Ecotec oil pressure/ feed problem .....

[Blakvsexec]

I am about to pull down the engine in my ute for the rebuild before the turbo goes on and i have come up with a way to fix the low oil flow/pressure problem to the rear of the engine that these v6's have.

I am going to run another oil feed line down to the rear plate from the oil filter housing and feed it into the gallery in the back of the engine via the rear plate, This should fix the low flow/pressure issues that they are prone to have.

I'll post up pics and a write up when i do it.

Has anyone else bothered to do this or does everyone just increase the oil pressure by using the stronger relief valve spring ?????

[acarmody]

You can apparently take a dremel to the oil passages to increase thier size to help with oil flow.

[Blakvsexec]

Yes i'll be doing that, the galleries in the oil filter housing are too small in my opinion.

[delcowizzid]

im yet to see a buick or ecotec thats got oiling problems they cold start at over 80 psi and idle over 50psi thats plenty of pressure .the ones ive seen with opened up oil galleries and stock pumps allways seem to have oiling issues of some sort the holes are certian sizes to stop the oil hemoraging out some bearings before reaching other bearings and its very easy to make them worse than stock

[immortality]

a buick with ecotec oil pressure spring idles with 50psi. for the ecotec, remove the balance shaft and block the oil feed for it. also, there are some burs on the oil pump that can be cleaned up on the entry and exit of the pump housing. shim the stock oil pump spring, use a die grinder to open up the filter housing. on the block radius the edge where the oil passage goes into the block etc

[Blakvsexec]

The galleries i am talking about are in the oil filter housing itself not the ones in the engine, so why then does everyone raise their oil pressure by using a stronger relief valve spring???
The ecotec engines i have rebuilt all seem to suffer the same problem, the further away from the oil pump you get the more wear in main and conrod bearings.
What i am doing is putting in an equaliser pipe, tapped into the oil pump outlet on the filter housing and fed straight into the oil gallery in the rear plate.
By doing this when the engine starts the oil gets fed from both ends instead of the oil going into thw block on one end and travelling down one side and back up the other

[delcowizzid]

i put ecotec pressure springs in buicks just to upp the pressure to ecotec specs which is higher. on ecotec i dont do shit just force the boost in there LOL.lots of people making huge power without the need for a rear oil feed dont mess with what aint broken is generally a good rule of thumb if an ecotec can do 500000km with nothing more than inlet manifold gaskets then i wouldnt change a thing

[Blakvsexec]

ahh ok i was under the impression people were increasing the oil pressure in ecotec's.

Cheers for the advice delco.

[immortality]

from what i have heard, the ecotecs do have a oil pressure problem with the left hand lifter galary suffering from low oil pressure. this is because on the ecotecs the oil feed for the LH side is taken from the back of the RH side lifter galary via the passage in the rear seal cover. buick didn't have this issue because the LH side lifter galary is fed via the No1 cam bearing. on the ecotec the oil feed for the rear balance shaft bearing is also taken from the same passage that feeds the LH side lifter galary which is another reason it is good to get rid of the balance shaft and block that oil feed ( as well as removing the single row timing chain/tensioner problem).

[Blakvsexec]

I am getting rid of the balance shaft and replacing the stock timing set with a double row rollmaster, as i have said in my previous post by running an equaliser tube directly from the oil pump down to the back of the engine and plumbing it into the rear plate the engine is fed from both ends rather than the oil having to travel through the block to get to the rear plate and then travel through a very small gallery to get to the other side.

I am just trying to even out the flow of oil around the engine.

[immortality]

i understand that mate, but you want the majority of the oil pressure/volume going to the mains as they are the most critical not the lifter galaries. by blocking the balance shaft rear bearing oil feed and opening up the passage in the rear cover plate should be more then enough for the lifter galary.

[Blakvsexec]

I will be feeding the oil back into the same gallery the mains are fed from and letting the small cross over gallery in the rear plate handle the feed for the LH lifter gallery.
I am not touching the small cross over gallery in the rear plate, the whole purpose of running the equaliser pipe is to feed the mains from both ends, its a given that some of the oil from the tube will feed across to the L/H bank gallery but the bulk of it will feed the mains from the rear of the block aswell as the front of the block.

[Blakvsexec]

The following photo's are from the engine i have just pulled down, these are the main caps and are numbered 1 through 4 left to right

Notice the increased wear the further you get away from the oil pump, the conrod bearings have this same wear like these further away from oil pump worse wear.

LEFT TO RIGHT 1 TO 4


#1 AN 2


#3 AN 4


This is what i am trying to help prevent by running another external gallery around the outside or the block and into the main bearing feed gallery in the rear plate.

I'd really like to hear from someone who has done a performance build on a v6 ecotec and see what they had done if anything, i do agree that this may not be a real bad issue but all of the v6's i have seen that have spun bearings have all done it on either #5 or#6 all the way at the back of the engine.

I am loading the engine up more than it is done on its stock form by turbo charging it and just dont want to have any issues with it later on, i cant really afford to be rebuilding all the time or replacing engines.

Maybe i am reading too far into it and worrying for nothing, is there a high volume oil pump available for these.

[nick_]

Have you thought about using the Intense Racing oil plate which allows you to relocate the oil filter? It also gives you the opportunity to fit a oil cooler.

[westerlybreeze]

I think feeding both ends of the crank would be beneficial, at least help it to last longer
With a oil pressure bump, it might even help it stay alive past 6500rpm

I made a new pickup and externally feed the oil pump from the sump to oil filter housing on the last engine I built (see 3.8T wagon link).

[delcowizzid]

we all know what them bearings turned out like idling with oil light flickering etc was it just use or was it the mods to the oil system

[Blakvsexec]

Those bearings came out of a stock as a rock granny driven ecotec.

[delcowizzid]

yeah its a pretty perfect wear pattern the bearing we pulled out the vb look just the same and its had 14psi up it for a while now

[Blakvsexec]

ahh ok then, well thats probably a testament to the strength and reliability of these lil 6 poppers

[delcowizzid]