oil pressure light

[mustererks]

I just saved a red 1993 ATX SHO , when I got it home I started it and it started right up, I took it for a ride and at about 2 miles down the road the oil light came on. So I turned around to go back home and the car died. I tried to start it for about 15 minutes, it just wouldn’t start, and I had to tow it back home. The next day I tried to start it and it started right up again like nothing ever happened. But after about 15 minutes of running the oil light came back on and the car started to run rough again, so I shut it off. I had I green 1993 MTX SHO a couple of years ago, and never had a problem like this. Any ideas????

 

[SHOtimer]

Is it the yellow "oil level" light, or the red "oil pressure" light? First, you need to check the oil. Second start planning for a rod bearings swap and hope you can still have the motor. Do you hear any knocking from the engine or any unusual noise? Best case senario, your rod bearings are shot and you change them to then have a solid engine.

Doug

 

[mustererks]

It is the red oil light, there is a knocking, but I though it needed the valves shimmed, the knocking seems to come from the back side.

 

[masho95]

It is the red oil light, there is a knocking, but I though it needed the valves shimmed, the knocking seems to come from the back side.

The engine is probably 90% toast. If you run the engine with a knocking and the red oil light? NOT GOOD! The knocking is the connecting rods pummeling down on the crankshaft probably making that engine useless. You should probably start planning on an engine swap if you still want to "save" this car.

 

[mustererks]

I just put the car in the garage and put it up on jack stands. When I drained the oil their seemed to be a lot more oil than called for, I haven’t measured it out yet, I think they just put a regular 3.0l non sho dip stick in. I am going to drop the pan to night.

 

[masho95]

I just put the car in the garage and put it up on jack stands. When I drained the oil their seemed to be a lot more oil than called for, I haven’t measured it out yet, I think they just put a regular 3.0l non sho dip stick in. I am going to drop the pan to night.

I'll be more than willing to bet you are going to find a bunch ofd metal flakes in it, but for your sake I hope not. You can also cut open the oil filter and check for debris in there. Let us know what you find. If you start taking the rod bearings apart, check the smoothness of the crank, if it was knocking pretty loud you're probably going to find at least one part of the crankshaft scored.

 

[mustererks]

I dropped the pan and pulled the bearings off the first one, they are toast, the crank is scored also, now I am not an auto mechanic, so why would this cause an oil pressure problem, and how did this happen, is a common thing, I never had this problem with my last SHO. Is it a 3.2l thing.

 

[Bizzy]

Welcome to the spun rod bearing club. It happens from time to time, there doesn't seem to be any particular mile marker to start worrying about it. I've heard of cars with 80K going and some not going until 180k or better. I think a lot of it has to do with the lack of consistent oil changes and regular maintenance. Though there are cars out there that have been anally maintained and spun one.

In any case, if the crank is badly scored your best bet is to find another motor.

 

[mustererks]

Well I pulled the rest and they are not as bad, being an aircraft mechanic I tend to get a little excited about what might be something small. The crank is scorn a little, but mostly smooth. I guess thats what you get for buying a SHO for $700. I just cant find where to get these bearings, I called my local auto stores and they don’t carry them at all?

 

[AutoSHO]

Napa carries them, as does Advance/Checker/Schucks.

Clevite CB1435

 

[masho95]

Well I pulled the rest and they are not as bad, being an aircraft mechanic I tend to get a little excited about what might be something small. The crank is scorn a little, but mostly smooth. I guess thats what you get for buying a SHO for $700. I just cant find where to get these bearings, I called my local auto stores and they don’t carry them at all?

You can try putting new bearings in, but 99% of the time if you can feel the scores on the crank by hand you are in deep trouble. The new bearings may last 1-500 miles, or basically put, they will go at any time after you put them in and run the car. As for the oil pressure light coming on, did you check the level of oil in the car when the light was coming on? Low oil level will tend to lead to these issues.

 

[mustererks]

If anything the oil was over filled, I don’t think they had the right dip stick in when I got it. I drained about 6 quarts out of it, the oil filter was clean the only thing I found was a small amount of slug on top of the oil pump inlet. I will let ya know what happens.

 

[nc89sho]

just FYI, advance auto does NOT have the bearings, but napa does and they aren't very expensive.and also.. 5 1/2 quarts is normal for a sho with the filter changed.. unless it has a FL1A on it in wich case, 6 quarts is acctually correct.

 

[Electricat]

As far as the cause of the pressure problem.....how much "gunk" is there around the oil pickup and in the bottom of the pan? My '95 ATX was having serious oil presure issues, I found that the pickup was seriously clogged.

 

[AutoSHO]

just FYI, advance auto does NOT have the bearings, but napa does and they aren't very expensive.and also.. 5 1/2 quarts is normal for a sho with the filter changed.. unless it has a FL1A on it in wich case, 6 quarts is acctually correct.

Per the PartsAmerica.com website, Checker, Advance, Schucks, and Kragen can all get the Clevite CB1435P SHO Rod Bearings.

 

[Shoman594]

As far as the cause of the pressure problem.....how much "gunk" is there around the oil pickup and in the bottom of the pan? My '95 ATX was having serious oil presure issues, I found that the pickup was seriously clogged.

Sounds like lack of oil changes created sludge on the pick up severly cutting off oil pumps ability to pick up oil, thats the reason for the oil pressure issues.


Also its 5 quarts.

 

[mustererks]

Thanks for all the help, I am going to pull the crank out and have a engine shop turn the crank shaft, then I will put some .25mm oversize bearing in. I found online a kit that had Clevite rod, main, and thrust bearings for about $150, I also called a few local salvage yards and they had a couple of 3.2l motors for around $450, so I will let you know, I have rebuild 3 Taurus so far, my first SHO had a shelled out the mtx so t rebuilt that, the other one had bad head gasket and this one, well we will see, I have never gotten this deep in the SHO motor, but Yamaha did a good job making it easy!!

 

[mustererks]

Well I called around today and got a quote on a crank grind with new bearings, $300 for them to grind it a give me oversize bearings, so I went out and picked up a used 3.2l motor, it was a out of a 1995, and only had 67k on it, they had all the paper work that showed all cylinders pressures and the oil pressure at cold idle and hot idle. All that to my front door for $450. I think I stole it for that price plus it a lot cleaner. I guess no more oil pressure problems for me. And a motor to play with.