rpg51

Lord, it sure would be nice if you could rebuild the bottom end of these motors the way we do with iron engines. But, it seems once the bottom end goes the practical reality is you are looking at a replacement motor. Drive it as long as you can, but probably just start looking for a good used motor if you want to keep the car running.

starchland

Crank and other parts could still be salvageable at this point

James187

Results are in!

Idle Oil pressure 10 psi (36 psi is minimum recommended by Honda)3000 rpm 60 psi (80 psi minimum recommended by Honda)

So what now? Car is CAT S. Got rear ended, rear panels have been replaced and poorly painted lock down job. I think the issue is that I'm emotionally invested.

fatjoe10

60psi at 3,000 RPM is not a good figure. Would not be a bad idea to drop the oil pan and inspect the rod bearings as a starting point.

zeroptzero

Check the screen on the vtec solenoid , might be a chance of some metal on the screen if the bearings started to shed metal, it is an easy check, dropping the pan is something you should do too.

fatjoe10

If this was my engine, and say for example there were damaged but not spun bearings anywhere with good cylinder walls, I'd rebuild it with the existing crank if it measured out ok. Of course, this isn't feasible for everyone but from a strictly mechanical point of view, it can be done. Saving the crank is #1 priority.

James187

So I'm assuming low oil pressure is oil pump of bearings. Or both. This engine did have the timing tensioner snap previously which I have heard can send plastic from the guides into the oil pump.

Can an oil pump be rebuilt? Looks like Honda only sell an entire unit. Ideally I just want the gears.

Soviet

I wouldn't bee too concerned about comparing oil pressure numbers against the shop manual. You can see dozens of examples of people running much lower oil pressures in this thread: https://www.s2ki.com/forums/s2000-mo...idle-s-771285/

I will say that 10 is relatively low though. On my healthy track car with 160k miles and 30+ days I typically see 15 PSI and sometimes even as low as 13 PSI coming off the track on a hot day.

fatjoe10

The idle warm pressure while important, is less of an issue than 60psi at 3000rpm. 60-65PSI at 3000 RPM usually indicates a problem.

Soviet

Is 60psi at 3000 RPM too low? When my car is hot I'm looking at 40-50 psi at 3000 RPM.

My latest oil analysis for reference (4 track days on it)