Need help bad....engine issue

[00firbirdsix'er]

Ok heres the deal, recently my 00 firebird v-6, strated doing this problem, and its only on the start up and then will continue for about 5 min, then it goes away...ok you start the car, then you hear ALL the lifters being really, noisy (Ticking), like there is no oil in the topend, and it loud clicking/ticking, Lifters for sure, and the car runs like it has a small miss while it makes this horrible noise, if you lets it sit about 5min, all the loud lifter noise goes away,and runs smooth...We think its a oil pump, but it never does it again until the next day when you start it,you have to let the car sit for aday for it to do ita again, you can drive it and it has fine oil pressure, its just when you start its like there is no oil being pumped through the motor, even some times youll hear it knoking, when you start it, Its only the first time you start it each day, meaning you can drive it and re start it all day long, and it wont make any ticking nosie, We change the oil in hopes it will fix it but i still does it when we start it in the morning. we even added lucas synth oil stablizer, and it been using synthetic since new, we change the oil with 4qts mobile 1 synth and 1 qt lucas... See if its a oil pump, how come it only does it when you start it, and then never does it again till the next day, Is this a common firebird problem, do oil pumps go out and start working, has this happened to anyone...I need help

[Lurieh]

Re: Need help bad....engine issue

It could be that your oil pump is losing its prime. Since it might take a little while, that is the reason you don't see a problem starting/stopping during the day.

Try this: Pull the fuel pump fuse. Crank the car a few times to get the pump to prime itself. Put the fuse back in and start up. See if that fixes the problem. Granted, the pump might be completey dry, and just cranking it might not get the prime back(unless you crank it a ton).

Or you could manually prime the pump(drill method) before starting the car.

Overall, I'd be very wary of running the car too much with this problem. If it is an oil pump problem, you'll have way more problems than just noisy lifters when the pump starves the engine of proper oil.

[CDNFB]

Re: Need help bad....engine issue

What is the oil pressure reading you have on the gauge during these events?

[CDNFB]

Re: Need help bad....engine issue

I'm thinking the oil pump pickup is being restricted, either it's come loose and got repositioned, or it's loose and sucking air, or some material is blocking the pickup screen. All of these could cause a low flow situation, where oil takes a long time to get places just like you're experiencing on the first start of the day.

[00firbirdsix'er]

Re: Need help bad....engine issue

the oil pressure is right above the red on the gauge at idle, and 60 at about 2500 and about 65, see heres nother issure, the gauge when at idles falls way below the red, the the check gauge light comes on, it has been doing the check gause and oil pressure reading below at idle for about 2 years, and if it were true it has no oil pressure at idle then it would prolly have fryed or frooze up the motor thousands of miles ago, so we got a new sending unit, didnt fix it, so we bought a new gauge cluster, still even with the new cluster, the needle still falls below the red and the check gauge light comes on...Any one want to take a shot at that, mabye the car really doesnt have have any oil presure at idle, and its finally catching upand the motor is finally blowing...but after 2 years of lots of driving and highway miles, the car has 100,000 miles, freway miles, anyway it was well taken care of..any have any idea about this?

[CDNFB]

Re: Need help bad....engine issue

From your description looks like you actually have a low pressure situation. If you really want to see what the pressure is you are going to have to connect a mechanical oil pressure gauge to it.

Here's two thoughts:

Oil pump bypass valve might not be completely closed. Thus at low RPM there is too much oil being bypassed and pressure does not develop. At higher RPMs there is more flow available from the pump to develop pressure. This is what I would look into first.

Oil pump is worn. At low RPM the internal leakage is excessive enough that the pump does't build the right pressure. The higher RPMs don't affect the pressure as much due to much more volume of oil being moved. This would be next on my list, and when you remove the oil pan to replace the pump you can get a good look at the oil pickup.

Main bearings are worn excessively. Low oil pressures are a good indicator of this, especially at low RPM when oil flows are low. If you remove the oil pan to work on the pump and inspect the oil pickup, you could also remove a bearing cap and do a visual inspection and a dimension check with plasti-gauge.

Well that's it for me, I'm out of ideas at the moment.

Let us know what you find.

[CDNFB]

Re: Need help bad....engine issue

Ok.... well that was actually 3 thoughts...:rolleyes:

Does'nt look good taking engine advice from someone who has trouble counting!