Author Topic: Air in oil?  (Read 6641 times)

Offline Lejund58

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Air in oil?
« on: September 17, 2015, 10:06:38 am »
We've had an issue twice this year already with the cam bucket on the rear cyl not coming back up to the cam. I can actually stick the blade of a flat head screw driver between the shim and the cam. We pulled the first engine and set aside and bought a used engine with about 40-45 nights on it. It ran strong and won a feature the second or third night out with it. Changed the oil and switched to the Texas filter setup after about 3 races. The first night with the new setup we had a cam bucket not want to pop back up against the cam but would move. It ran fine, but made a hellacious racket. We'd start it and check the oil and there would appear to be air bubbles passing by the sight glass. So after a week off and some researching, we found a lot of guys use Rotella and it clears up engine noise. So we changed oil again and let the engine warm up, rapped the throttle up to about 6k and "ping," the racket was gone and ran really good.
It now seems that the oil system is losing prime. Is there any chance that the system losing prime is causing air to get in the bucket and causing something to stick? And why is the system losing prime? Does it matter which direction the oil flows through the cooler? We have it pulling from the bottom of the cooler and returning through the top. This is an issue that I would like to try to clear up. It's kind of nerve racking not knowing why it's doing this. Any help is appreciated. Thank you.




 

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