Simon S Posted June 16, 2003 Share Posted June 16, 2003 Help! Novice alert!!! The oil pressure in my VVC appears to be low. (Around 3 when cold but dropping to more like 1 or less when hot) Once the engine is warm the low pressure is accompanied by a fairly gentle (for now) tapping from the top end of the engine. Am I right in assuming the tappets are not lubricated enough due to the low pressure when hot? How to sort this out- where to start? All thoughts welcome. Simon 1.8 VVC T22 BLAT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony C Posted June 16, 2003 Share Posted June 16, 2003 Simon, You should be getting about 4-6 bar cold idle and about 2 bar hot idle. Unfortunately it's very possible to have a faulty sender or gauge. How many miles are on the engine? Before tearing the engine apart I respectfully suggest you try a known accurate sender/gauge. I assume you have checked the oil level using the manufacturers recommendations - hot and running for modern K-Series 😬 Hope this helps, Tony BRG SV 😬 aka Bug Killer Edited by - Tony C on 16 Jun 2003 23:56:30 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Carmichael Posted June 16, 2003 Share Posted June 16, 2003 Simon, You are almost certainly worrying about nothing. Check the oil levels as described here The followers have hydraulic shims that are pressurised by oil. The K-series design is a lot better than the Zetec (for instance) and hardly ever go wrong. Lubrication of the follower motion itself is by splash, so has no effect on oil pressure. If your oil pressure *really* is that low with more than 3000rpm on the tacho, rather than being a gauge error, then it is because of problems in the bottom end which would have shown up as grumbling sounds getting much worse. The VVC mechanism itself is also lubricated by splash, so again has no effect on oil pressure. If you really are worried... drop the sump and look for fragments of metal. No fragments, no problem. One last word of concern which might make dropping the sump worthwhile. Caterham fit a baffle foam in the sump which can break up if it hasn't been changed at the prescribed interval. It might be worth checking that bits of it aren't clogging the oil pickup. Apart from that I'm pretty sure you haven't got a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Plato Posted June 17, 2003 Share Posted June 17, 2003 Probably ANOTHER broken sender . Caterham must make a fortune from these , clutch release bearings and A frame bearings !!! *mad* *mad* *mad* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old captain slow Posted June 18, 2003 Share Posted June 18, 2003 For what it's worth I ditched my sender ages ago in favour of a direct reading mechanical gauge. No problems since then. C7 CDW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scooby dooby doo Posted June 18, 2003 Share Posted June 18, 2003 SPA make VERY nice oil gauges and senders. pricey - but very nice... FWIW I never saw more than 1.5 bar hot idle on mine - the gauges and senders both are a bit variable / pants... HOOPY R706KGU Hoopylight R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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