Engine first start - no oil

Sven

Sven

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Getting set for the first start of the rebuilt engine (M30B35) and am having a problem with the oil pressure. The engine was rebuilt by a local reputable shop.

I have pulled the spark plugs, squirted some oil into the cylinders, filled the oil filter housing with oil. I have 6-7 qts in the pan. Fuel pump fuse is pulled. I crank and crank with the starter motor and get no pressure. The valve cover is off and I have been dripping additional oil onto the cam and springs. Nothing coming out of the spray bar. So I am thinking that there may be a problem somewhere. Options I have considered are:

Oil filter incorrectly installed? ( I have top mount bolt style)
Incorrect oil filter housing gasket?
Wrong head gasket installed?
Not enough engine speed during cranking to build pressure?
Oil pump sprocket not engaged properly on shaft?

Anything else I could be missing? Is there a special procedure for firing up an M30? I will drain the oil and check on the first two possibilities - but I am fairly sure I installed these correctly.

Thanks,
 
Sven,

Are you using the B35 oil filter housing? Your description of top bolt might mean it is the B34 housing which won't work as the ports don't line up the same.( Well it will, but very low pressures have been reported and it probably won't filter the same.) Check this first.

The pickup and the small metal tab/ gasket to pump; do you remember it? If the oil pump sprocket was shimmed for chain slack with the same material- the tab/ gasket to pickup has to have the shim by the same amount.

Good luck.:)
 
This is the filter housing I am using. I assumed it would work. Are there different varieties of the same housing? This is the typical LaJolla upgrade (e24?).
 

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Have you measured the oil pressure with a gauge of some kind, or are you measuring it by looking at the engine with the valve cover off? If it is only the latter, you will not see oil coming out of the spray bar just by cranking it with the starter. The oil spray bar normally sees too little pressure to actually make oil come out below ~2k RPMs. That is why many M30s have a significantly worn front cam lobe if they are used primarily in low-rev situations, such as stop-and-go traffic.

To remedy this, you could modify the spray bar to be a dual-chambered unit (check the tech info section for how to do this, very easy) but even if you did, I do not think think you would see oil coming from the spray bar at or near idle speeds.
 
No gauge. Relying on seeing oil come from the bar and waiting for the oil light to go out. Maybe at cranking speeds the oil pressure does not get high enough to short the pressure sensor?

Spray bar upgrade is probably a good idea. Not sure why I did not have them do that with the rebuild.
 
B34 oil housing in your photo. Works up to 87.

Not for B35 unless something's been modified. Pull it and check the chambers/ gasket. It will seal but not internally; resulting in abnormal low pressure bypassing the filter.

Check the Firstfive FAQS for 3.5 swap. There were threads about the three housing types and why the chambers/ ports don't line up. I'll see if I can dig it up.
 
The block side of the interface is divided into 2 chambers... The left one has a hole in it that must be plugged to use the b34 housing..... It's 10mm but i can't recall the thread.....It bypasses the oil straight back into the pan. It was needed with the later housing but will not work using the earlier filter housings.
As I recall the hole at the top of the housing is oil into the filter from the pump, the outlet from the filter is the large cavity in the filter housing (edit: I may have this reversed but it doesn't matter anyway....). The other hole in the block feeds the oil into the block. The left one is the bypass outlet from the B35 oil filter housing....
DaveG
 
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Here is a picture showing the hole that needs to be plugged.
DaveG
 

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Dave & Jerry - Thanks. There is indeed a hole behind the filter mount that needs to be plugged. I ordered the special size plug screw that LaJolla uses. So hopefully that will solve the issue. I also took 10 minutes and crimped the oil spray bar. Easy enough.

Pamp - I do have the upright housing, but is interferes with the master cylinder and does not look very original. Though the ease of changing the oil filter with that arrangement is enticing.
 
My ultimate solution to this issue was to order 2 11421722688 gaskets and make an .125 aluminum sandwich plate with just the bolt holes and the 2 oil feed holes in it.
Same result.... just a different way to get there.......
Sorry I never took a picture of it before i installed it.....
It would be an easy water jet part if anybody thought there was a market for it......
DaveG
 
Keep in mind that the e24 with the m30 b35 engine [last 2 years] used a m30b34 oil cannister. It is the e34 and e32 engines that had the new cannister.
 
Canisters

I had also considered the upright can for ease of filter changes...bagged the idea for a number of reasons. Sure is nice to learn new things on a near daily basis...thanks to all.
 
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