Oil pan gasket sealing

[Drscottsmith]

Tinkered around a bit more today…

See what kind of conclusions we can draw from this?

[michaelmount123]

I feel your frustration, DrScott. Watching your video, I'm troubled by the air coming up from your pickup. What is the source of the air? If it is being pulled from a poor seal at the 'sucking' end of the hose, you may not have a problem. However, if the air is entering due to a cracked pickup tube, the oil pump will not prime. Why/how could you have primed the pump earlier but it's not priming now? As you know, when removing the pan you have to disturb the pickup to release it from the plastic insert in the pan. By doing so, you may have opened the crack even more so that it's now sucking too much air to prime the pump. If you're confident the pickup is not cracked, go ahead and start the engine to see if OP comes up. The engine will be okay if you don't rev it or put it under a load. You can idle it for a short period without damage relying on the assembly lubes you presumably used, and the oil from previous spins when you had OP. If you're more inclined to pull the pan again (you've got to be good at it now), go ahead and zip it off. It's fine to reuse the pan gasket and you'll build confidence confirming the issue. Note that I reinforced the pickup tube on every 944 engine that came through the shop. I can tell you that the strap that ties the pickup to the oil fill tube breaks first, then the pickup tube cracks at the base near the mounting pad. Porsche even reinforced the joint at the base of the tube in later 944's but it wasn't always enough.

[Drscottsmith]

WOOHOO! A celebratory drink may be in order.

When my son got home, we tried the combination of air pressure in the dipstick, vacuum from mighty vac and cranking. After a few seconds oil started gushing out into the clear tube. I quickly spun the filter back on and we now have pressure! What a relief. Now I can get the plugs back in and fire it up!! And see where the oil leaks from now.

Thanks all!

[michaelmount123]

Fantastic Doc!!

[Tom]

WOOHOO! A celebratory drink may be in order.

When my son got home, we tried the combination of air pressure in the dipstick, vacuum from mighty vac and cranking. After a few seconds oil started gushing out into the clear tube. I quickly spun the filter back on and we now have pressure! What a relief. Now I can get the plugs back in and fire it up!! And see where the oil leaks from now.

Thanks all!

Wahoo indeed. This was my spidey sense, but you just never know when playing amateur armchair internet mechanic... Sorry it was such a struggle -- and it really makes me wonder why some motors are like that and some prime up without a fight -- but either way I'm very happy for you. I felt your pain at the prospects of pulling it all apart!

[michaelmount123]

Lubriplate 105.webp (7.68 KiB) Viewed 671 times

Oil pump hack:
I've mentioned this elsewhere, but if you lube the oil pump rotors with white grease before mounting the pump, the thick grease will cause the pump to pull oil from the sump quickly. Barely any sweat during initial start-up! This lube is great for all the new bearings too.

[Tom]

Lubriplate 105.webp

Oil pump hack:
I've mentioned this elsewhere, but if you lube the oil pump rotors with white grease before mounting the pump, the thick grease will cause the pump to pull oil from the sump quickly. Barely any sweat during initial start-up! This lube is great for all the new bearings too.

I've used Redline assembly lube in the past. Would you recommend this for all parts that would otherwise need assembly lube?

[michaelmount123]

Lubriplate 105.webp

Oil pump hack:
I've mentioned this elsewhere, but if you lube the oil pump rotors with white grease before mounting the pump, the thick grease will cause the pump to pull oil from the sump quickly. Barely any sweat during initial start-up! This lube is great for all the new bearings too.

I've used Redline assembly lube in the past. Would you recommend this for all parts that would otherwise need assembly lube?

No doubt there are many suitable assembly lubes. I like the Lubriplate. It's not very messy, thick enough to not run off surfaces, and not expensive. I use it on all rotating parts (including seals) except the cams and lifters. Here I use a cam lube that's more suitable for high pressure applications.

[Drscottsmith]

Welll….

Might have celebrated too soon. Cranked the engine several times yesterday after the pressure finally built and it was fine each time.

Now this afternoon go out and we are back to pressure and the lifters clattering away.

Have run it for several minutes hoping for it to pressurize. Nothing.

Also tried a different filter thinking maybe the drain back was messed up but no change. The filter I had in yesterday was also noticeably heavier than a new one, leading me to believe it has oil in it.

Thoughts?

[Drscottsmith]

Well -

Checked several things…
1) Loosened the OPRV - did not remove. Like everything else, it seemed to work fine prior and I had not messed with it. Tightened back up. No difference.

2) replaced connector on pressure sender / no difference.

3) did same procedure as yesterday. Air pressure in dipstick, rapid pumping of Miti-vac in oil filter hole all while cranking.

After a few seconds, it is almost like the engine burped and oil started really coming out. Same thing happened yesterday.

Put the filter back on, fuel pump fuse in - and voila…oil pressure at 5 bar!

Here’s the proof!


So I will go crank it periodically and see what I need to do next.