bobt993

Peter,

You can pull the retainer cap off the tensioners and take a peak. One way to find if the tensioner is an issue is to pull the coils and turn the car over a bit without it running. It will make a very mechanical sound. You can hear the chain slap at the chain covers without the engine running. You changed all the lifters and it's pretty hard to put them in wrong. Did you clearly mark the exhaust and intake lifters? They are different at the top for oiling the cam shaft. If you have them reversed this would cause oiling issues.

Quadcammer

Yeah, 2 or slightly above seems to be about right...but thats when warm.

If OP saw 1bar when not warmed up, that would be significant cause for concern.

Vorsicht

I'm pretty sure the rockers are aligned properly vis-a-vis intake exhaust, however, this could be a second line of inquiry should the below fail.

I've been doing some searching/reading and came across someone on another forum who installed the tensioners upside down. They described the noise as a deisel truck sound which is exactly the sound I have. So I will go with that idea for now, remove the caps and take a look.

Just to confirm - I should be seeing the small hole at the end of the tensioner indicating correct orientation? If the hole is not there that would indicate I have found my problem?

Thank you all for the help! I will report back my findings.

Vorsicht

So, today, on cold start-up I have 1.5 which slowly drifts down to 1 at idle. When I kick it up to 2K rpm I get a pressure increase in kind. More to come tomorrow...

Quadcammer

yeah, thats a definite issue. even with a 0w-40, you should see at least 3+ bar on cold start.

IXLR8

Time to stop guessing and take an actual oil pressure measurement with an external oil pressure gauge. Tick that off your list and move onto the next possible cause.

bobt993

You should see a small hole at the top of the tensioner. The retainer cap has an oil passage on each side that allows oil to flow in and pump up the tensioner. That oil passage then continues onward to the feed tube you see located that connects to the cam tower. If your restricting that flow then you see how vital it is to get it corrected.

IXLR8

Left tensioner: oil supply hole points up.

Right tensioner: oil supply hole points down.

When you look at the covers, it'll make sense.

axl911

Vorsicht

Mid-day update:

Removed left tensioner cap. Oil hole pointing up. Confirmed it is the left tensioner (longer of the two). Cleaned and resealed. At least the left is correct.

Before moving on to the right I started up the car. Pressure at start-up: 4 Bar. As the engine warms up the pressure slowly drifts down to below 1. Pressure bounces up with RPMs. At the 15 minute mark the pressure light came on and I shut the car down. Noise has not abated.

Quadcammer

I think you should stop running the car.

Mike J

Are u going to try anything that i suggested?

Cheers

Mike

Vorsicht

Agreed.

Vorsicht

Yes, I tried running the car to get the lifters to pressurize. Not working thus far. Also tried pulling dme relay and turning the engine over. No unusual noise while doing this. I do not have a compressor at the moment so I can't do compression/leakdown yet. Did I miss anything you suggested? BTW, the heads were done by Steve at RS.

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

Hey Peter,

Did you split the case for this rebuild?

If so, there are some very serious issues about oil pump sealing rings that cause VERY low oil pressure.

Let me know!