Track day loss of oil pressure

[euro dave]

OK, cheers guys

[euro dave]

Here's a link I found that might be of use to other people searching for the same topic:

http://www.clubgti.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53047

[Diamond Hell]

Priming the pump like that is a pointless thing to do.  The oil will drain straight out of the bottom of the pump, but you'll think it's primed because the internetz said it was.

Instead, get the pump bolted up, replace the sump and fill it, then remove the dizzi and use a drill on the top end of the pump drive to actually prime the pump and the rest of the oil system.

This way you'll actually be able to see the pressure light go off and the system will actually be primed.

[Horney]

DH good tip. As a matter of interest would pre loading the pump with grease work and then spin it over on the starter for a bit before letting it fire up?

I used to do this when I rebuilt mini engines and it reduced the time of getting the pressure up on new engine hugely. Not sure if this would work witht he Golf design of pump.

nick

[Diamond Hell]

Pumping grease round your engine is a bad idea.

I've used vaseline before to help prime motors, but really the drill on the pump drive is the only sure-fire way of priming up the motor properly and with oil.  The low speed turnover on the starter won't always pull the oil up with the vaseline, or grease - that's a big ask.

[Horney]

Ah yes it was indeed vaseline and not grease, memories not what it used to be. Oil pump on a mini is cam driven so the drill option wasn't available for that.

nick

[Diamond Hell]

You blocking out memories of vaseline there, Nick?

Got anything else you're trying not to remember?

 

[euro dave]

What would you consider as the right order of things to do to solve the issue?  Oil, Filter, Cooler, Pump in what order?  Would you do just one thing before retrying to see the effects?  Obviously we don't want to do things unnecessarily and it could be any number of issues.  The history of the oil in the car is unknown so personally I'd just do this and a filter first, but I don't want to get on a track and damage stuff again.

[Diamond Hell]

Hang on, can we just confirm something here:

You bought the car and then just threw it around on track without so much as changing the oil?

[euro dave]

We can only go on what the previous owner said which was that he'd done an oil and filter change.  The oil was clean and we had good pressure and temperature on the road so never got around to a filter and oil change before the day.  There weren't any plans on ragging the car on the track to within an inch of its life but in hindsight we should have done a full fluid change before the day. 

But no, it wasn't just bought and thrown on the track.