Hey all, long story short, I recently popped a CEL during a track day which read P1259 VTEC system malfunction. With some help from Billman, we figured out that it was due to low oil pressure. After changing the oil, a few metal shavings were found in the old oil. I checked the oil pressure again after the oil change, hoping that it might have been a problem with the oil filter, but I'm still getting low pressures. I got:

Cold start: 55psi
Warm idle: Dropped down to 15psi. Might have dropped further, but I didn't want to leave the car on at such low pressures
3000 rpm after warming: 55psi

I checked the VTEC filter screen and it was clean, but I was told there might be other places that might have obstructions in the VTEC solenoid. I did snap the pics below which show evidence of some sort of oil leakage potential. Not sure that it's related to the low oil pressure since i verified oil was topped off when I did the pressure check.




Other possible causes:
1) bad oil pump
2) damage to the motor causing excess clearance
3) something else I'm not familiar with

Any advice? I've already lost a motor last year due to oil starvation, so I'm praying that this is not the early signs of another lost motor.

 

Do not run the car any more. If the oil pressure light never came on you may have gotten lucky enough to do a .010" grind on the crank and put new bearings in and it be good. If you have to pay someone to do the work it can be a bit costly, but DIY it it'll run you ~$300 in parts and machine service for the crank.

 

I forgot to mention that the oil pressure light did indeed flash briefly several times while on track

 

what baffle sump are you using ???

 

Bearings? Is it a high mileage motor?

 

Sadly, looks like you are going to need to strip down the bottom end and do some measurements. Prolly inspect the cams, too.

Good luck with all of that!

 

Of the possibilities you listed, the only one that aligns with all symptoms and observations is excessive clearances. That metal in the oil came from somewhere. Oil pumps on these cars are super reliable. Shavings are bearings = excessive clearances = low oil pressure = vtec issues.

Agree with those that are saying don't run it anymore, strip down bottom end and inspect. May be able to salvage with crank polish and new bearings, or crank grind and oversize bearings.

 

It is a somewhat higher mileage motor. Since it's not from my chassis, I don't know the exact mileage but the last reported on the Carfax for its VIN is 111k miles.

This is a track car, and last time I had bearing problems most said it's not going to be worth a rebuild since it's pricey and not as reliable for track. That was for a motor with full rod knock though. Since I live in an apartment building and park in a parking garage, I don't really have the space or tools to do the work myself. My fear is that i bring it to a shop to pull it apart and we find that a rebuild won't be sufficient, and I'll have paid for labor but still need to do a full replacement anyway. I was quoted $2.5k-$3.2k for the rebuild labor, which is almost as much as I paid for a replacement motor w/ install last time.

 

No idea

 

How hard of a fix would this be to do myself? I park in a parking garage, so space is limited.