After installing the RaceFab pan, I’ve got no oil pressure on start up. What am I missing? Oil is full. Pick up can only go on one way. What could I have done wrong? I’m really stumped. I hope that the pickup isn’t just too tight to the bottom of the pan, or something off in the fab work. I’m dreading pulling this apart, especially because I don’t think I will see anything wrong.

I put on a new K&N oil filter. Could a defective filter stop oil flow?

Help!

 

Only thought is the pickup isnt on right/there is an air leak above the oil level.

 

Thanks. There is nothing that could be wrong that wouldn’t require removing the pan, right? It’s definitely not the sensor because I have the factory sensor and an aftermarket sensor telling me no pressure.

 

Argh...just what I was afraid of. Nothing appears wrong inside. Pickup gasket is there. Nothing looks askew. I’m clueless now.

 

I think I might know the problem. It's not that there was an air leak at the pickup flange. The gasket was in there and the pickup was sealed. I know this because when I loosened the bolts, oil flowed out of it from the suction to the pump being broken. What I noticed is that the foot of the pickup, which is modified by RaceFab (note the welding on the tube), doesn't sit square in that hole in the Tomei windage tray. I should have caught this when I installed it. I believe that because of the overlap of that foot and the windage tray, the pickup is getting pushed down a couple of millimeters and may be too close to the bottom of the sump to allow sufficient flow. So, I'm going to make yet more modifications to the Tomei parts to open that hole and allow the foot of the pickup to sit squarely against the cradle (rather than being slightly shimmed). I'll then verify that the pickup isn't touching the bottom of the pan before sealing everything back up again, hopefully tomorrow. Doing the R&R is definitely faster than the first time when I spent a lot of time pondering next steps and getting up and down to get the right socket/wrench. Hopefully, I report success tomorrow.

 

The pick up doesn't sit THAT close to the bottom of the pan. Typically there is 1/2-3/4" clearance, so a few mm's shouldn't be an issue.

How long did you give it to build oil pressure?

 

When I first started it, it ran for about 5 seconds before I realized that the pressure gauge was showing zero. I then shut it off. I then started it again to see if the factory oil pressure light was also on. It was, so I shut if off again after about 4 seconds. Then I pulled the crank angle sensor and cranked it for about 12-15 seconds 3 times, allowing some starter cooldown time of about 30-60 seconds between rounds. Then I reconnected everything and started it again. It was still at zero pressure after 3-4 seconds. Usually it builds pressure on the gauge in less than 3 seconds.

Should I expect that it's going to take much longer? I really don't want to give it a lot more run time with no pressure.

 

Wait...when I loosened the bolts on the pickup, a bunch of oil suddenly drained out the strainer. I wonder if the bad alignment of the pickup foot with the cradle put a torque on the oil pump that caused it to stop flowing? I’m not familiar with how our oil pumps look, but would that make any sense as a possible cause?

 

Pull the valve cover and see if there's oil in the head.

I'd highly doubt the pickup is too close to the floor of the pan but if it is then you can measure it with some silly puddy.

 

So, oil was being pulled up the pick up...

This sounds crazy, but you may have gotten a bad oil filter. I've had it happen once. Filter flows literally zero for some reason. Crank it with the oil filter off, see if oil comes out the OFH.

 

Holy ****, I've never had this happen before in all my years of work,but you guys got me paranoid now! Glad I'm running an oil pressure sensor...

 

I thought about the filter and should have swapped it, but just forgot. It’s a K&n, but who knows. In this day and age it might be counterfeit. Thanks for all the feedback.

 

I didn't change or have to adjust anything with said parts, even the Tomei where you said it sits on. Never had an issue but I always use Wix filters.

 

Did your pickup mount fit into the Tomei cutout, or did it overlap like mine?

 

Found this pic from my build thread. I didnt have to do any trimming of my crank scraper but looking at the pics it appears to sorta sit on top of it a lil too but not as drastic as yours. Even so might just be as simple as a bad filter. Im not sure if the pan is glued back on but you could always just stick the pickup in a container of oil and crank her over to see if it builds pressure with no filter installed.