Just before it was time to put my car away last year I noticed I would get a lot of valve train noise after the vehicle was warmed up awhile. Now that its warm I started to
look at my car so I hooked up a oil pressure gauge and fired up the car. The oil gauge was flicking very rapidly as much as 40 PSI from high to low. The needle was moving fast enough that you couldn't really see it except for the high and low point of the flicker. I could get the needle to stabilize sometimes playing with RPM, also after the car was warm for awhile oil pressure got as low as 25PSI at idle(which is when the valve train got noisy).

I am mostly wondering what could be the cause of the oil pressure flickering like that if that is not normal. I am planning on at least taking the oil pan and head off regardless to find out why I am dropping oil pressure and to check if any damage was done.

InlinePro
Stage 1 Turbo Kit w/precision 6265
2.4L Stroker kit
Oil filter relocate kit
Mobile 1 10W40 - I plan on switching to another oil

Thanks for any help
Alex

 

One likely cause is a bad oil pressure sender. If you have an electronic sender hooked up to a gauge, it would not be unusual for it to go bad.

If your pressure gauge has a direct hydraulic hookup, that's a different story.

Do you still have your stock oil pressure switch hooked up? is the oil light flickering?

 

if you havn't changed your oil yet after taking it out of storage, do that first. it's the cheapest thing to do and you gotta do it anyways.

also try a different oil. i'm iffy on mobil 1 for the s2000 engine. there has been debate on wether mobil 1 causes TCT failure.

 

This is a Mac mechanical oil pressure gauge put in place of the oil sender, which is why I am a little concerned about it. I will change the oil and fire it up again to see what that does, also no the cluster oil light does not flicker.

I guess one of the most reputable performance shops in the area is telling people to not use Mobile 1. I didn't hear this first hand but I heard it from someone who just had his car tuned there, they have been thinking the oil is related to spun bearings. That may have nothing to do with Honda however they feel strong enough to tell people not to use it so that says something.

 

What's a typical idle oil pressure?

 

Well spec at idle is 36PSI minimum and 85PSI at 3000RPM when at operating temp, like I stated earlier the needle was moving very quickly and the low point of the needles movement was around 25PSI.

 

Change the oil filter too.
You could check the oil pump bypass valve (plunger & spring) but I think you need to remove the pump.
IMO, a mechanical gauge may be too slow to show you the true lowest pressure - thicker oil does the same thing.
An oil may have an influence on wear (low film strength or HTHS) in boosted engines but I doubt any oil would create pulsating oil pressure.
If you find shavings in the oil pan = you know the answer.

 

built motor FI questions such as this should be in t he appropriate forum. you aren't going to get the best direction in an n/a forum or under the hood. what bearings did IP use in the build? Laskey used acl bearings in mine and they are much "looser" then stock and oil pressure will be lower then an untouched virgin motor. that said 25 psi at warrm idle is not an issue at all. as long as you have enough oil pressure to sustain vtec above 6k or whatever yours is set at you are fine. also for an fi motor, I personally wouldn't run a synthetic oil such as mobile 1. a good quality dyno oil is usually used. I am in GA and it gets quite warm, this plus the looser bearing tolerances of my motor allow me to run a straight 50 weight redline oil.

 

While you're doing an oil change, consider getting a sample of the oil and send it into a lab for a used oil analysis. That will tell you conclusively if you have a bigger problem.

 

I pulled the pan and there is no metal in the pan at all. Also I replaced the oil pump when the motor was built so that should be ok, I know there is always a chance of a bad part. Also I talked to a tech and he said that the oil pressure flicker I saw isnt abnormal.

I know that my car is FI but I figured this was more of a base engine concern and not really related to FI specifically, unless that turns out to be my problem. Why do you recommend a conventional oil?

Thats a good idea I never thought about that.

I was wondering is it possible that for whatever reason the oil pressure is causing the TCT to make noise? I am going to pull the TCT and inspect it. Has it ever been known to have a TCT make noise related to oil pressure?