Car is showing right at full on the dipstick and doesn't appear to have anything odd with the oil...nice dark golden color...

My car is a 2001 w/ new shortblock (f20c). Maybe 400 miles on the engine. Oil pressure was pretty good early in my last race when I was watching it. I didn't pay attention later on, but the car seemed to run okay excpet......

I ran my exhaust just to the testpipe (catback exhaust broke)....which heated up my gas tank and had no where to vent....... so i think some of the air went into the gas lines and tried to burn....so out of turns for the last 5 laps or so it would sputter until it would level off and get only gas.

I don't have the original "idiot Light" hooked up any more so I don't know if the light would be on or not.....

Here is what I have tried so far. I unplugged the coil packs and unplugged the tube off the back of the oil pressure guage then had my wife turn the engine over about 2-3 seconds worth...that pushed no oil out.

any suggestions? seems pretty odd that it is showing ZERO pressure now but ran pretty decent (besides that gas vapor thing) in the race.

 

Did you actually fire it up or just spin the engine around using the starter motor? If it actually started, you should have seen oil. If you didn't start it, try it but only let it run for a few seconds. Have a catch reservoir on the end of the tube.
If you didn't start it, did you do this when the engine was HOT? If so, then cranking it over only a hundred rpm or so would not have developed any significant oil pressure and you would not have seen oil come out. If you did this cold, then it is still questionable whether or not enough oil pressure built up to push oil out the tube.

Also, if you have oil pressure when the engine is running, take the oil fill cap off, you'll see oil getting spat out. Have a rag handy. If you aren't pumping oil, you will get nothing when you take the cap off.

 

okay...the car definately will start if i rehook up the spark plugs.... i will do that and take off the oil cap and have my wife fire it up tomorrow....

Anyone know much about the oil pump in these things? can they just die without notice? where is the oil pump (i just drive...i suck at trying to fix things).

thanks for the help. I will report back tomorrow.

O ya...the car was cold when we did the 2-3 seconds worth this evening...

 

The engine has to be running to get an accurate oil pressure #. The pump is chain driven off the crankshaft, It's possible the chain broke. I've never seen one die without notice or making very bad noises.

It would be a good idea to reinstall the idiot light. It's also not too adviseable to use a mechanical oil pressure gauge inside the car. IF the line breaks or gauge malfunctions, you'll have 100psi of hot oil aimed your way.

 

Been there, done that.

 

Fun wasn't it?

 

His Avitar was in the car with him and that's what caused his right eye problem.

 

Wow...Vapor lock. I used to have that on my first car - a Renault R10 (rear engine, RWD). The gas has to get pretty warm to get it to vapor lock.

If you were not getting any funny noises coming from your engine, I seriously doubt that you have an oil pump problem. I suggest that you don't fire up your engine with the pressure switch open. Your engine will be starved of oil as long as it's running that way.

I think Xviper's advice is good. And listen carefully for any funny sounds like screeching and/or knocking.

If you do a search, Xviper has a good write-up on attaching a short braided hose at the pressure switch port, and putting a tee on the other end. This way, you can attach both your stock pressure switch and a pressure gauge sender. I did this a year ago, and it works great.