Oil pressure regulator
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 108
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Oil pressure regulator
My C4 spun a valve first day at the track last spring, (road racing) . Local racer told me connecting rod bearing spun cause starved for oil in hard cornering. (Yes that happened to me 35 yrs ago) . Question is how to fix it. Sumitt has a couple of kits but none for 99 C5 which I plan to track this year. Pls help cause I am not going out there without a way to maintain adequate oil pressure.
Thanks in advance.
Thanks in advance.
Tech Contributor
Joined: Dec 1999
Posts: 32,910
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From: Anthony TX
CI 6,7,8,9,11 Vet
St. Jude Donor '08
The C5 was designed with a BAT WING OIL PAN to help eliminate the oil starvation problems that plagued earlier engines. The oil pan also has 6.3 QTS of oil capacity and some intense baffling in the lower pan area.
You normally just use 6.0 qts but if you want to play hard, you can add .3-.5 additional oil. If you a HPDE, just add the extra 1/2 qt of oil that is allowed.
SO, I don't think you will have any oil starvation issues with a LS engine..
The oil pump has its own internal oil pressure regulator inside the pump which is mounted on the front of the crank .
There are improvements that you can make to the head oil drain back holes that will help get the valve train oil back into the pan better and not collect in the heads. .
Bill
You normally just use 6.0 qts but if you want to play hard, you can add .3-.5 additional oil. If you a HPDE, just add the extra 1/2 qt of oil that is allowed.
SO, I don't think you will have any oil starvation issues with a LS engine..
The oil pump has its own internal oil pressure regulator inside the pump which is mounted on the front of the crank .
There are improvements that you can make to the head oil drain back holes that will help get the valve train oil back into the pan better and not collect in the heads. .
Bill
Supporting Vendor
Joined: Jun 2014
Posts: 551
Likes: 276
From: Orlando FL - USA
There are a few things you can do to make sure you don't have oil starvation at the track.
- Overfill the sump by 1/2 quart to 1 quart at the track
- Make sure you have a good oil pressure gauge with a low pressure alarm, so that you can back off before damaging the engine if you see a drop in oil pressure.
- If you have the two-piece batwing pan, you can install our trap door kit, which helps keep oil around the pickup tube and prevent oil starvation: http://www.improvedracing.com/oil-pa...pan-p-743.html
- Install our crank scraper, which helps reduce oil starvation and adds 5-10 WHP: http://www.improvedracing.com/crank-...per-p-649.html
- Install a pickup tube clamp to make sure the pickup tube O-ring is sealed securely and stays in place: http://www.improvedracing.com/oil-pu...amp-p-642.html
- Add an oil cooler kit to make sure oil temps are not too high. If oil temps are too high, the oil loses viscosity and does not lubricate well enough. An oil cooler is needed for track use.
- After doing the above, if you still see oil pressure drops while cornering, you can always add an oil accumulator.
- There are a few little things you can do to help accelerate oil drain back, such as drilling the lifter trays.
- The final and best option but many magnitudes more costly is of course to switch to a dry sump setup.
Last edited by ImprovedRacing; Feb 14, 2018 at 04:16 PM.
Pro
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 535
Likes: 92
From: Raleigh NC
Good advice mentioned above. Running extra oil helps, and then as Improved Racing mentioned, there are a few things you can add to help a bit more. And then a full dry sump being the ultimate answer if you have the $$$. And obviously you'll pull more lateral G's if you're on R-comps vs street tires, so that will have an impact... as will the track configuration (long sweepers being the toughest on oil pressure).
Here are a few videos I made while building my car. Sometimes it helps you have a visual. I won't post it here, but I also did a video on adding an oil cooler (in my YT channel). If you get serious about HPDE, then you'll likely want one.
Here's the I.R. oil pan baffles.
Here is the I.R. oil pick up tube brace. (skip ahead to the 2min mark)
And if you ever have the upper oil pan removed from the vehicle, I used a dremel to clean up the rough casting on the oil drain holes from the upper pan to the lower pan. Probably doesn't make a huge difference but the casting holes were so rough I just couldn't leave them. But it throws aluminum shavings everywhere, so you would only do it if the pan was off so you could clean it thoroughly afterwards.
Here are a few videos I made while building my car. Sometimes it helps you have a visual. I won't post it here, but I also did a video on adding an oil cooler (in my YT channel). If you get serious about HPDE, then you'll likely want one.
Here's the I.R. oil pan baffles.
Here is the I.R. oil pick up tube brace. (skip ahead to the 2min mark)
And if you ever have the upper oil pan removed from the vehicle, I used a dremel to clean up the rough casting on the oil drain holes from the upper pan to the lower pan. Probably doesn't make a huge difference but the casting holes were so rough I just couldn't leave them. But it throws aluminum shavings everywhere, so you would only do it if the pan was off so you could clean it thoroughly afterwards.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 2,591
Likes: 144
From: Mobile al
I run on slicks in a stock C5 Z06, I have no issues. Run the oil level +1 quart for track duty as the manual states. I would run Mobile 1 0W40 Euro in it.
Pull the radiator and clean the outer fins to keep it cool.
No reason to spin the guts out of the engine, shift it at 6k rpm's.
Oil accumulator will help for sure.
Here I am, no issues.
Pull the radiator and clean the outer fins to keep it cool.
No reason to spin the guts out of the engine, shift it at 6k rpm's.
Oil accumulator will help for sure.
Here I am, no issues.
Last edited by FASTFATBOY; Feb 19, 2018 at 11:39 AM.
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 108
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I did add the extra oil and got flagged for smoke until it burned off. But by mid day the rear end or tranny gave out. 50k on car. Exactly why did I become a 911Tr8R? I drove the **** out of my 911s and never had a problem. We shall see how many grand it will cost me before I can dump it.
