I was on my way to advanced auto today and i heard a ticking. At first i didnt think anything of it, this all started when i was pulling into the lot. I noticed the ticking was coming from the top end of the motor, and my oil pressure was in the red. I immediatly shut it off and walked inside. I started it back up and it was alot quieter. On the way home it pretty much stopped. My oil pressure was still pretty low, to low for comfort. Any idea what this could be? The low oil pressure is the scary part, before i put the motor in i plastigauged the bearings and they were in factory spec, the crank play was in spec. The gears on the oil pump were in spec. Before on my old 2.8 the sending unit was bad and it always flunng the gauge to the far right on the gauge pod. Occasionally the needle would go crazy and then go back to the right again. Right now my oil pressure at idle is just south of 20psi. Half the time its there and half the time its at around 25-30 psi at idle, more low than high though. When revving and driving my oil pressure is good, but at idle is when the pressure goes down.

by the way its a 92 3.4 dohc.

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86 Fiero SE 3.4 DOHC 4 speed
its the luminero?

[This message has been edited by boostedbird (edited 08-01-2005).]

anyone?

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86 Fiero SE 3.4 DOHC 4 speed
Spec stage 2
its the luminero?

well, it's kind of common for some engines to have loud injectors, they were upgraded in most. but with your oil pressure fluctuating like that i think you already know the answer. you could try some additives or thicker oil if you don't want to touch the engine, or look for a new one on ebay. personally i don't have luck with rebuilds but you could try that too. car-part.com always has resonable priced engines. try looking for the newer 96-97 and you will have a better selection.

what weight oil do you use? how many miles on the motor?
has it had a hard life?

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Im Rich B!tch

AIM: ONE FAST 2M8

Change to synthetic oil if you havn't already. I use Mobil 1 5w30 with a Pure One filter in every one of my DOHC's.

It could be the injectors, but I doubt it. THose are a steady ticking, all the time. But yes, they are noisy, noisy all the time.

I'm afraid you may have a bigger problem, but I'd look into it further. When my Z34 started ticking, it ended up being bearing, but it did sound just like a ticking. I did not lose oil pressure. Get an automotive stethiscope and listen around the motor. That should give you a pretty clear indication. I almost promise you it is a bearing though. Get underneath and listen to the oil pan and lower end of the block.

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These engines have a tendancy to have 1 lifter that sticks. lol every engine Ive had has had just 1. It will usualy get real bad after you run it hard or at highway speed for a long time.

Alternatively (this is creepy) my last engine that exploded, developed a light tick as I was leaving advanced auto (no joke). Of course I was leaving SIDEWAYS down the road but it sounded kinda like a lifter, never went away, didnt get worse, but then the piston exploded the next day. And I mean exploded, there was piston ring jammed in the throttle body and chunks of the #4 piston in the #1 intake valves.

Best bet is pull the filter and dump the oil out on a white piece of paper, let it pool as you pour and watch for metalic streaks. That would indicate a crank problem. if nothing ,just cross your fingers

WHAT NOT TO DO (i.e. What I did) Run the engine real hard to try to determine what the noise is what bad idea, noooo . I made it from stop to 6k in 1st, then slowed down, the second time round I only made it to 5 before my GF behind me disappeared in a giant cloud of smoke. Fourtunately I was close enough to home to coast in.

well it has since stopped and my oil pressure is been low and ok half and half tonight. im not hearing any other noises. I know the injector tick and i recognize that and can hear it. The motor has around 110k. i drove the car before i got the motor. it was a 92 lumina 4 door euro 3.4. It has not lived a bad life at all. the cylinders still had the crosshatch on them and like i said everything down south was pretty mint condition. Any way to test for a bad sending unit?

And a side note, it only did the tick for maybe 2 mins. Has since gone away. Still have funky pressure though.

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86 Fiero SE 3.4 DOHC 4 speed
Spec stage 2
its the luminero?

[This message has been edited by boostedbird (edited 08-02-2005).]

That could just be the lifters then. I know my Z34, prior to the spun bearing, whenever I got on it hard, the lifters would tick loudly for about 15 seconds, then they'd be silent. They also did it on start up.

Again, SWITCH TO SYNTHETIC OIL NOW. I can't stress that enough.

