Richiemouse Posted July 1, 2002 Share Posted July 1, 2002 I have a question on the oil pressure on my new(to me) 1.8K Roadsport. I know the topic has been covered before but the answers are a bit all over the place. I noticed over the weekend while driving the car for the first time that the oil pressure when cold is @4.0bar which I think is fine. When the oil heats up this drops to between 2 and 3 under load. When hot, at idle, the pressure drops to 1.0bar. Both of these figures seem on the low side to me. The engine has an Apollo anti cav tank which I've been told may reduce the pressure slightly. I've read that the OP sensor can be a bit tempremental/f****d! Do I have a problem, should I be worried? The temperature gauge has a switch below it that apparently alternates between water and oil temp. Martin, the previous owner, had been having problems with bleeding air from the cooling system that now appear to be sorted (fingres crossed) and the temp seems to have stabilised at a little below 80 rising to around 90 when the engine is working enthusiatically. This looks OK to me. When the switch is flicked the (presumably) oil temp is shown as 40 which is clearly bowlocks! Do I have a problem or are you supposed to recalibrate the oil temp shown? There doesn't appear to be anything in the manual or the cars history about oil capacity with the anti cav tank fitted. Martin filled the engine by trial and error and I think has put about 7l in it! Apparently the standard dipstick markings with hot oil and engine off is not the way to test oil level. I've been told it's test to marks on dipstick with engine running at idle. Is this correct? What should the capacity with the anti cav tank be? What should the oil level on the dip stick be? Finally, why doesn't this list have a FAQ for those problems (like K series cooling) that crop up regularly? TIA Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F355GTS Posted July 1, 2002 Share Posted July 1, 2002 Rich My Oil pressure and water temp on a 1.6k with Apollo is virtually identical to yours and believe it is 'normal'...... certainly nothings gone wrong Your right 40 is indeed bowlocks, there was a posting about a bad earth causing this or it may be the temp sender which is in the Apollo (I think) To check the oil the car should be hot and engine idling, my dipstick has two lines with a row of X's in between, the two lines indicating min and max. The total capacity with Apollo is I believe 8 Litres (least that's what mine took on a recent oil change) A FAQ would be useful I agree regards Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Vine Posted July 1, 2002 Share Posted July 1, 2002 Rich, I'd say your pressures and temps are just fine (and pretty well identical to my 1.8SS with Apollo). The 40 is rubbish though, as you suggest. I'd agree with Mark that it's probably an earthing problem or the Apollo sender. Re oil capacity, mine takes 7 litres, and the level is at the top of the yellow hatchings. There seem to be several (contradictory?) views on how to measure this (engine running, engine stopped, hot, cold, etc). I measure with the engine hot and running (but I also have a one-way valve in the air bleed hose, which prevents the draining back to the sump when the engine's not running, so I can get a good idea with a cold, stationary engine as well). JV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markb905 Posted July 1, 2002 Share Posted July 1, 2002 See Peter C's comments on the "Sump cracked ..." thread which details oil pressure values Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richiemouse Posted July 1, 2002 Author Share Posted July 1, 2002 Thanks for the reassurance that some of you are running around out there with similar oil pressure and not blowing your engines up. I think replacing the oil temp sender is the first move. Then just keep an eye on the oil pressure and so long as it's sticking to a regular pattern relax a bit. The thing that led to the former owner having to bleed the cooling system was a pipe coming off when the enging got hot queing at the the Ring. The overheating was caused by the failure of the fan switch. On inspection of the cars history last night it appears that this little chap has been replaced before. Are they a common failure point? I'm considering fitting a manual fan override switch as a backup, anyone else done this? It's off to the Ring this Friday for my first ever car trip. Up to now only ever ridden bikes there...except for a few laps in the towing vehicle (Honda Accord) so looking forward to new experience. Judging by the fact that I only reluctantly put the Cat away on Sunday night it should be fun. Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ringmeister Posted July 1, 2002 Share Posted July 1, 2002 Rich, My Cat has a manual fan controller, the automatic one was ditched for reliability reasons (before I bought it). At least I believe it has a manual one, it's hard to remember much about the car it's been in the menders so long....I think it was blue and shiny...2 doors, or was it four? Electric windows I think...no air con...Ho hum, whatever hopefully it'll all come flooding back tomorrow when I pick it up, pay the bill and find everything just dandy. Ian. How long until the next Ring trip? sad.gif Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richiemouse Posted July 1, 2002 Author Share Posted July 1, 2002 Ian, you've been saying you're getting it back for a week now, are you absolutely sure this time? And in answer to your question...3 smile.gif Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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