39 replies to this topic

[albo]

no mesh,,pull a rag thru with a piece of wire a few times,think petrol will expand / swell rubber

[2009poolesparky]

ok well ill have a look and report back

[2009poolesparky]

Cleaned it up, changed the rocker cover gasket too, went for a slow drive around town, when I came back and parked up there was some but not too much oil around the dip stick, so it confirms it was leaking out of there, and building a lot of pressure too! The oil pressure was around 70 lb/sq ft when driving around town, dropping to about 60 when idle in neutral, will have to check breathers tomorrow evening although if they are clear what else could be causing it?

[bmcecosse]

Oil pressure has NOTHING to do with crankcase pressure.  Test the crankcase pressure - hot engine idling, remove the oil filler cap - rev the engine.  Is there a plume of smoke/fume?  If so - the engine needs an overhaul......  As others have mentioned - check the breathers are clear, and one of them is connected to the carb to suck away any fumes.  Engine compression test will be useful - but you should have at LEAST 160 psi....   Do it with hot engine, all plugs out, and throttle held open (brick on pedal works well).

[2009poolesparky]

ok just been over to the car and had a look in the workshop.

both breathers seem fine, they were brand new 18k miles ago, when i pulled a rag through them they were pretty clean

 

with the engine hot there is no pressure coming out of the oil filler hole either and no smoke either

there is no smoke coming out of the exhaust

the oil is only coming out of the dipstick hole and only out of this hole, nowhere else.

 

the breathers just exit with a filter on the end, they dont go back into the carbs, i have a twin su carb set up with pancake filters. no il seems to be coming out of these.

 

i cant do a compression test as i dont have a tool to do it with, the local garages seem pretty useless too.

[2009poolesparky]

having a read its suggesting piston rings, but then surly if it was them id see burning oil out of the exhaust too?

[tiger99]

Yes, probably you would have a smoky exhaust. It is very odd that it is coming out of the dipstick hole without there being excess pressure in the rocker cover. Worth checking the spark plugs to see if they are oily.

 

I think that the next step should be to check that your breather system is assembled correctly. The Somerford Mini web site will show you diagrams of what bits should and should not be fitted.

[2009poolesparky]

ok thanks for your help, need to fix this asap as it is essentially stopping me driving the car anywhere around town let alone on the motorway :/

[2009poolesparky]

Ran her up tonight checked the breathers again and they were fine, no oil in exhaust and no pressure at oil filler cap, some slight pressure at both breathers but nothing I would consider obviously too much, when revving in idle still leaking out of dip stick help? Can't do compression test yet as don't have a tool

[2009poolesparky]

Spark plugs are also clean

[Carlos W]

Is there any chance you could've overfilled it?

 

Are you checking it on level ground?

 

Other than that, a faulty pressure relief valve maybe?

[Spitz]

Can you pull those filters off the breathers and see if things change....  60lb at idle when engine is warm?...seems awfully high

[2009poolesparky]

Yes I ran it with the breathers off altogether, on level ground and the oil is about halfway on the scale, where abouts is the pressure relief valve and how do I know if it's set correctly, seems strange, I've only had the car a few weeks and drove it back from York to reading and was using it for about a week before it started happening

[Spitz]

Pic is an auto...but same location

 

Attached Files

•  oil pressure.jpg   68.27K   14 downloads

[Cooperman]

As 'bmc....' says, the oil pressure has nothing to do with crankcase pressure, so forget that as it's not an issue.