Well, quick update ...
I swapped the OCV solenoid with the spare one I have, then changed the oil and started her up. The oil pressure shot up to 400kPa and as the engine settled down and the oil temp started warming up, the oil pressure settled down to 100kPa even though it was at idle. So I figured I'll take the car out for a quick boot and see how she runs after the oil's temp gets closer to 100*C. As soon as I started driving, the oil pressure was quite high ( I figured that's due to the fresh oil), but about 10kms into the drive, the oil temp was closer to 80*C and I noticed something funny, no matter how much I revved the car through the gears, the oil pressure didn't wanna go past 200kPa (even at 5Krpm). But at idle, it settled down to 50kPa. A few more kms into the drive, I noticed that the oil pressure didn't want to go past 1900kPa, and a few more kms in, it the limit was now down to 1800kPa no matter how high the revs were. I figured I better turn around and start heading home before I break down on the side of the road. The ECU didn't throw any code though. When I got home, I let the car idle for about 5mins just to see what the oil pressure will do, and it settled between 30~50kPa ... it didn't get any lower than 30kPa though. So here's the thing, I could've sworn that my Oil Pressure normally goes well past 200kPa under load and above 3Krpm ... so am I imagining things or is that sound about right? I'll have to start from scratch tomorrow. :-( ________________________________ From: Murray, Richard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: November 7, 2008 3:52 PM To: Kandasamy, Thuwaragan; Miata Power List Subject: RE: Swapped Valve Cover and my VVT selenoid might be acting up. Could oil be leaking into the head cavity from that pipe before the valve? Where it connects at either end? From there it would just drain back into the crankcase. ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kandasamy, Thuwaragan Sent: Friday, 07 November, 2008 15:31 To: Miata Power List Subject: RE: Swapped Valve Cover and my VVT selenoid might be acting up. Well, the Oil Control Valve solenoid is kinda plug'n play, there really isn't a wrong way to install it, but what I'm not sure is whether its working right or not, cause according to the FSM, if the piston inside it slides one way, it'll advance the timing, and if the piston slides the other way, it'll retard the timing. I'm soo tempted to attach a power and ground wire to the solenoid using my spare battery and see what happens, but I'm not sure if I'll fry it or not. Guessing as long as the battery is a 12V+ battery, I should be fine, but just a tad trigger shy. Guess I have the spare one incase I see the "magic smoke" eh? :-) Other than the OCV, I really don't know what else to look at. There's a tiny filter that fits in the OCV housing, and a pipe that connects the housing to the oil supply line towards the back of the block. I was worried I put the filter backwards, but its in there the right way, the cone is facing downwards just like in the pic from the FSM. But if anyone else can think of anything else I should check, that'd be awesome!! Can anyone tell me what Oil Pressure they get during idle after then engine reaches normal operating temps? My 25kPa (3.5PSI) oil pressure was when my Oil Temp was reading somewhere between 100~110*C if that helps. ________________________________ From: Murray, Richard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: November 7, 2008 3:00 PM To: Kandasamy, Thuwaragan; Miata Power List Subject: RE: Swapped Valve Cover and my VVT selenoid might be acting up. Everybody correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't the engine use oil pressure to rotate the Intake Camshaft advance for VVT. Is it a simple solenoid? Could you have knocked it or miss-installed it back so that it is leaking oil back into the head. If oil is leaking there it would not show on the outside but would drop the oil pressure since the VVT uses pressure, not volume to work. Depending on the size of the leak, which would be a constant cross section, it would be more noticeable at lower than higher engine speeds. ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kandasamy, Thuwaragan Sent: Friday, 07 November, 2008 13:17 To: Miata Power List Subject: RE: Swapped Valve Cover and my VVT selenoid might be acting up. Okay, so I've been looking at this FSM somemore and I'm starting to think the Oil Control Valve might be the culprit, I'm gonna have to play with the one on the car and the spare one once I get home. Anybody got anything else I should check while I'm at it? And Yes, I'll be changing the oil tonight, don't care how cold it gets. ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kandasamy, Thuwaragan Sent: November 7, 2008 12:22 PM To: Miata Power List Subject: Swapped Valve Cover and my VVT selenoid might be acting up. So I swapped out my valve cover on the '02 Miata (put the powder coated one on) and just transferred all the stuff from the original valve cover onto the new one. But yesterday while heading to work I got a code P0011, and my aftermarket oil pressure guage showed 25kPa (3.6psi) while idling in rush hour traffic, so I pulled onto the shoulder and shut the car off, cause my oil pressure guage reads in 25kPa increments, and the next notch below is 0kPa, and I just didn't wanna risk anything happening due to carelessness. Not sure if this will help or not, but if I revved the car, the oil pressure would rise along with it like it always does. The oil is due to be changed and was planning on doing that this weekend. Thing to note is that I've seen low pressure like that before where it's a really HOT and muggy summer day outside, and the car is stuck in gridlock traffic. But its never been quite that low, maybe 30kPa if I had to put a number on it. Anybody know what I should check? I didn't play around with any of the solenoids, I simply transferred it from the old valve cover onto the new one, and it seemed pretty straight forward and was just plug and play. There is no visible leaks around the valve cover, so if there IS something wrong, I'm thinking its got something to do with the VVt bits. I checked the FSM and the only part I found so far was the following ... Oil Pressure 295-392 kPa {3.0-4.0 kgf/cm2, 43-56 psi} [3000 rpm] But I can't see anywhere in the FSM where it'd say how much oil pressure I should have at idle. So to summarize, stuck in rush hour grid lock in the morning (around 10*C outside) and at idle, I see the oil pressure guage reading 25kPa and I get a check engine light which my Scanguage-II said was P0011. I pulled over and shut the car down, I cleared the code, and once the engine was shut for more than 20mins, I started it up again, the code never came back. But didn't risk driving it except to get off the highway and wait to be towed home. Am I just over reacting about the low oil pressure at idle (keeping in mind my oil is due for a change) ... and what should I check for the P0011 code? -Thuwa
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