Oil Pump Body & Other things

[ramjet]

Well as everyone could tell from the limerick thread, I have an oil leak. I am fed up with it leaking and I wanted it fixed before I go to the track thing we have on this weekend. It's been a bugger to track down as I just could not see where it was coming from.

Well at this point, I have dropped the oil as I wanted to change it anyway. I then removed the oil filter, removed the oil cooler adaptor plate to get it out of the way and then could see puddles of oil sitting in the block casting under the oil pump body. Not from removing the filter, they are higher up the block than the low point of the filter. So out came the chargecooler pump, and then off with the oil pump housing. All of this was done leaving the intake manifold etc on. Awkward, but do-able.

The gasket (actually, I would call this a plastic shim) was attached to the oil pump body with a sealant. According to the manual, if this joint is broken, the gasket must be renewed and fitted DRY so that the oil pump has the correct end float. The manual does not say anything about fitting the oil pump and body, measuring the gap and then buying a gasket to fill the gap and give the correct end float (also not specified), so I am assuming that the gasket will be the correct thickness and the end float will come out correct. Well I don't have a new one and I need the car for Sunday so it'll be going back together for Sunday then I'll get hold of the necessary bits etc to do it properly.

I have cleaned the sealant from the mating faces and the best I can do without damaging the gasket. The sealant was not uniform in thickness around the gasket so I am hoping that this is the cause of the leak. As the leak was there before I got the car, I can only assume it was either there from Lotus (which I doubt since the manual says dry) or one of the two previous PO's has had the car worked on and some MECHANIC ( ) has not read the manual and thought he could fix it by bodging it.

So, if there is anyone else that has had this apart, can you confirm if the gasket that goes between the oil pump body and the auxilliary housing is a transparent plastic gasket 0.2mm thick? Part of me was expecting a paper gasket after looking at the manual and if the faces have been at all damaged or are not completely flat, plastic fitted dry will just not seal.

I have also checked all the bolts that I can get to that are in the auxilliary housing and they all seem tight.

Also the K&N filter that is in my car will be coming out.

1) It does not fit the hole in the body. Too big.

2) If you fit it the wrong side to the body so that the deep side is in the airbox, you can't guarantee that it is going to seal against the body.

So the Fram filter I have will be going on as it fits perfectly. I'll live with losing the 1~4 hp that K&N claim their filters can give you.

Any replies about the oil pump body gasket would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys.(& gals)

Michael

[Vulcan Grey]

There is a thin gasket between the oil pump housing parts, though mine looks like it had a sealant...

My new gasket kit from JAE had a white translucent plastic shim/gasket (approx 0.25mm to 0.125mm if I recall correctly).

There is also the seal at the end of the oil pump where it drives the chargecooler pump... Did you check that seal?

Edited April 6, 2011 by Vulcan Grey

[ramjet]

Thanks Travis.

I have had a new shaft made for the chargecooler pump a while back. I renewed all the seals then including the o-ring. That's all fine. Your picture there is exactly what mine looked like. Same sealant as well. So I would say that Lotus assemble them with sealant on the plastic gasket. Why the manual then says assemble dry, I don't know.

Did you reassemble yours dry or with a sealant?

I'll be calling the guy in Melbourne that works on esprits and see what he says. Was hoping to get a couple of responses here from some of he guys that have rebuilt engines etc. Maybe they just haven't seen the post yet.

Michael.

[Vulcan Grey]

I think I used Hylomar blue on their shim/gasket... I don't see any residue squishing out.

I did have a massive leak from the oil pump housing after re-assembly... The earlier castings like on my 89SE had a window in the top of the pump housing, just under the alternator bracket (which is a separate piece) and the sealant I used wasn't thick enough to fill the gap. I had to use a thick fiber gasket as well as a thick silicone sealant (HondaBond) to get that to stop leaking.

alt bracket

gap between the bracket and oil pump window was over 1mm I think...

Edited April 6, 2011 by Vulcan Grey

[ramjet]

I'm hoping that the leak is from the oil pump body and not the auxilliary housing itself. I have to do a cambelt change shortly so what I am going to do is take the opportunity then to reseat the auxilliary housing and replace the oil pump gaskets etc then. I'll pull the induction side of the engine to do it next time though to make it easier.

Just spoke to the esprit and elan guy in Melbourne and he said every esprit he has seen has permatex on this plastic gasket. So Lotus say on thing in the manual and do something else. Nice.

[910Esprit]

Should be fitted dry, if you can resist the temptation of using goo... I've got a brand new one in front of me now indistinctly marked A907E0474. Its exactly as you describe, looks similar material and colour of a film negative.

Steve

[ramjet]

Well, based on the condition of what the gasket ended up looking like even with all the care I took to get the previous sealant off it, I used Permatex #3 when I put it back together. I will be ordering a new gasket for the oil pump and will probably get the auxilliary housing gasket as well as the induction side gaskets and I'll do it all properly after this weekend. Same time as I do my cambelt change.

So far, the engine has not leaked after the repair and oil change. I used to get a bit of clatter on start up nearly all the time with the previous filter I had on the car. It was fitted with the anti-drain valve to stop the oil draining back (waits for Bibs to chime in with 'doesn't work when the filter is horizontal') but this time I have fitted an AMSOIL filter. Absolutely no clatter on start up once the oil got around and I have stopped and started it a few times checking for the pesky oil leak that I had and not once has it clattered. So the anti-drain in these filters does work.

Also using Castrol Edge 15W/50 this time as I can't get Redline locally anymore. Lotus say Castrol so I'm fine with that.

Also scrapped the K&N filter as it did not fit the body hole and there is no way I could guarantee it was sealing in the hole once the airbox was on. There is a FRAM in there now.

Happy days.

[ramjet]

Okay, So went out to the car today to test everything for tomorrow's track effort. Clatter on start up. (what a nice piece of humble pie this is). Bummer. Good news though. The oil leak has abated. It is gone. Hoobloodyray.

[USAndretti42]

I think I used Hylomar blue on their shim/gasket... I don't see any residue squishing out.

I did have a massive leak from the oil pump housing after re-assembly... The earlier castings like on my 89SE had a window in the top of the pump housing, just under the alternator bracket (which is a separate piece) and the sealant I used wasn't thick enough to fill the gap. I had to use a thick fiber gasket as well as a thick silicone sealant (HondaBond) to get that to stop leaking.

gap between the bracket and oil pump window was over 1mm I think...

Had the same feature on my S2. Sealed it with RTV