Newbie questions

[sshenton1975]

Hi guys

Am getting serious bitten by the Cerbie bug - have driven a 4.5 and S Six today

Very interested in the Six due to price and good condition

Has done 26K and had 3000£ rebuild 3 years ago at 23K miles


My only concern is that at idle the oil pressure was 5psi and only rose to max of 25psi on full chat

Should I worry and walk away?

Cheers

[boardinscotland]

sshenton1975 said:

Hi guys

Am getting serious bitten by the Cerbie bug - have driven a 4.5 and S Six today

Very interested in the Six due to price and good condition

Has done 26K and had 3000£ rebuild 3 years ago at 23K miles


My only concern is that at idle the oil pressure was 5psi and only rose to max of 25psi on full chat

Should I worry and walk away?

Cheers

I would walk away. Although the idle pressure is low (my S6 was about this) on full acc it should rise to nearer the 50psi mark. Mine generally sits at 45 psi on cruise when fully hot. Oh and I am now getting an engine rebuild with 30000 miles on the clock.

[TVR_owner]

boardinscotland said:

sshenton1975 said:

Hi guys

Am getting serious bitten by the Cerbie bug - have driven a 4.5 and S Six today

Very interested in the Six due to price and good condition

Has done 26K and had 3000£ rebuild 3 years ago at 23K miles


My only concern is that at idle the oil pressure was 5psi and only rose to max of 25psi on full chat

Should I worry and walk away?

Cheers

I would walk away. Although the idle pressure is low (my S6 was about this) on full acc it should rise to nearer the 50psi mark. Mine generally sits at 45 psi on cruise when fully hot. Oh and I am now getting an engine rebuild with 30000 miles on the clock.

You mention two points I would be a little concerned with.

I would want to know what was done for the 3K rebuild - if it was through one of the recognised TVR folk that build/rebuild the S6s, I'd say you would not have got very much, so dont belive its had a FULL rebuild.

The oil pressure concern could well be the oil pressure switch which is known to have been problematic in the past. If the car is with a dealer, ask if they can change the sender and allow you to drive it again. 45-48 psi hot at 3000 rpm is where you should be. Hot at idle will vary depending on the oil being used but with a 15/50 synthetic (and the idle speed) it should be 15 psi at 1000 rpm.

I would not be so quick to reject it.

[Far Eastender]

I've got a digital dial to read water and oil, so it's should be more accurate that the digital one's. Readings are:

Cold: 55-57 PSI

Warm idle: 10-13 PSI

Warm at 4,000 revs: 45 PSI

[Peppe]

My Cerb SP6 has 60-65 psi on idle (950 rpm) when cold and goes down to just below 20 psi when the oil is warm. At 2800 rpm I get 55 psi when the engine and oil have warmed up. Water temp 80 C and oil temp 85-90 C.

I have changed to a bigger oil filter on the engine which made a increase in oil pressure with about 5-7 psi. At the moment I use a 10-60W oil from Castrol.
It seems as I have rather high oil pressure in my SP6 since the camcover with extra oil feeds decreased the pressure with 5 psi.

The engine is rebuilt by the factory late 2005 and have covered 7k since then.

Edited by Peppe on Sunday 26th October 18:06

[WorAl]

Mine is at about 7-10 psi when on idle and rises to 45-50psi when on song

[Mark A S]

On Mobil 15w 50 when Hot, mine is 19/20 on idle, 60 to 65 running. Been told its Very good for a S6 though.

[Tuscanuwe]

Hi Peppe,
you wrote:
"I have changed to a bigger oil filter on the engine which made a increase in oil pressure with about 5-7 psi."

Pls let us know which filter you have mounted!
It sounds very interesting, but hard to believe
how this increase should happen!

Thanks
Uwe

[Speed_6_2001]

Be sure to find exactly what was included in the rebuild (in terms of the quality of replacement parts etc). I was in a similar position 12 months ago and the speed 6 had a similar mileage since it's rebuild. That rebuild lasted the grand total of a further 6000 miles before I was told it would need another rebuild.

I'm now trying to weigh up whether I invest c.£10k in the Racing Green triple f option or save a few quid in the short term and just get another "standard" rebuild?!

[KillerJim]

Mine runs 60psi at cold, going to 18->24 on hot idle and always 50+ above about 2500rpm

Could it just be a faulty oil pressure sensor?

