LS1 oil pressure
 

I just installed an LS1 into my chevelle but I am not getting oil up to my heads. Before starting the motor I primed the engine through the plugged hole on the front drivers side. I am using a remote oil filter. It has a pressure gage on one of the ports of the remote filter. It shows that it has about 60psi. but no oil ever gets into the heads. I am concerned that I may not be getting oil anywhere.

if you have the in and out lines reversed and an anti-drainback oil filter it will show oil pressure at the remote filter mount and no oil flow to the engine. Which pan are you running?

Jody

It is a moroso 20140 . I took the oil line that I had on the inlet side of the oil filter and turned the motor over and oil came out of the line. My first thought was that I had them reversed.

http://www.jegs.com/i/Moroso/710/20140/10002/-1

the oil come in on the outside of the filter, goes through the filter element, and returns to the engine through the center of the filter. The rearmost fitting is the oil from the remote filter back into the engine, the fitting that's further forward is out, going from the engine to the remote filter in fitting.



Jody

That is how I have it plumbed in. I am not sure what I am missing.

do you still have the barbell in the back of the block? In this pic it goes in the empty hole to the left and in line with the crankshaft. Mine was missing when the block was returned from machining and I did not know anything went in there. You will have no oil pressure to the upper engine with it missing, it's a white nylon piece that pushes in with an o-ring seal. Unfortunately you have to pull the trans, flywheel, and rear cover to know if it's there.

http://www.camcojb.com/temp/100_0690.jpg

Looking at the oil path diagram of the oil Galleys it appears that the barbell diverts the oil in the the filter then allows it to return to the engine. But I will take your word, its not like I won't be taking everything in and out serveral more times before I am done.

how much oil flow do you have into the filter? Mine had flow, but not a ton. It may not be your issue, and if you have 60 psi at the filter it may not be your problem.

I just went through this though, and it was my problem. I can't think of anything else to look at. Getting a prime has been an issue for the LS engines, and I tried all the tricks; overfilled the oil pan, lifted the rear of the car real high, removed the plug on the drivers side of the block and pumped oil into the cavity that joins the oil pump, etc. Mine never showed pressure, but my oil gauge is hooked at the rear of the top of the block in the factory location. I never checked pressure at the remote filter.

I'd hate to see you pull the trans, etc. just to find out that the barbell is installed and not the issue. In fact, if this was a take out running engine I'd almost guarantee that isn't the issue. The barbell gets removed to clean the block, so if this was a fresh re-build then it's much more likely to be the issue. Otherwise, there's not many reasons to remove it.

Jody

At idle it has 40psi and when you bring it up to around 1500rpm it has 60psi.

The motor is a take out engine LQ4 6.0l that has not been disassembled.

If I am not getting oil pressure into the engine shouldn't the lifters be making noise?

yeah, noisy and not running very well. I assume you've pulled a valve cover off and it's completely dry? How long has it run? It'd be nice to hook up a pressure gauge to the stock sender fitting to verify.

Jody

It looked like it was dry when I took the cover off. I had just started it up. It has only run a few minutes since I do not have the cooling system hooked up.

I just pulled the factory oil sensor out and plan on putting in a gauge tomorrow when I can get one.

For just running the motor for a minute or two it seams to run very strong.

I'm no help at all -- but I did put a crate LS2 in a buddies car I'm building for him. It sat for 2 years -- I filled it with oil - pulled the coil harness and the injector harness -- and spun it over a few times - using the cranking to "prime" the engine before I put the juice to it.

Hooked her all back up -- and that motor didn't spin over a turn and a half before she fired up and purred like a kitten. Amazing motors really.