Seems like there's a lot of variables in the oil pressure question. I guess if one or two things remained constant, then *theoretically* it would make sense. But the fact that the oil pump can't pump air has significance. Sorry for the little debate... but it's these things that keep me up at night .

Here's an update to my Optispark no-no:

When your friend, who bought the replacement Optispark, decides to put the old one back on (after you've been bugging him for a MONTH to do it), and finds that the car actually RUNS now with the old unit and not the new one, DO tell him that he's a moron and should have bought a car with a real distributor (oops, I used that one again ). And laugh at him again when you remember that he put $100+ into trying to get his car running with a bad Optispark. Then say "haha, look *my* car's apart because I WANT it to be apart, not because it has to be!"

And another: when you've been successfully porting your plenum with absolutely NO hang-ups or problems, don't tell yourself "hey, look, I actually managed to do something and not run into any annoying problems." The truth is, you WILL encounter problems that you never even dreamed of. Which is why I'm afraid to finish the job tomorrow... something is bound to happen.

 

When working on you F body with the hood held up by "The Stick" make sure it isn't windy out. The wind may decide to blow the hood down on top of you. And stock hoods are heavy.

 

Watch your elbows, too. No bruises, tho. It hit my shoulder-blade.

 

You took "it" to a shop? Dude my house "is" the shop. Dude every time I change my oil I clean up the drainbolt and put that blue gasket glue on it every time before replacing it so I don't have to torque it down. And then the floor is epoxied: heaven. Nothing like rolling in freash oil naked knowing you can clean up the mess in under 20 minutes.

 

/me has disturbing image of naked man rolling around in oil slick...

And about the oil pressure question, I think that the reason that there's less pressure when there's too much oil is because the fluid (oil) by itself doesn't compress. However, when some of that fluid is displaced by air (which compresses), the result is a pressure drop. Think about what happens when you have air in your brake lines, or any hydraulic system, for that matter. More pressure is required from your foot to obtain the necessary pressure in the system to squeeze the calipers than is required when it's solid fluid. Just my thoughts on the matter...

 

LMAO!

As for jiffy lube, id never take ANYTHING there. Those idiots crushed the fender on my aunts car jsut doing an oil change. Seeing the shady lot that usually works there should tell people right off the bat that thats not exacly the place to take your car for matenence.

 

Not to change the topic, but an update on the oil pressure debate:

I talked to my chemistry teacher today, and he said that when the amount of oil is increased (which decreases the volume of the air), the pressure should theoretically increase. Granted, the oil pump may only pump oil and not air, but he said that really doesn't have any bearing on the oil pressure. The engine is pressurized by the movement of the cylinders, not the pump -- which is why the oil pressure increases when the RPMs are increased (and also as temperature rises). Remember, oil pressure isn't really the pressure of the oil (liquids are not compressible), but it's the pressure being exerted on the oil BY the free air in the motor. He also went on to say that the "oil pump theory" would make sense if the sending unit was located up by the camshaft (which it is, right?). Also, he mentioned that the "oil pressure" label isn't entirely accurate, because of the fact that liquids can't be pressurized -- only gases.

I think there's more to it than meets the eye... a lot of variables that effect what's going to happen.

 

i dont want to start or continue a debate or an argument but id like to clarify how the engine builds oil pressure so no one gets any hair brained ideas as to why the needle shows xy psi on your dashboard when the engine is running. Unlike a small 4 stroke lawnmower engine, which relies on a scoop to pick the oil up and force it into the main bearing and rod bearings, your engine has a distributer driven oil pump. The oil pressure you are seeing is caused by your oil pump, which has a driven and an idler gear inside that draw the oil through the pickup and then pump the oil into the passages so that your bearings, journals, and lifters have oil. the pistons and cyl walls themselves are splash lubricated. The pressure you are seeing is a fucntion of the pump shaft speed and the pressure at which the pump is set to bypass oil. I constantly have 60 psi of pressure, which is registered form the gauge connected to one of the passages that leads to the oil pump, not because my crankcase is under pressure but because i have a stock HP pump in my engine. The crankcase itself is at or slightly under/over atmospheric pressure because it is continously ventilated by the pcv valve. if pressure builds up in there, your in trouble. i just wanted to get this out so when your pressure drops to zero you wont say "huh.. my air is escaping from the crank case", instead youll say, "oh ****, my input shaft snapped on the pump!!!"

