So I was very proud of myself staying up 12 hours straight in 25 degree cold while putting down a 12 pack of Bud to do my SOHC head swap outside after my belt tensioner bearing wore out causing all of my old head's valves to smack the pistons. Anyway after swapping the head and getting the car running it seemed to be running better than ever, but now I have a new problem...

Car runs like a champ and brand new until about 5-10 minutes of driving the oil light comes on under 1500 rpm and I hear the valvetrain clicking & sounding like the first 2-3 seconds of start up on a cold day along with a severe lack of power that comes on with the valvetrain noise & oil light. Oil level is full, I have a new filter and new oil and the problem still persists. The oil light will go off when I give the motor some gas, but the car is kind of a pooch when this happens, runs great and has lots of power within a 5 minute window. I have new cam seal and cam sensor seals as well as valve seals that I put into the head the night I swapped it.

I was thinking that my rocker arm assembly & shafts may be to blame as I used the ones off of the head that got all of its valves nailed by the pistons when my belt tensioner failed and maybe there could be a possibility of them being damaged.

Prior to the head swap I never had an oil light go on or excess valvetrain noise beyond the signature Neon SOHC sound and the cylinder bores looked like they just came back from the machine shop with perfect cross hatch markings, so I believe my bottom end & oil pump to be in perfect working order despite their 254,000 mile age.

The 95 head I used on my car did not have a valve cover bolted on for 2 years but was still placed over the head and the engine was covered up sitting outside. I removed the cam and cleaned all the head surfaces of spider webs and bugs and inspected all the oil ports for restrictions and and found nothing, cam had no rust on its journals and looked fine and I pre-lubed everything during installation.

Basically I'm at a loss and need ideas! thanks a bunch!.

 

I guess it's a possibility that something got in your oil pan and stopped up the screen or something but it definitely sounds like something somewhere is stopped up or your oil pump just went bad for some reason

 

Either the oil inst returning and getting stuck in the head or there is a major internal pressure leak. Did you check the head and block for flatness? What head gasket was used?

 

Oil seems to be draining fine & fast, I took the valve cover off & had it running and watched it flow back like a steady river, didn't seem to have any plugged passages. Also seen the oil flowing steady out of the rocker arms like Golden Corrals chocolate fountain and then they would squirt out a lot with a little gas.

Oil pressure issues are only after engine warms up and when engine is returning to idle or below 1500 Rpm. I did try to take it over 4500 Rpm when it has no oil pressure light on and its kind of a dog getting up there, not like before when it'd wind up fast to 7 grand.

I'm thinking that maybe my oil is too thin and I need to change it, I had cranked it over a lot initially after the head swap trying to start it only to find out I forgot to plug the coil harness in 5 minutes later....oil may be thinned out by gas.

Head gasket was the $44.99 Felpro MLS Head Gasket from Autozone.

I'm going to change my oil and see how things sit, then My last ditch effort will probably be to change the rocker arms & shafts, as they were the ones I had on the old head that smacked the valves when the timing belt tensioner broke and the belt slipped off, not sure if maybe the shafts or the rockers could have been damaged slightly from the valve to piston hit & causing oil pressure to drop. I supposed I could probably see an issue with the shafts as oil flows completely through them. Cylinder 1 & 3's rocker arms on the exhaust side have a bit of side to side play in them that makes a clicking sound when moving them by hand, its almost like they are not shimmed right, 2 & 4's are tight and make no sounds with side to side pressure.

 

Yea there is either to much clearance somewhere on an oil passage like a bearing, oil pump is weak, or the filler neck is plugging up. It could be thinned oil but if that truly fixes the issue the motor is worn out, clearances are just to big. Hate to ask this but did you hook up a mechanical gauge to confirm the low oil pressure? Could be a faulty sensor or wire.

 

Unfortunately bad news and a motor swap in my future, It seems to be either a rod or main bearing, shes knocking pretty hard now. I put in some stop smoke to thicken the oil up and she seemed to run much better, so then I down shifted into 1st gear at 3800rpm and tromped on it and it went like a raped ape up to 5200Rpm and fell kinda flat not gaining anymore rpm and started knocking loudly. Doesn't knock at idle oddly enough, just a 2,000rpm or more.

Motor was perfectly fine prior to the head swap with power and never turning a oil light on (despite the bad tensioner with no bearing left), I think I may have cracked the oil pump housing or wrecked it or a bearing somehow when I pounded the balancer/pully on with a 5lb hammer...took 15 good whacks at it before it seated, thats about all I can think off right now until I get a chance to take the engine apart for exploratory surgery.

In the mean time I've got another parts 95 SOHC waiting to go in, that should go smooth once I swap all the sensors in. But the toughest part is my driveway is full of snow and its colder than heck right now outside...so I have my work cut out for me lol.

If a friend will let me barrow their garage for a night I'll sawp that motor in 3-4 hours lol. I hate when things like this happen in the winter.

 

Get a propane or kerosene torpedo heater. I keep one and a portable generator in the bed of my truck all winter long (just in case). Drink COFFEE instead COLD beer. If the wind is blowing, find something to set up like a pallot and bank the heat off of it. That will help immensely!

Man, I sure don't miss those driveway repair days.

 

This isnt uncommon to do a major repair for it just to expose another issue. More then likely the oil pressure was getting weak and maybe some crap in the head was plugging up the oil a little causing better pressures and now that you cleaned it the pressure dropped. The motor was an old man anyways with all them miles. Sorry for your luck hope you get it figured out.

 

The hardest part will be getting all the tools needed and swapping the 98 sensors onto the 95 motor because its bozo work that slows you down, but once I'm into the job it should go fast especially since I'll be using my dads battery impact to remove bolts super fast. I've pulled a Neon motor in an hour and 10 minutes before, and put one in the car in about the same time maybe a little longer cuz I wanted to make sure everything was good to go. Things that bog you down are the exhaust manifold and having to use a wrench on some of the bolts (well with my header on it anyway, a ratchet won't fit). But after pulling 7 Neon motors (not all on the same car) I've gotten it down to a science lol. Infact changing the engine is faster than doing a head gasket job lol.

I have a cold air intake on it and leave my battery tray loose always except for the top mount so I just pull that out and go to town.