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[Ecotec] Ecotec oil pressure/ feed problem .....

Blakvsexec

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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

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

Blakvsexec

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

delcowizzid

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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
 

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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

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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

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i put ecotec pressure springs in buicks just to upp the pressure to ecotec specs which is higher. on ecotec i dont do **** 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

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

Cheers for the advice delco.
 

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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

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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.
 
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