J

[TVR_owner]

KillerJim said:

Mine runs 60psi at cold, going to 18->24 on hot idle and always 50+ above about 2500rpm

Could it just be a faulty oil pressure sensor?

J

Jim,
It may well be you both have a faulty oil pressure sensors.

[KillerJim]

I was under the impression that the figure I was getting was correct, atleast from reading most of the oil questions asked over the last year in here..

Racing Green told me those figures were correct too and the local TVR servicer hasn`t said anything...

J

[TVR_owner]

KillerJim said:

I was under the impression that the figure I was getting was correct, atleast from reading most of the oil questions asked over the last year in here..

Racing Green told me those figures were correct too and the local TVR servicer hasn`t said anything...

J

They sound high to me and above what is stated in the hand books IIRC

[andyoleary]

Jim's figures sound almost identical to what I used to see on my old engine. I think that some SP6's seem to just have better/stronger apparent oil pressure than others...If your cams and followers are not showing any signs of excessive wear and the valve clearances are not showing a downward trend then I wouldn't imagine there is anything to worry about. These are all basic sender values people are talking about - not the most accurate measurement device/method. The thing to look out for is dramatic changes in the normal feedback you get from the engine/Pod display etc. IMO anyway...

I guess it comes down to each engine being different. It's always a problem talking about oil temps when at anything over 40mph too due to the wind-chill factor - especially with some of the T-cars as I think the radiators (and then the air flow over the sender) went through a change in orientation on some models so you're not exactly comparing apples with apples - I used to get familiar with what the oil pressure was doing at certain temps in order to determine whether the oil was hot enough to get over the 3Krpm mark...

The readings I get now are somewhat different to what I used to get on the "standard" oil-ways set-up in the head. Now, with the "closed-loop" oilway (new feed to the exhaust side of #6) I get a much more constant output from the sender with hot idle sitting at around 12psi. That's with 10/40 mineral oil at the moment.

Just my tuppence....best advice IMO is talk in length about your own specific set-up with the garage/mechanic of your choice and try to understand as much as possible about what factors affect what feedback you are getting from the system.

Andy

[KillerJim]

andyoleary said:

Just my tuppence....best advice IMO is talk in length about your own specific set-up with the garage/mechanic of your choice and try to understand as much as possible about what factors affect what feedback you are getting from the system.

I just had it serviced (full 12k) at 16k miles and the servicer said all looks very good, two shim's needed changing (since 11k miles) and it got rid of the cold-start (slight) sowing machine noise.

I just hope I got one of the good un's

J

[Peppe]

Tuscanuwe said:

Hi Peppe,
you wrote:
"I have changed to a bigger oil filter on the engine which made a increase in oil pressure with about 5-7 psi."

Pls let us know which filter you have mounted!
It sounds very interesting, but hard to believe
how this increase should happen!

Thanks
Uwe

Hi !
The oil filter I have used is the same size as used on a Ford 7.5 litre marine engine. The reason I wanted a bigger filter is that I think a engine of the size of a SP6 should have a bigger filter than the original one. The filter I use was recommended to me by FRAM filters when I asked them if it was possible to use a bigger filter. What you need to check is that the filter has the same internal construction with reverse valve etc. as the original, so I gave the number on the original to FRAM and they answered me with a number on a bigger filter with the same internal construction.

This is the number on the FRAM filter I was recommended, FRAM PH2821A
I can´t see why the factory didn´t choose a filter like this from the beginning, an idea anyone?

Peter

[Barry Ashcroft]

Peppe said:

Tuscanuwe said:

Hi Peppe,
you wrote:
"I have changed to a bigger oil filter on the engine which made a increase in oil pressure with about 5-7 psi."

Pls let us know which filter you have mounted!
It sounds very interesting, but hard to believe
how this increase should happen!

Thanks
Uwe

Hi !
The oil filter I have used is the same size as used on a Ford 7.5 litre marine engine. The reason I wanted a bigger filter is that I think a engine of the size of a SP6 should have a bigger filter than the original one. The filter I use was recommended to me by FRAM filters when I asked them if it was possible to use a bigger filter. What you need to check is that the filter has the same internal construction with reverse valve etc. as the original, so I gave the number on the original to FRAM and they answered me with a number on a bigger filter with the same internal construction.

This is the number on the FRAM filter I was recommended, FRAM PH2821A
I can´t see why the factory didn´t choose a filter like this from the beginning, an idea anyone?

Peter

Probably cost