Does anyone have any experience with Pre-Lubers on the S2000? I'm not sure if I got the correct terminology for it, but I'm referring to the electric oil pumps that deliver oil to the engine for a few seconds before starting it up.

 

I'm curious if it would be possible to just insert the electric pump with some sort of bypass valve between the oil filter and the heat exchanger, then put a 10~20 second timed circuit to contol it from the remote door unlock. I think it would be really nice to have the engine getting a fresh squirt of oil as I walk up to the car and get in.

 

I found some pre-luber info on the web:

http://www.enginelube.com/main-products.htm
http://members.tripod.com/~RoverSD_1/oil.html
http://www.redhummer.com/myhummer/preluber/

It looks like some of them can continue pumping oil after the engine has shut off, which seems like a really good idea for tracked cars.

 

I saw one years ago in a Summit Racing catolog and thought about trying it. This was before the S.

The price on the one I saw was around $500.

 

Pegasus Racing had some in their catalog. These units would build a supply of oil in its reservoir during operation and use that oil if anytime during operation, the pressure goes down due to lack of oil pickup or whatever. On shutdown, it would store that oil and if one has the automatic version, would release the oil on ignition on, or do so if a lever is turned in the nonautomatic.

 

I posted a thread seeing if anyone was interested in a group buy perhaps a year ago... Seems like a good idea to me. A budy almost installed one in his rx7 but he sold it before he bought one of these

 

I did some more reading, and found that they can really simplify oil changes. The one I was reading about has a quick disconnect on the return hose, that can be used to pump the oil out of the oil pan into a container. The entire oil change could be done without getting under the car.

 

I thought about it too, it seems that all you really get is bottom end lubing. I have to agree with this guy
that most engines under normal every day driving conditions, will wear out the rings and valve train
seals before the main, rod, and camshaft bearings. If there are no inferior parts down there.

Now if there was only a system that pre-lubed from the top down and squirted some oil from the bottom
on the cylinder walls!!

From the rover sd site.

""Most wear comes from startup, however the preluber only lubricates the bearings and such. The piston, cylinders and cam lobes still don't get any extra lubrication. So you can expect only longer life of your main bearings and camshaft bearings. In practice most engines are worn because of worn pistons and cylinder bores not because of bearing wear. So this reduces the positive effect of the preluber.""

 

I read that too, but I don't see why it would be true. If oil was pumped through the same passages that the oil normally flows, why would it not reach the valvetrain (on our engine)?

 

I find this thread very interesting that considering the abuse these cars take (at least Greg's) that you would be worried about a few seconds at startup.

Use a quality synthetic oil and a filter with a good anti-drainback valve. Oil pressure should come up quickly.