annointed

I nearly lost my jdm motor today...

Last night I changed my oil, and noticed that the gasket that sealed the old filter was not with the old filter. I had already put on the new $10 X2 filter, and filled up with Mobil 1, so I was reluctant to take off the filter to see if the old gasket was still up in there, as I had already finished the oil change. I figured I would check the oil level the next day after my 15 mile drive to school...BAD MOVE.

Midday, driving home from school, as I came to a light, I noticed a major cloud of black smoke behind me I was freaking out inside waiting for the light to change so I could pull over, as the smoke started pouring out of my hood vents, too

I pulled into a shopping center at that intersection, and shut off the engine. I had lost 4 QUARTS of oil, and sure enough the previous Fram filter gasket had stuck on the car when I removed it, and resulted in the huge oil loss.

Fortunately, after changing the oil in the parking lot and cranking the engine with the ignition disabled (to regain oil pressure), it startred up first try, and sounded nice and tight, and amazingly there was no smoke coming out of the exhaust (I figured my piston rings were probably/possibly shot, and I would therefore have burning oil coming out of the exhaust). Engine vacuum at idle is still rock solid, which is a good sign that compression is not compromised...apparently everything is fine, but time will tell. I'm sure the turbo did not appreciate the oil shortage I put it through, but I've been waiting for an excuse to upgrade it

Needless to say, I'm planning on getting an oil pressure gauge in the very near future! No matter how careful you are, you never know when some small thing can nearly cost you bigtime...

On Saturday a Sunoco attendant filled me up with 89 octane instead of 94 like I asked, and I had several notable detonation events (Thank God for the Knocklink). I dumped in 1.5 gallons of Xylene to deal with this, but I've had enough drama this weekend to last a lifetime.

One final thing, I'm amazed that the EJ20g can put up with so much abuse. My motor has happily given 67k miles, with many audible detonation events during initial tuning, and several since, and now to top it off, its been driven with ONE QUART of oil, and yet compression is still rock solid. Amazing

Pete Croney

You were very lucky and if it wasn't for the traffic light, it may have been a different story.

ustolemyname??stevieturbo

iTrader: (1)

You mean you didnt notice the oil leaking??????

annointed

It didn't leak until that afternoon. I was not losing oil in the morning, and drove home for lunch, and still no leaks. I was running late getting back to school, and averaged 80-85 mph trying to get back in time, with multiple WOT full boost blitzes. I suspect that this was enough to blow out the top gasket (the one that didnt' belong there), and thus when I drove home, thinking all was well, it started smoking.

scunnered

iTrader: (1)

I had a similar experience. My oil filter had worked its way loose on the way home from work (26 miles). It had lost 3.5 litres. It didn't seem to bother the car. Yes very robust engines.

annointed

Scunnered, how long ago did this happen to you?

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

i would invest in an aquamist water injection system they inject water/methanol ??? based liquid into the inlet tract and stop the worry of detonation

www.aquamist.co.uk

Andy W

4 quarts lost...........





Thats over 4 litres lost...................



The car only holds 4,5 litres




That is bad news.

annointed

I had just a hair over 1 quart left. The night before I had put 5 quarts in (car is supposed to take 4.8, but I usually just use up the 5th quart, rather than stop at 4.8. Also, its likely that more than one quart of oil remained when I actually pulled over and shut the motor off, as it took me an hour to get a ride to Walmart, buy more oil and oil change tools, and get back to the car to change it out. During that hour of sitting with the motor off, I'm certain the car continued to lose oil, until finally it had just one quart remaining when I got back to it.

Regardless, 1 quart remaining is not good. I've done over 250 miles since then, and the car seems fine. Hopefully the bearings were not scored while the oil was low.

[Edited by annointed - 10/26/2002 8:26:16 AM]