 

to add to this, liquids are compressable, but no where near that of gasses. The pressure youa re seeing from the oil is because it is being forced into the engine and is compressing slightly sot he pressure your seeing is being exerted by the oil because it is being forced by the pump into the passages and hence it is under pressure. The compressibility of liquids actually leads to many interesting phenomena. I was speaking to an electrical engineer that was working for saab and he was helping with instumentation that helped them tune the brakes at a test track. One thing he saw them doing was adjusting the length of the brake lines so that the standing pressure waves set up in the hydrolic brake system lines by sudden brake application where out of phase with the rotational rate of the wheels and the abs servo appication. Neat, huh?

 

Dimented, you sorta lost me there with the Saab brake thing, but I see the reasoning behind the oil pressure explanation. To take this issue away from this thread, I'll send you a PM with another question regarding operation of the pump.

Gee, 'dem engines suuure are confusin' things (for me at least!)

 

Too late...

 

Wow...I've got the highest post count for this topic... Considering it's 'what NOT to do when working on your car', that can't be a good thing!!

 

Dont play whit your battery.
Ask my cat.

 

dont take your car that you JUST put a new camshaft in and JUST broke it in... for a test drive to a city 55 miles away.


Because right when you GET there you'll realize that the camshaft has eaten a lobe completelly off the cam...

... and luckilly its not the exhaust valve lobe that wiped out or you would be towing it back...

... so instead you get to baby it back home minus #8's intake lobe...

... stopping periodically to re-tighten the rocker as the lobe continues to eat away...

... only to wind up 4 weeks later with a new cam and another 12 hours of camshaft installation. check my sig for the video of the cam install "gone right".

 

THis one i should of thought of befor i did it. I was droping my fiero down after putting in the new motor and i for got a jack stand so i could not reach it so i slip under the car and kicked it.
need less to say i found out how low a fiero is. and my laughing friend jack the car off me.

Mike

 

Dont get drunk in the garage like som friends to me and then get the idea to customize your car. I might add that the result from that was not very impresive.

 

Hahaha... did it end up looking anything like this '67?....

http://www.motorcities.com/contents/00GK8223223469.html

 

Oh my ***, that's the rarest Camaro ever! The 67' with the WNE package....Willie Nelson Edition! Does it really run on pot like the legend says??

 

Well not that bad but the car is missing the roof. Not a pretty sight

 

king, i went to see your move there... but it seems that parts have been cut out? i wanted to see a movie on how to install a cam shaft... i get to look foward to that this summer, and i wanted to see what was going on... What happend to the lobe? how did it get disolved or eattin?

 

Big Al..your signature photo ROCKS!! Where'd you find that?? I wanna get that on a poster, man!

 

There are a lot of these here and I did not read them all but I have a couple to add to the list.
DO NOT use a car that you are going to change the belt on to go and get oil for your car and the belt for that car. The engine is a little warm when trying to put the belt on. I have done that a couple of times.

When using a rachet to adjust the pulley to be able to get the belt on do not start the engine to get the rachet unstuck. Not a good idea either.

One last one. Do not hit your dash when your car stalls on the freeway. It only causes more problems to fix. Had the alternator lock up on me. Not fun in rush hour traffic.

 

i read most of these not all i dont think that this has been covered....

dont start a car with the distributer 180 deg out.....your hood insulation can catch on fire when the carb backfires out the top and then spend a day wondering why it keeps doing it while the timing is way off to the point you have to estimate where you think it might be................so after changing the plugs 2 times and calling it quits for the night the solution comes to you at 2am waking you out of a deep sleep

dont you hate when something is so obvious and u just cant seem to see it?????

good thing i was having a beer to put the fire out lol... the beer is probably the reason it was installed 180 out

 

Never take your sisters butt ugly friend on a blind date.

 

Ha ha ha.... I still laugh at some of these... Here's a few more.. If your friend is riding with you and your check engine light comes on for like the 100th time for no apparent reason (later turned out a malfunctioning O2 sensor), don't flick the car off and then have your friend pound the dash. My speakers cut out for a second, my stereo skipped, and I swear to *** the car accelerated for like 1 second..just went vrrrRRRMMMrrmmmm.....and my foot did NOT change on the pedal! But the light went out!

Also...don't touch the exhaust tip on a hot car when you're not paying attention. Even though it's all the way at the other end of the car, it DOES still get hot! Shoulda seen me jumping up and down holding my fingers and cursing...must've been a funny sight!

