Oil light flicker at idle

grinderman Officially Full-On Dubber

378 posts · joined Apr 2011 · 11 Jan 2015, 9:17 pm

#1006749

Installed a recoed 1835 in my daughters bay kombi and after a small electrical issue it is now running sweet but after its first highway run (only about 10 minutes @ 90kph) its oil pressure warning light was flickering at idle when I pulled up at home. It seemed to be fine when cruising around town but it felt quite hot after highway run. The timing and tappets have been checked but could it be something internal?
There are a couple of small gaps in the tinware that I will address but I dont think that would cause any major overheating in such a short time.
Any help appreciated, Greg

psimitar Son of Jim - Creator of Good

2,506 posts · joined Jan 2009 · 11 Jan 2015, 11:54 pm

#1006756

How recent is the recon, how much endfloat, how old is the oil and what grade is the oil.

madness is in the eye of the beholder 👍

grumble Son of Jim - Creator of Good

2,672 posts · joined Jun 2008 · 12 Jan 2015, 7:54 am

#1006766

psimitar wrote:How recent is the recon, how much endfloat, how old is the oil and what grade is the oil.

Also what is the oil pressure,switches have been known to deteriorate and relief valve springs weaken,wear in the oil pump is another possibility.

grinderman Officially Full-On Dubber

378 posts · joined Apr 2011 · 12 Jan 2015, 9:44 am

#1006776

The engine was recoed over 5 years ago but it was stored in a dry place and turned over by hand regularly .
The oil pump is a high volume with outlet for additional oil cooler (not hooked up yet). I will try and hook up a gauge to see what's happening.
So how do I check the relief springs?
I'm only using castrol gtx 20/50 whilst running it in then I will probably put penrite hpr 15 in it.

ian.mezz I never said, I could write or spell

3,913 posts · joined Sep 2004 · 12 Jan 2015, 11:52 am

#1006780

just bump the idle up a tad

😂🤪😂🤪😂
car forums. where a lot of peoples good intentions end up taking a good old car off the road forever never ever to see the road again. 🥲

AA003 Custom Title Time!

1,189 posts · joined Oct 2011 · 12 Jan 2015, 12:42 pm

#1006784

Try a new switch. They're cheap.

I read it on samba, so it must be correct.

Sometimes Volkswagen dealers sell spare parts. Amazing isn't it!😂

fish26 Fahrvergnugen

903 posts · joined Jul 2007 · 12 Jan 2015, 2:32 pm

#1006786

Also get rid of the Castrol, try Nulon 25w60 racing or Penrite HPR30, its imperative you use full Zinc oils min qty 1200ppm

bitten by the bug..........several times

Grey 57 Old Grey Cruiser

2,937 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 12 Jan 2015, 5:40 pm

#1006800

All of the above.

psimitar Son of Jim - Creator of Good

2,506 posts · joined Jan 2009 · 12 Jan 2015, 7:39 pm

#1006812

fish26 wrote:Also get rid of the Castrol, try Nulon 25w60 racing or Penrite HPR30, its imperative you use full Zinc oils min qty 1200ppm

Or pop some slick50 in there or similar.

Switches these days can be rather hit or miss so defo get a reading from a mechanical gauge and not an electric as they can fluctuate in accuracy.

madness is in the eye of the beholder 👍

modnrod Fahrvergnugen

978 posts · joined Mar 2011 · 12 Jan 2015, 7:43 pm

#1006815

Borrow a good mechanical oil pressure gauge. After a quick highway run, throw it into the oil pressure switch hole, start it up again and read the pressure. It's probably OK, between 10psi (yes, you only NEED 10psi) and 20psi is expected. When engines sit around for years everything starts to stick, especially small passageways like in a switch.

Dump the oil when hot, and then also straight away try to pull the relief valve and spring from the flywheel end. It will probably be stuck fast too, in the "cold" position (relief spring compressed). If this is the case, then the relief valve thinks the oil is cold, and thick, and so stays down even when the oil is flowing and hot. This also means that bugger all oil is flowing through to your oil cooler, which may be why it's getting hot. A high-volume oil pump only makes it worse, because then even when the oil is hot there is too much pressure at 3000rpm highway revs to let the relief valve open and let oil get to the cooler.

The best way to fix way too much oil pressure at cruise revs from a too-big pump is to use a much lighter oil. You will also find that some lighter oils, like Penrite 5W40 semi-synth or Redline 10W40 actually take away more heat from the metal than mineral 20W50 or 25W60, so you get a double-whammy benefit. Whenever I've had high-comp aircooled bikes get hot in summer, I've always thrown in one of those 2 oils to give me more margin. They also have a much higher film strength than normal minerals, so even at much lower pressures and higher heats they will stop bearings touching rotating bits.

Of course, this is all just my personal opinion, it might be complete crap! 😂

grinderman Officially Full-On Dubber

378 posts · joined Apr 2011 · 12 Jan 2015, 8:10 pm

#1006819

Some great advice from you all. Thanks
I have an adaptor to run 2 senders so I will hook up a gauge and a new warning sender
When funds are available we are getting a large oil cooler with thermo fan and filter which should help.
It was a bit cooler today and it seemed to run even better