KuHL 951

Sorry to hear this isn't resolved yet. Whatever is plugged it has to be in the bypass area near the tip of the OPRV. When you ran it without the spring how was the oil pressure? I wish I knew the oil routing better; there has to be some way to blow air/solvent backwards to free the blockage. Let us know if the shop finds the problem. If it ran fine without the OPRV I wouldn't think it would be too serious like a bad oil pump or bearings. Good Luck

Charlie

Without the spring and piston you will not have any oil pressure because the pump will not pull any oil from the pan. In one of my older post concerning oil pressure I showed an oil flow diagram. When pressure pushes the piston in on the OPRV valve the oil that goes through the valve dumps back into the line from the pickup tube to the oil pump. Without the piston closing completely at startup the pump will only circulate air and not pull oil.
On the new OPRV try pushing the piston down and see if it will move. If it was stuck then it would cause excessive pressure.

DallasTexas

It seems that nine-44 said it best. It is either something stupid or something serious. I heard from the shop today. It appears that I have the wrong alignment tool. So even though I replaced the oil cooler several years ago and used this tool, I was just lucky that the old OPRV had sufficient give in it to work. Once this fiasco started, I was not so lucky. So now I get to have the gaskets replaced in the oil cooler again, get a new OPRV, get new belts, and get the work done by someone who knows exactly what they are doing. I did not realize I had the wrong tool. The alignment was out just enough to allow the valve to go in but bind the piston when oil pressure was present. So it was something stupid. What a lesson. I hope others learn! The later model alignment tool threads into the hole - the one for the earlier models just slips in. If I get any other information from the shop I will let you know.

Rodney