 

I just did something stupid earlier today. I was putting the dash pad back on the 82, and I decided to take it around the block. At the end of my street theirs a circle turn around. So I decided to fish tail around it. Nothing wrong with that except I left my tool box open in the passenger seat. It only took about 10 minutes to find all of the screws and stuff under the seat, but it was still annoying.

 

One more...but this is for a moped, not my car...I just had to post it... When you're helping a friend tweak his 2-cycle moped and he removes the exhaust system to replace it and, for the hell of it, starts it up minus the pipe and muffler...for the love of ***, don't inhale. I thought I was gonna vomit all over his driveway after that one...

 

LMAO!!!!!!! HAHA THAT ONE TAKES THE CAKE!!!!

:hail: :hail:

 

and if your anything like me you go out right then and start working on it..

 

and then you think...."Why didnt i think of this before"

 

My friend gary goes to change his oil for the first time.

Calls me up 2 hours later:

"Hey man I drained all the oil, but it was red instead of black like you said. weird huh? oh and it only held 1 quart of oil. the dipstick was showing full after that. I think theres somthing wrong with it though, I try to drive and it just keeps screeching when i put it in gear... "

 

no he didnt.... wow... thats all im gunna say... wow....

 

after installing your new heads, cam and intake manifold THEN remembering that you forgot to hook up your hidden (under manifold) nitrous kit.....DO NOT pull the manifold only to remember you forgot the heat/splatter sheild under it then install the whole thing again....ONLY TO REALIZE, you forgot the nitrous lines...A-FREAKING-GAIN

 

hence why i had to pay $600 to get my camaro out of the impound.........stupid neighbor saved lots of money if i put a new starter in it

 

If you are a moron with no mechanical know-how, WHATSOEVER, do not come to me with problems changing your coolant after you've botched up an Optispark install. "It won't take more than a gallon of coolant, and I don't know why," he says. Ugh. I'm headed over there this afternoon to try to see what's wrong.

If you're a moron and your friend asks you if you've learned any lessons as a result of botching up an Optispark install and having your car out of commission for more than a month, DO NOT say "duuhh, no?"!! It will only make your friend angry and rant again that you should have taken your car to a garage to get it done because you don't know what you're doing (my friend is the moron in this story).

When putting a lift on a Jeep Wrangler with leaf springs, don't expect it to be done in one day. Especially when the kit doesn't include everything that you need, like extended brake lines. Expect to pay out of the *** when buying extended brake lines. Remember to have fun playing with the acetylene torch, catching rubber bushings on fire numerous times, melting plastic inner-fender walls, and throwing hot bolts and leaf springs into the snow. Also, don't be angry when you get home at 3:30am and have to wake up three hours later to go to school.

When putting rear shackles on a Jeep Wrangler with leaf springs, don't be surprised when the bolts are rusted to the nuts and you have to use a dremel to cut the bolts apart -- right next to the gas tank. With sparks flying everywhere. And expect for the bolts to be in backwards, so you have to drop the tank to get them out. But wait, the filler neck on the tank rests right on the frame rail so the tank can't drop completely. Have fun!!

Don't punch the windshield of an old Jeep. It hurts and the glass just might break.

When dismantling a 1980 Jeep CJ that is severely rusted, don't pull the rear skidplate WITHOUT a jack underneath. The gas tank might just fall, cracking the rusted fuel lines and spewing fuel everywhere. And, out of sheer luck, there just might be a spark from the metal hitting the concrete floor and start a fire. In a heated garage with natural gas lines running through the walls. Oh, and did I mention the kerosene heaters in the back corner?

 

then you shouldnt work on a car???? sounds like one of them stories when you woke up on the wrong side of the garage.:rockon:

 

???? Was it like half in the street or something? What did you do, take the engine out at the street and then roll it inside?

The type of neighborhood I'm in you can't just cut the grass with any old lawnmower. But then again I'm the only one that has a duel drive and room next/close to the house so I can put extra car/boat. Accually, there are 6 vehicles and 1 boat parked here.

1. Always make sure the neighbors dog isn't behind you when backing out of your drive even if the dog is dumber than squirls (jumps out and runs under the tire).

 

If you feel the need for exhaust tips, make sure they are attached well. And if you lose one, at least make sure the other one is tight before you go look for the first one. Some bastard's walking around with $40 worth of MY shiny metal. Never Again.

