Oil Change, Now No Pressure

[ISB E30]

After I changed my oil in the 318is, I have had the oil light on/flickering on and am pretty sure it lead to the failure of the cam in the last head. Well now with the new head on, I still have the oil dummy light on and head noise started almost immediately. Can anyone maybe suggest something that will shed some light on my oil pressure problem?

Thanks

[KenC]

It takes a few seconds to build pressure... how long did you let it run?

Maybe your pressure relief valve is stuck open? BMW redesigned it some years later after many failures. It's like a $12 part.

[ISB E30]

I cranked up and let it run for about 5 mins, then drove it around the block. Oil light didn't come on until I was driving it around.

[KenC]

You said you were having some noise though too?

Perhaps your oil pump is wearing/worn out?

Might want to put a pressure gauge on there and see if it's actually dropping.

[ISB E30]

I will try a gauge in the day time tomorrow. All the searches I have done have turned up very little about the E30 M42 oil relief valve. Any info others could toss in would be very helpful!

[ISB E30]

Well, I cranked the car up for about 30 seconds or so after letting it sit all night then I pulled the valve cover off to discover the intake cam just about bone dry and the rest of the head not too far off. Seems like I am not getting any oil flowing to the head. Like I said before, the oil light issue and all of this didn't start until after a recent oil change. What n0ob mistake could I have made during a simple oil change to cause all this?

[ISB E30]

I came across something interesting, since I swapped over to the M44 head, and didn't use the M44 valve cover, I think I may have inadvertently block off the oil flow passage, pictured here on the bottom of an M44 VC:



As you see, the VC has a torx bit shaped acceptor that receives oil and looks like it sends out out to each rocker assembly.

The M42 VC doesn't appear to have this:



Could this be my issue?! A trip to Pull-A-Part today shall be my answer!

[jlevie]

The oil light warning after an oil change could be use of the wrong oil, a bad filter, or simply coincidental. I believe the cam is pressure lubricated from the head side and the valve cover has nothing to do with cam lubrication. The first thing I'd do would be to make sure I had the correct oil in the engine, change the filter, and attach a gage to see what the oil pressure is doing.

[ISB E30]

I understand what you are saying about the lubrication to the head but wouldn't be wiser to use a valve cover that had a "feed source" and "irrigation system" that lead oil to each rocker assembly? Especially if the head has a nipple and male fitting that fits into the one in the VC?

[KenC]

You said you had a cam failure issue before? Sounds like you have blocked/constricted oil passages, or your pump is toasted.

The oil pressure relief valve is in the bottom of the timing case. Might be stuck open a tad.

[ISB E30]

I went into the motor a bit before the rain flooded me away, I cleaned out the oil filter housing of some muck that had accumulated in the bottom of it, swapped out the chain tensioner from a M42 one to a M44 one. The loud head noise seems to have stopped but the oil dummy light is still on.

[KenC]

Might be time for a pressure gauge.

What weight oil did you use?

[ISB E30]

With the M42 head I used 15w40 and after what happened, a buddy suggested I try 10w30 and see what happens so that is in there now.

[ISB E30]

Well, research all over a few forums sent me towards using 3 quarts oil and 1 quart kerosene for roughly 10-15 minutes to clean out the passages and then drain to a regular oil change. About 5 minutes into that, I heard a metal on metal noise and the engine died. I asked myself, "What the hell are the chances?!" I pull the VC off and sure enough the exhaust cam (same one as before) snapped in the exact same location. The entire head all around it had oil residue on it except on the cylinder 2 lobe and cam tower area. This second grenaded head tell me that for beyond a doubt, the oil passages in the block under cylinder 2 on the exhaust side are clogged. FML, I guess you learn the hard way.

[KenC]

3quarts of oil and 1quart of kerosene?

You know the M42 is a 5.3quart engine, right?