Help! loosing oil pressure

[mrwonderfulinc]

1990 stock single cam KA24e

ok, so here's the story. When I got the car, the timing was ****ed. I tore it down and fixed the timing. Had a nasty vacuum leak that caused it to not idle, or run for that matter. I got the vacuum leak fixed. Now it starts up just fine and runs and idles but I don't have any oil pressure. I took the pan off and cleaned everything the best I could. I got a new oil pump, primed it and installed it. I got it all back together, took the valve cover off, and using the starter, turned the engine over. Oil went everywhere, so i've got oil pressure. Now i've got a valve tap. Knowing the nasty crap sludge that was in there, I figured it was just a sticky valve. So I opted to do the marvel mystery oil fix. I let it run for a bit. Once it got warmed up, the oil pressure warning light started tweaking. The motor still sounded ok, so I didn't think much of the randomly flashing light. It took another few minutes and the light stayed on. Being freaked out. I shut the motor off. I got the thinking about it and I didn't hear the motor sounding funny, other than the valve tap. So I gave it a fwe minutes and started it back up. Once it got the normal operating temp, the light cam on and it took moments for all of the valves to start tapping. I thought maybe the mystery oil was just breaking the oil down when it got hot, so I continued with the process. drained the oil out and put in 20w50. started it up. the valve tap was back, but through previous experience I know that sometimes you have to give the motor some load and the tap will go away. So I start to drive it. I get a few blocks away (long enough for the motor to warm up) and the pressure light comes on and the valves start to sound like hell. I know it have enough oil, It should have almost half a quart too much. I don't get it. Once it cools off, I'm gonna try it one more time, just to see what happens.

Why am I loosing oil pressure once it gets warm?

Do you think there was enough crap in the engine that it killed another oil pump?

What and where and how do I need to start checking?

thanks for the help
Modified by mrwonderfulinc at 3:03 PM 1/18/2008

[mrwonderfulinc]

update: it smokes some when you rev it, not at idle though, which is why I figured it was a sticky valve causing the knock, not that, that helps with the freak of an oil pressure issue...

[480sx]

Your bearings are shot most likely. How many miles?

You should just get a new motor, its cheaper than rebuilding the one you have. Perfect time for a DE swap.

[mrwonderfulinc]

Your bearings are shot most likely. How many miles?

You should just get a new motor, its cheaper than rebuilding the one you have. Perfect time for a DE swap.

i know it isn't bearings. I've been around 240s enough to know what bearing knock is. The only issue I can think of at this point is that the pick up is smooshed against the bottom of the pan. The pan is dented up, as if you bottomed out on a speedbump. think that would limit the flow enough to cause an issue? other than that, the pick up looks to be in pretty good shape.

[CRyan]

I agree with new engine.

Sounds like you might have a bigger mess than you would want to deal with. besides dual > single lol.