 

1.) When under your car beating off the old mufflers with a small sledge hammer, remember your knee looks nothing like a muffler.

2.) Bumper jacks suck, but using two to change your rear tires sucks more. Do you know how hard it is to rejack a car that just fell over?

3.) When pulling the motor out of a VW bug, do not grab the underside of the motor and yank. If you do, make sure someone else is around. 3 broken fingers and 2 hours later, my neighbor helped lift the motor off my hand.

4.) Windshields work better when hoods are latched.

5.) Antifreeze is not a substitute for wiper fliud.

6.) Never put gasoline in a beer bottle. Some people will not know the difference.

7.) Cat paw prints do NOT wetsand out of a new paint job.

8.) When trying to drive up a steep snow and ice covered rural mountain road, do NOT try and stop for the stop sign at the top. No matter what you later try, you will continue to slide back down!

9.) When leaving the mall and you keys no longer work in your car for some reason, make sure it IS YOURS before having it towed home.

 

To comment on #9....wow..bet they weren't too happy huh??!

 

Big LOL @ #9:sillylol:

When I first got my 87 Voyager, I would walk up to the wrong car and try to unlock it. I'm not that dumb, but there were an awful lot of silver Voyager/Caravans out there in 87. On one occasion, I actually unlocked someone else's car once. I was climbing in, when I noticed the Big Gulp in the cupholder. I didn't remeber going to 7-11 I got out and checked the tags. I was in the wrong car

 

What are the odds? Your key actually UNLOCKED it? You sure it wasn't just unlocked to begin with?? Lol

 

I would have paid to see that

 

make sure when doing a valve adjustment you dont leave your latex glove on the engine tb and get it suckinto the engine...
Thats on another post about some who actually did this so i figured i'd put it in i hope it isnt here already

 

LMAO-- those are some funny stories-- i've got one--

When being new to your 91Z28, and you decide that the throttle body needs cleaning, and you try to take it off, and you break a mysterious black valve type thing with hoses running to it-- DONT ASSUME ITS NOTHING and crank the car up-- Hot HOT coolant will spray about 4 ft sideways and end up on your girlfriends legs-- which will result in no nookie for awhile.

The piece was the "heater control valve" luckily it was only like 15 bucks at Autozone..

 

When the engine is runnig dont play with the fans. YES they cant start just like that. and YES my friend did this.

 

Don't try putting in a shift kit at 4 in the morning with just a flashlight and your brother's "help", especially when the tranny is still in the car, the car is parked in the driveway and it rains a lot where you live.

Don't ignore parts dropping out of your tranny when installing your shift kit just because they roll where you can't see them.

Don't spend your last money on another car that needs work just because the shop quotes as much to fix your tranny as the asking price of the car.

Do believe the city when you get a note saying they are going to tow your non running, insurance expired vehicle just because you pushed it to the curb to make room for "new" vehicle in the driveway.

Do give your brother a good thump whenever necessary.

 

Never trust a salesman when you don't know anything about what you're buying. Had a Mustang LX 5.0 that was stolen and recovered. Needed new rims and tires. Wanted deep dish hammers and let him talk me into bigger tires. I also shared the car with Dad. Dad asks what that rubbing noise is when he turns. I say "I dunno". He takes it to his mechanic at work. Mechanic fixes it with a BFH (Bif F#$kin Hammer) to the wells.

Always check the fuses FIRST! Cousin's car wouldn't start. Took 3 of us 2 hours before I finally decided to check the fuses. Found, changed and VOILA! They looked completely dumbfounded.

Make sure the "METAL" blade, not the "WOOD" blade, is in the sawzall when cutting out the old exhaust. Using a "WOOD" blade will result in your body trembling like an alcoholic with the D.T.'s for the rest of the day.

Make sure your arm is not in the path of the blade when using a compound miter saw. I've got the scar to prove it's not a wise thing to do.

ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS make sure that junior is tucked snuggly into your undies BEFORE YOU ZIP UP!!!!!!!

 

ok theres working on your car and working it WITH your car.... i have never got so involved in workign with my car where ive had junior out....

 

Come on ... how many times have you worked on the car and forgot to put gloves on (in the begining), got your hands extremely filthy and then had to take a leek? Then you don't want to get Dale Jr. dirty so you "finger tip" him and rush. OOPSSSS!!!!!