I had been up at the Dragon since Wednesday, driving the piss out of the car. Everything was fine until Satrurday morning when I was winding out 2nd gear and at about 7000rpm, the car fell on it's face. It had very little power, started stumbling and struggled to rev. Initially, it felt like the rev limiter cutting fuel, however this was on our 3rd pass through the Dragon, and the car was definitely warmed up. I noticed that my oil temp was a little high, about 310F, and I only had about 60psi of oil pressure when I should have seen 75-80psi. My pressure sending unit is installed on a sandwich plate between the block and the oil filter, so it 'sees' less pressure than one installed at the stock pressure switch location. I backed off and drove it at low revs or a few minutes and the oil temp dropped back to around 240F. I decided to do another 2nd gear pull and watched the pressure gauge: 65psi at WOT, vtec engaged at 6000rpm and the oil pressure dropped to 45-50psi. At 7200rpm, the same 'rev limiter effect' kicked in and it struggled to build additional rpms. I drove the car back to the hotel and decided to park it for the day and just take it easy going home on Sunday.

Sunday morning, I started it up for the ride home and immediately noticed a whine/screeching noise from the front of the motor. Also, the oil pressure was only about 45psi -- with the motor/oil cold! I parked the car and decided to come back for it with a trailer.

Tuesday night, I drained the oil and replaced the filter. I did not see any noticable metallic bits in the oil. This fill had about 3500 miles on it when I drained it:



After replacing the filter and filling it back up with fresh oil, the whine/screech from the motor was still there, but I saw my normal 80psi of oil pressure. There's still definitely an additional unhealthy noise. I posted a video capture to google here: link to video

Details/history about the motor:
It's an '02 with the updated oil squirters and has almost 83k on the odo, with minimal engine mods:
baffled oil pan
aftermarket intake and exhaust
I am on my 3rd timing chaing tensioner
The catalytic converter was replaced under the 80k emissions warranty about 3000 miles ago.
A valve adjustment was done approximately 20k ago.
The check engine light never came on. Neither did the oil light.

I drive the car hard, but am good about maintaining it. Oil changes are generally in the 3-4k range with Texaco Havoiline GF-4 10w30. I used Mobile1 for about 40k of its life as well. I always use the OEM oil filter and it has never been run low on oil. I have never grabbed the wrong gear on a downshift to cause a mechanical overrev.

I plan to pull the plugs and the valve cover tonight and have a look at the cams and valvetrain. I have not done a leakdown or compression test, but I can order the tools and give that a shot. After that, I could pull the oil pan to inspect the bearings, but I don't know exactly what I'd be looking for.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

Failed oil pump?

 

please keep us updated.

thanks.

 

That's what it sound like to me....Failed, or failing. Oil pressure will naturally drop as engine temp gets higher though. makes sense that it went back up after the temp dropped.

 

If it helps at all guys I had a failed oil pump on my 2003 srt-4. I had zero pressure as soon as she went. I just bought this 05 s2000 but I believe that oil pumps either work or they don't.

 

After reading your post. If you pull the pan and don't see any signs of metal shavings inside, you should also check for bearing material in the oil. You can visually inspect it by looking for a greyish soot like material in the bottom of the pan; the bearings themselves are usually made from a nickel derived material and it is easily distinguishable in your pan.

 

Don't know about the rest of your question, but I also have a whine at the front of my motor. It's somewhat intermittent. I usually hear it at idle after the engine is warm. I'm certain it's due to the TCT, tensioner arm, or something in that vicinity. My TCT has been replaced twice.

Regarding your power problem, the causes that I've seen recently:
1) MAP sensor issues.
2) Clogged cat.

 

I'd be yanking the oil pan and checking for bearing debris blocking the oil pickup

 

^
assuming it is bearing debris, what could cause the bearing debris, if he didn't over-rev or anything of that sort.

 

83K of hard use. Cars that have been tracked heavily have been known to lunch a motor around then.