guarantee.

 

[mk3 for life!]

are the 7m oil pumps known for just crappin out? and would it matter wether i have a turbo or n/a pump? right now it's a turbo block with some n/a parts and some turbo, but it was workin fine

 

[johnathan1]

Did the engine run low on oil? You may have gotten trace amounts of coolant in your oil, just enough to eat up the bearings, but still look okay.

Post up the specs from the Chilton's manual that you used.

 

[mk3 for life!]

oil was maybe 1/2 qt low at most, im gonna drain it tomorrow and pull of the head, i really dont wanna have to pull that engine again, cause im definitely gonna have to slap a turbo on there

 

[johnathan1]

If it's knocking, then you definitely have to pull it.

 

[cuel]

Bummer. My theory is 7Ms are intolerant of sloppy work done by noobs using other than factory documentation and no research.

Agreed, and Amen!

 

[supramacist]

Atleast you shouldn't have to have any machine work done. That's half the BS right there.