It also could be the sending unit, I've heard those give some pretty messed up pressure readings when they go bad.

im gunna changethe oilto synthetic tommorow and see what my old oil looks like. It has around 350 miles on it. im gunna get a mechanical oil gauge also and se what i can get there. Ill post results tommorow

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86 Fiero SE 3.4 DOHC 4 speed
Spec stage 2
its the luminero?

quote Originally posted by boostedbird: im gunna changethe oilto synthetic tommorow and see what my old oil looks like. It has around 350 miles on it. im gunna get a mechanical oil gauge also and se what i can get there. Ill post results tommorow

i wonder if the oil pickup just is blocked and sucking up very little oil? maybe thats why youhad ticking for a very short burst, at that point the engien was starved for oil. Id drop the oil pan and inspect everything..

What weight of oil are you using? 3.4 DOHC are touchy on the weight of oil as it has a long oiling system and finicky lifters. if its too thick in colder conditions the top end may starve for oil when at high rpm for an extended length of time. If the oil is too thin under hot temps while at high rpm the lifters can tick as well most likely in part due to viscosity

Mine used to occasionally tick for a bit after I ran at high rpm for extended length of time. It would go away within a min or two. I was running straight 20 50 as it was summer so I went with straight 5 30 as a test and it did the same thing. So, I mixed my oil. I ran 2 quarts 20-50 a quart of 10- 40 and the rest 5 30 and it stopped doing it. You might try running straight 10-30 or 10-40 in the summer under hot conditions and back to 5-30 in the winter.

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quote Originally posted by Erik: What weight of oil are you using? 3.4 DOHC are touchy on the weight of oil as it has a long oiling system and finicky lifters. if its too thick in colder conditions the top end may starve for oil when at high rpm for an extended length of time. If the oil is too thin under hot temps while at high rpm the lifters can tick as well most likely in part due to viscosity Mine used to occasionally tick for a bit after I ran at high rpm for extended length of time. It would go away within a min or two. I was running straight 20 50 as it was summer so I went with straight 5 30 as a test and it did the same thing. So, I mixed my oil. I ran 2 quarts 20-50 a quart of 10- 40 and the rest 5 30 and it stopped doing it. You might try running straight 10-30 or 10-40 in the summer under hot conditions and back to 5-30 in the winter.

an oil cooler should help that

i was running castrol gtx 10w-30. The oil pickup screen was also not clogged at all i inspected before installing the motor........clean as a whistle. Unless something got in there. Ill find out today

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86 Fiero SE 3.4 DOHC 4 speed
Spec stage 2
its the luminero?

On the two occasions when I got my Northstar's oil really hot, it got down to about 10 psi at idle and had some lifter clatter. I was running without an oil cooler, though. That's running 10-W30 Valvoline.

The TDC's came with an oil/water heat exchanger sandwhiched between the block and oil filter. Do you have that cooler hooked up? If not, do so at once.

yea i have it hooked up. The motor itself seems like its really hot to th touch. It runs cool, actually overcooled but when you pop the decklid you get a nice heatwave. Just doesnt see normal.

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86 Fiero SE 3.4 DOHC 4 speed
Spec stage 2
its the luminero?

quote Originally posted by Kohburn: an oil cooler should help that

I am running the stock oil cooler

quote Originally posted by Will: On the two occasions when I got my Northstar's oil really hot, it got down to about 10 psi at idle and had some lifter clatter. I was running without an oil cooler, though. That's running 10-W30 Valvoline. The TDC's came with an oil/water heat exchanger sandwhiched between the block and oil filter. Do you have that cooler hooked up? If not, do so at once.

believe only the stick shift TDC's (91-93) came with those

but you can buy an oil/coolant heat exchanger for about 50$ - I'll be doing that for mine

quote Originally posted by boostedbird: yea i have it hooked up. The motor itself seems like its really hot to th touch. It runs cool, actually overcooled but when you pop the decklid you get a nice heatwave. Just doesnt see normal.

Are you running the 4 cly radiator? When I was running a 4 cly radiator mine would run at about 190 to 210 according to the gauge but since I am running a 6 cly radiator it consitantly runs at 160-170 even on the hottest day. Of course the best way to find out what it is running at is to take a scan tool to verify the temp.

quote Originally posted by Erik: [QUOTE]Originally posted by Kohburn: believe only the stick shift TDC's (91-93) came with those but you can buy an oil/coolant heat exchanger for about 50$ - I'll be doing that for mine

I've seen them on all auto equipped DOHC from 91-93 that I have encountered so far[/QUOTE]

cool - know anyone with a spare? my 95 doesn't have one

i am running a v6 radiator and my coolant temps on the gauge are really low, almost to low. i think my t-stat was messed up when the car overheated. Its just the touch on the engine is hotter than hell. i cant rest my hand on my rear valve cover sometimes because its so hot. I just checked to make sure and yes the oil cooler is hooked up. My dohc came out of an auto 91-93 motor and had the stock cooler on it.

