My rodknock story

[born2drv]

So I had a lot of oil on the ground in my garage... my power steering was always going empty so I assumed it was only the power steering fluid. Had that pump replaced, a bunch of little things done here and there, brakes, etc...

After the car has sat for 3 weeks I drove it and oil pressure was very low and I start to hear a knock... wtf? So I go home and check the oil and it seems full???

What I thought was full was this on the dispstick....

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So I'm thinking it's right in the range it needs to be right? So I don't fill it up and become worried something is wrong with my car, figure my engine was rebuilt poorly (it was a half-ass rebuild) and I just start buying my new engine parts.

Then I'm like, what the hell, lets put some more oil in there even if I overfill it and see what happens. So I add 1 quart... and it goes to this:

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...then I add another quart and it goes to this:

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I was like WTF!?!?!?! 2 quarts and it only moves that much? So it was low like 2 quarts of oil!!! What kind of idiot designed this stupid dipstick?!?!? I always figured you wanted to be in the middle of the "range" ?


So now my oil pressure is back where it's supposed to be and the knock is not as bad as it sounded before, but I have a slight knock over 3500rpms that gets fairly loud at 5000+rpms. I am assuming it won't blow up tomorrow but it's not going to hold 300+hp for long that's for sure. So anyways I'm still going to rebuild but I'm in no hurry now I'm going to gather up all my parts and do it 100% bullet proof this time. I'm not even going to use this block anymore I'm going to get another one that I can rebuild and minimize downtime. I'm also going to redo the entire engine bay, paint all nice, put the 272 cams in there, get the FFIM etc..

What an expensive lesson to learn though, stupid dipstick!

 

[suprahero]

Does a new oil pump help with the low oil pressure or is it just a really poor design and even a new oil pump will render low pressure? Good luck either way, and nothing looks sweeter than your newly painted engine bay. I loved mine when I got it painted...............:love:

 

[born2drv]

When I rebuilt my engine we put a new toyota oil pump, hks hg, arp studs... everything else was just cleaned up. I don't even think they got the RA on the block and head to be that perfectly smooth. We put new bearings but they didn't grind/polish the crank, and I don't think it was balanced either, not sure.

I figured it would last a year or so while I played with the car and got a monster rebuild. So anyways I'm not going to cry or anything but it just kind of sucks that's how the dipstick was designed, pretty stupid if you ask me.

 

[johnathan1]

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That's were I always keep my oil level, sometimes a little higher.

I really don't see how the oil at that level would cause rod knock, it wasn't low...I am guessing something else caused it...

And I like your diagrams BTW...lol.

 

[JonoTurbo]

That's really strange because i'm pretty sure the dipstick only indicates a quart on the supra...

 

[johnathan1]

How long did you wait after you put in the oil until you read the dipstick?

 

[born2drv]

johnathan, now I know to keep it extra full!

I drove it 2 quarts low for 2-1/2 days .... ~ 150miles.... I drove to downtown LA and back, that's 100mi right there. I guess that was enough to do the damage. I wasn't hard on it either.

Eventually I got so desperate because the oil pressure was like 5-6psi at 3000rpms at highway speeds and read absolute zero at idle and the knock was getting louder. So I was ready to try anything even if it meant overfilling and blowing some oil seals or something.

Now the knocking isn't so bad, but I know damage has been done. Oh well, live and learn.

 

[born2drv]

Oh you mean how long did I wait after I poured the oil in from the time I re-measured it? I waited about 10-15sec.. Are you supposed to wait longer? Hmm.. I wonder what it reads now I'll check it in the morning.

 

[johnathan1]

Yea, that pressure is too low...

And you should have waited a little longer to read the dipstick, cause all that oil has to drain down from the head into to pan, which can take a few minutes .

 

[Jaguar_5]

^ Especially when the oil is at room temp!
Sorry about your troubles
+1 Quart over full FTW!

 

[suprahooked]

I am still building my 7mgte and I have planned on running at least a quart over if not 1 1/2 quarts over esp. if you plan on drifting it.

 

[JustAnotherVictim]

I keep my oil level here.

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Ok a little exaggeration but I fill it with 5-5.5qts without a filter change. Call me paranoid.