Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 09:19:00 EDT
Reply-To: THX0001@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: George Goff <THX0001@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: TIICO oil pump / Logical Circle Jerk of the Day
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In a message dated 5/5/03 1:43:34 PM, jb510_yg@HOTMAIL.COM writes:
<< One... George, oil pressure lights also come on for OVER-PRESSURE.
Possibly what Jon (Foreign Auto/TiiCo guy) is describing? although I'm not
claiming to understand Jon's explaination.
Two.. a split second of low-oil pressure is not going to harm your engines
so stop panicking people...
-Jon
>>
Jon, or is it Jon, my man, you are wrong.
One. . . AN oil pressure light COULD come on with OVER-PRESSURE(sic), but not
one that VW installs in a car.
Two. . . IF an oil pressure light DOES come on with OVER-PRESSURE, THEN the
oil pressure relief valve would have to be stuck for the light to come on.
Three . . . IF the inertia of the oil sloshing over the relatively broad face
of the oil pickup COULD cause an OVER-PRESSURE, THEN I would THINK that the
oil pressure "spike" COULD only be measured on the scale of molecular physics
and I would certainly like to see the instrumentation.
Four . . . In order to forestall the mass panic you see on the horizon,
please let us know for what length of time and at what speeds an oil-starved
engine can operate before any damage occurs. I'm sure we all would like to
have that factoid stored in our databases.
Now, from the archives of my life's experience:
I had a Simca 1204. In its own strange way, it was one of my favorite cars.
Almost from the time I picked it up, it had a slow oil leak, but I was used
to that after spending much time behind the wheels of English cars. Since
this was before the days of oil packaged in screw lid plastic bottles, I had
taken to waiting until the oil level called for a full quart of oil before I
would top it up. What I had not figured into this regimen was the limited
reserve capacity of the Simca's oil sump.
One day, as usual, I was running late for work. The access road to my job
was a beautiful winding strip of fresh asphalt through the wooded cliffs over
the western shore of the Chesapeake in southern Maryland. In some ways it
reminded me of Watkins Glen. I had that Simca wound up tighter than a Boy
Scout's butt on conjugal visit day and as I drifted through one of the
sweepers, the oil pressure idiot light clicked on. At the time, I thought,
that's curious. The short of it is that during that brief light show I spun
the center thrust bearings and trashed the thrust faces on the crank. Oh,
the car kept running and until I tore it down the only symptom was that
sometimes it would not turn over when trying to start it unless the car was
rocked back and forth in gear in order to free the locked crank.
George
