Low oil pressure at warm idle/lots of metallic in oil

[z3i]

Ow! More important news I drained the oil last night and it was basically grey with metallic. Dropped the gauze filter and there was metallic silt at the bottom

I noticed when I drove it 150miles home from picking it up that the oil pressure comes on alot at low rpm when hot. I also noticed the guy had been using 10w40? Would this be too thin? Would that be what caused the low oil pressure?

I've bought some straight 30w from just campers, I imagine this would be much thicker and might up the oil pressure?

[z3i]

Do the 2l Aircooled engines normally suffer from low oil pressure and bearing damage? Does the oil pump wear?

Just really gutted with the whole thing, the guy we bought it off has really screwed it up for us

[ajsimmo]

Straight 30 is thinner than 10w40 when hot (that's the 40 bit). The correct grade for your engine is 15w50 mineral, but it's not readily available so 20w50 is often used with good results. Single grade oils are not recommended for type4 engines such as yours. But it might be too late to worry about it for this engine...I hope not.

[z3i]

Straight 30 is thinner than 10w40 when hot (that's the 40 bit). The correct grade for your engine is 15w50 mineral, but it's not readily available so 20w50 is often used with good results. Single grade oils are not recommended for type4 engines such as yours. But it might be too late to worry about it for this engine...I hope not.

Thank you for the reply.

Really?! That's really strange as it's what just campers recommended for me! And yes I thought 50 is thicker at higher temp. Ok I will get some 20w50 really hope the engine is ok.had some serious bad luck with it. Thank you

[ghost123uk]

I drained the oil last night and it was basically grey with metallic. Dropped the gauze filter and there was metallic silt at the bottom

Sorry, but this is not good. At least air cooled engines are easier to recondition than the watercooled (WBX) engines, or a reconditioned one could be sourced.

I am starting to wonder if you have any redress from the guy you bought it from. Regarding the engine, was it advertised as being in good condition?

Really sorry your first venture into T25 ownership has gone quite pear shaped.

[300CE]

Have you had any oil leaks from the crankshaft oil seal (between where the engine meets the gearbox)? I had a leak here and thought it was just the seal that needed replacing, but when I drained the oil it was grey & metallicy which was due to movement in the crankshaft.

Sorry to hear of your woes with your new bus. As John says, air cooled are much easier to deal with than water cooled so hope you get it sorted.

[123-jn]

It probably just needs a set of mains and big ends and a new set of piston rings together with the bores honing. This will probably pep it up for another 50000 miles. I think a check on valve guides and re lapping the valves in each head would be worth it at the same time. (The cranks take an awful long time to wear out enough to need a regrind so you will probably be lucky and just need standards.

[kevtherev]

Just Kampers recommend a few things that are not compatable with your van.

[z3i]

I don't know why they recommended the 30 weight oil. I decided not to use it, put some castrol 20w50 in instead. Clean everything and serviced all the other bits, rotor arm. Cap, plugs. Lead, filters. Fired her up and she starts much better. Had to give it a bit of a rev to get the oil pump to pick oil up but the light went out and hasn't come back on seems to have decent oil pressure at low rpm, it didn't at all before. So that's a result. I'll keep you guys posted. Sorry for rushed reply, just working on it now
Taylor

[ajsimmo]

I don't know why they recommended the 30 weight oil. I decided not to use it, put some castrol 20w50 in instead.

Good

Had to give it a bit of a rev to get the oil pump to pick oil up

Bad

If oil light doesn't go out after a few seconds at idle, I would stop the engine and slacken the oil filter a tad to bleed the air. Disconnect coil negative to stop it firing and turn over on the key to pump oil up and purge air. Tighten filter, reconnect coil and start up on tickover. Light should go straight out.

[mgbman]

Hi, I made a detailed post on your other thread about my son's purchase similar to yours some 4 years ago.

From what you are describing on here and on your other thread, your van is not in good shape and I think we all know its not going to be much fun for you unless you accept its bad and treat it as a long term project.

After the experience with my son's T25, I think you ought to consider selling the van. Clean it up, get it so it starts and runs, then sell it on as spring is coming.

I don't think its worth going back to the seller or report the MOT test station, a lot of hassle and get nowhere.

Assuming it still has a valid MOT, then selling would be feasible. But the next MOT may fail and cost you to get it passed.

Selling it now you may get your money back, or most of it.

[z3i]

Hi, I made a detailed post on your other thread about my son's purchase similar to yours some 4 years ago.

From what you are describing on here and on your other thread, your van is not in good shape and I think we all know its not going to be much fun for you unless you accept its bad and treat it as a long term project.

After the experience with my son's T25, I think you ought to consider selling the van. Clean it up, get it so it starts and runs, then sell it on as spring is coming.

I don't think its worth going back to the seller or report the MOT test station, a lot of hassle and get nowhere.

Assuming it still has a valid MOT, then selling would be feasible. But the next MOT may fail and cost you to get it passed.

Selling it now you may get your money back, or most of it.

Hello, yes I read your other post, thank you for taking the time to write such a long comment I just have been so busy working on it, haven't had the chance to reply! And sorry to hear you had such trouble too

Weve thought about selling it, but we wanted a project. This is probably a bit extreme but if we get a camper that's rust free and has everything we wanted we would be looking at £7000 plus. I'm coming round to the Aircooled engine

Thanks again mate, I'll reply to your other thread in a minute

[z3i]

Got it all running sweet today, oil is good. Idles nice. Having a bit of trouble with the static ignition timing

It has the retard/advance distributor but the retard side isn't connected and neither was the advance side

The ignition was set 5 degrees BTDC so I re set it to 5 degree's ATDC as that's the information I could find on the Internet. Brought the idle up to match

I found a little box in the car hidden under a cabinet. I later found that this is the idle stabaliser. I read that you unplug it and plug the connectors together to check the ignition timing. So as mine were already plugged in together I plugged them into the box and it seemed to run a little better

I also have a single weber twin choke conversion. Just wondering if I've set it up right? Have I got the right distributor?

Thanks again guys. You've all been an enormous help!

[ajsimmo]

You can't time it right using the quoted 5° ATDC setting as that is with both vac pipes attached. The retard side should retard it by 12°, so with the retard pipe disconnected (and blocked) it should be set to 7° BTDC.

[ghost123uk]

Have you tried sucking on the dissy vac diaphragm pipes to check it moves the plate the points are mounted on yet?
If the diaphragm moves the backplate and there are no leaks in it, or it's associated pipework, you can just connect it back up as nature intended

With no advance / retard it's not surprising you got such poor mpg. Sounds like a good engine service in general will help there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You mention you wanted a project.

I'm now wondering if, in two years time, we are all going to be saying "Well, we were wrong suggesting you sell it way back, look at the all original, show winning £10K value camper you have made"