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86 Fiero SE 3.4 DOHC 4 speed
Spec stage 2
its the luminero?

I also wonder if the oil cooler is undersized - I mean it is pretty darn small

quote Originally posted by Kohburn: cool - know anyone with a spare? my 95 doesn't have one

I have one

quote Originally posted by Erik: motors get hot I wouldnt want to touch mine till it cools down after running for a length of time

now why would a motor get?........ok just kidding.

It just seemed like it got a little warmer than the old 2.8. Maybe im just giving myself something else to worry about. So should i go all synthetic on the oil or mix it like Erik?

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86 Fiero SE 3.4 DOHC 4 speed
Spec stage 2
its the luminero?

quote Originally posted by Erik: My 97 N* Seville doesnt have an oil cooler although it has the ports to add one. I am considering adding an aftermarket one with a thermo

I've been thinking of going that route - guess i'll plann on adding one at my first oil change

quote Originally posted by boostedbird: now why would a motor get?........ok just kidding. It just seemed like it got a little warmer than the old 2.8. Maybe im just giving myself something else to worry about. So should i go all synthetic on the oil or mix it like Erik?

Just in case you didnt understand what I said, I did not mix synthetic with conventional oil, I just mixed different weights of conventional oil. Synthetic oil would be a better bet for the DOHC as it wont break down under high heat conditions

[This message has been edited by Erik (edited 08-02-2005).]

i know you didnt mix the synthetic with the conventional i just ment should i mix the weights up on conventional? Im just gunna go synthetic. i think its on it way oput though. It came back today, had no pressure and the tick was like a light knock almost

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86 Fiero SE 3.4 DOHC 4 speed
Spec stage 2
its the luminero?

[This message has been edited by boostedbird (edited 08-02-2005).]

quote Originally posted by boostedbird: i know you didnt mix the synthetic with the conventional i just ment should i mix the weights up on conventional? Im just gunna go synthetic. i think its on it way oput though. It came back today, had no pressure and the tick was like a light knock almost

I personally would have no qualms about mixing weights on synthetic. I would check your oil for metal which will indicate bearing damage. <crossesfingers>

Change to Mobil 1 5w30, and see what that does for it.

As for the oil cooler, it was standard on 5-speeds, and an option on automatics that was pretty common.

well i got my oil drained and everything............oil was metal free. i didnt find any traces of metal in there at all. I poured the oil from the filter out onto some white paper and saw nothing out of the ordinary, no metal. Im gunna go with the synthetic oil 5w-30 and a pure one filter and see what happens there. Where is the oil pressure sender located? I have no idea.

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86 Fiero SE 3.4 DOHC 4 speed
Spec stage 2
its the luminero?

If there was no obvious metal streaks coming out of the oil filter I wouldnt suspect it. The metal will be concentrated mostly in the filter as it cant go past it. Also it should be redialy obvious and suspended in the oil as it pours out. Ive seen plenty of liquified bearings, and its always obvious. Put some slightly heavier oil in it, and run it till it blows, but dont like murder it, cause it might not have a problem after all. Ive got one that drops oil pressure to red light at idle, but seems to be fine other wise. Trust me there would be no doubt if there was metal in the oil, and it usualy doesnt sink to the bottom of the oil unless you let it sit for a day or so.

well i did have the oil out of my 2.8 which had a horribly spun bearing in it in that pan. Could be leftovers from that. I started it with some full synthetic 5w-30 and the pressure was good at startup and then slowly worked down to the red zone. no noised though. i let it idle in the red for about 10 mins and heard nothing.

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86 Fiero SE 3.4 DOHC 4 speed
Spec stage 2
its the luminero?

quote Originally posted by boostedbird: well i did have the oil out of my 2.8 which had a horribly spun bearing in it in that pan. Could be leftovers from that. I started it with some full synthetic 5w-30 and the pressure was good at startup and then slowly worked down to the red zone. no noised though. i let it idle in the red for about 10 mins and heard nothing.

wtf? You reused oil out of another engine....with a spun bearing? New oil's like $20 tops. How much was your engine?

I must be misreading that, because I just don't see how you could...

no i didnt use my old oil. i said i had the oil from the 2.8 that had a badly spun bearing in it, in the pan. So there might have been some metal left over from the 2.8. The 3.4 has NEW 5w-30 synthetic in it.

i was merely stating that the pan i was using was used to catch metal filled oil from a 2.8.........

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86 Fiero SE 3.4 DOHC 4 speed
Spec stage 2
its the luminero?