Richard D. Arnold wrote:
> Miss Molly, my '79 Midget has developed the habit of flickering her oil
> light at me under these conditions:
Just a note you probably know, those oil lights come on
when the pressure is REALLY low, so to see it at all is
a bad thing.
(assuming the light and sensor are working, which is
likely but far from a guarantee).
> * A hot engine (after she's ran for a half-hour to forty-five minutes, no
> over heating occurs).
Do you have an oil cooler? It can stop the oil thinning
over long trips which can cause the above.
> * When she's decelerating (coming down from a higher idle under load).
> This doesn't happen from fourth to third or third to second, but
> generally from second to first, or when I decelerate to a come to a stop.
>
> * Also, occasionally, when she is coming down hills (not steep).
The oil can slosh away from the pickup, my car does the
same if I am doing a really hard stop (usually just when
testing the brakes, I guess otherwise I am darn well
not looking at the gauge if I am braking that hard).
Baffles in the oil pan can stop this problem, but that
should only be required in a racer. I would guess that
your oil pressure is very low anyways, and it loses just
enough in the negative-G times to flick on the light.
(unlike the racing application, which is when you have
as much pressure as needed normally, but extreme braking
causes it to plummet to where the light comes on)
> About 2000 miles ago, I went through her engine and replaced rods, rings,
> rod and main bearings, lifters, and gaskets.
Well, you already got all the obvious things so
oil pump seems like a likely candidate. Unless there
is some change the bearing replacement didn't snug
up the clearances. Did you plastigage it?
--
Trevor Boicey
Ottawa, Canada
tboicey@brit.ca
http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/
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