vulnax999

iTrader: (7)

Sudden great gushes oil from the front lower engine area that coats from inside one wheel to the other and chasis rails, gearbox underside etc. leading to huge clouds of smoke a la F1 ? from the headers.
Nothing on cam belt covers or front and top half of engine, nor round turbo. No pistons hanging out either.

Something popped on the motorway tonight which dumped most of the oil in 20 seconds in 2 surges, pulled over in another 10 before switching off. No oil gone through the exhaut ( so not major engine failure? or turbo ) and seems an external oil leak / explosion.


Seems like a camshaft oil seal gone or crank pulley seal, unless some oil hose failed - where are there oil hoses at front of engine?


Help needed please!

Quite urgently!

Neil

Gidney&Knowlesy

If there was aloud pop this could have been the sump bolt coming out. It sometimes happens if it gets damaged on rough terrain or if debris from the road hots it.

Firstly, look at the sump itself if there is a small hole where the sump bolt should be then that's your answer.

Get a replacement top up with oil & get it inspected, by pulling over quickly you may just have saved your engine.


If the sump bolt is in place, its worth running your hand at the bottom of the leading edge of the cam cover, if its soaked then more likly to be an oil seal popped. Though never seen the full contents of an engine come out of here yet.....

vulnax999

iTrader: (7)

Thanks mate!

Sump plug seemed in there, as was oil filter. Loads of oil all over lower 6 inches of engine and bay/chassis legs and back to cross-member and gearbox, including front valence / bottom of radiator ( so likely a front squirt! ) - not sure on cam covers the top half were fine and dry, so looks a lot but may have been only a couple of litres. Definitely off the dip stick though.


The engine didn't lose boost ( was at about atmos and cruising low load ) or die or slow when happened, and knocklink and AFR were all fine. No oil light on so THINK was over the oil pressure trigger setting ( 8 psi or something? ) so could have kept the oil film in the bearings.

When I said popped, I didn't mean a pop sound, I meant burst or popped out like a hose or oil seal. Turbo is dry on outside as are it's oil hoses, exhaust only has usual rich running residues.


Local jap car specialist garage took it away this afternoon to look at it and let me know tomorrow where it looks like the oil came from. If something obvious then new filter and oil and see!


Thanks

*Sonic*

Hi Neil

Sorry about what happened yesterday, hope you eventually got home ok

Having taken a look at the scene, the complete whole top of the engine bay was as dry as a bone, a lot of the oil had collected on the undertray at the front only underneath the radiator

then a lot of this oil made its way onto the front wheels, headers, (a lot of oil deposit on the Lambda - pre face lift, so read headers ) Filter seemed dry, lots of oil on the bottom of the sump and gearbox (take it this was due to forward motion on the motorway)

The cam cover was also bone dry, except for underneath along the join, which on one side the join had slightly seperated, and this is *possibly* where the oil has come from

It did dump it very quickly tho

Hope its not *too* serious Neil, and that your back up & running again soon

Steve

vulnax999

iTrader: (7)

Thanks Steve, a quick update.

The garage have just got back to me, looks like the oil filter seal blew out and threw out the oil. The filter was not much more than hand tight, so could have allowed the seal to squirm out .. and it was a Delphi motor factor oil filter, not of japanese origin or Subaru own .. may also contributed to it.

Due to be replaced tomorrow, topped up with oil and run up with a pressure gauge to see what the oil system is running like, then let's see if there is any reason for higher pressure if that is found - maybe relief valve was stuck? If so, why?


Hopefully only **Some ** oil squirted out while maintaining some flow and pressure to the engine....

Neil

KLR16V

iTrader: (2)

Sorry to here what happened , wondered why you weren't in work , hope the car is okay , any news yet on how the car is ?

Mark

vulnax999

iTrader: (7)

Not much more than above really. By the way, your oil smokes really well on hot headers! 1 can all over the A1(M) now!

Seems no bottom end damage when it was sorted and oil replaced.. x fingers!

Oil seal blew out, could have been 'cos it was not tightened up enough ( changed 10 days ish ago ) or 'cos it was not the best kind of after market scooby filter and couldn't cope / caused back pressure etc. Sticking woth genuine Subaru ones in future

OR there is some reason for extra high oil pressure ( e.g. relief valve sticking or similar ) which popped out the seal. As I type the garage are running it up to check oil pressure readings, before we look at next step if needed.
May need new oil pump, so would go for GGR or RCM uprated one - any one know which is better flow / pressure?

See ya tomorrow

Neil

vulnax999

iTrader: (7)

Any one know what the normal oil pressure when near warm on idle is for a classic WRX ( wagon )?

is 95 psi a bit high???

vulnax999

iTrader: (7)

Sorted now, was just a weak oil filter sealing ring, and high oil pressure was just due to the old problem of not having oil warm when water temp gauge is on warm .. so reading it wrong!

Bottom end been ok for last month, and booted a lot ... so think I got away with it!