Severe oil leak - 93 Regal 3.8

[RVANC]

Hello everyone. I'm new here and here's my first post.

Yesterday I installed a new, used engine in my car. As the engine had sat up a long time before I purchased it I disabled the ECM, ignition and fuel injection and cranked the engine until I had oil pressure. It came up to about 50 or 55. I then enabled everything I had previously disabled and the engine cranked right up.

The oil pressure came up to about 80 or 85 (about half way between 40 and 120) for a few seconds and then quickly dropped. In the few seconds it took to realize what was happening and shut the engine off it had pumped out about 3 quarts of oil somewhere between the rear head and the firewall. It would appear the oil is coming out under pressure and is not just leaking.

There is a possibility that when I put a new gasket on between the oil filter mount and the front cover I got some silicone on the oil pressure relief valve located in the front cover. Could my problem be similar to the one in "oil spraying from the oil filter" by GMan0820 (further down this first page on the Regal sub-forum)?

I can't think of anything else that would cause this big a leak in that area. Tonight assuming the oil has stopped dripping I'll get under the car and see if I can spot anything up there and see if there is a problem with the oil filter.

For the record, there are new gaskets with black silicone gasket maker on both sides between the front cover and the engine block, between the oil pan and block, and between the oil filter mount and the front cover as mentioned. There are also new gaskets (no silicone) under the valve covers and they are tightened down pretty snuggly. The oil pressure sender is new.

If anyone can offer any suggestions as to what might be causing this problem I will definitely appreciate hearing it. Otherwise I suppose I will have to pull the engine again which I DO NOT want to do, although this time I can probably do it a whole lot quicker than the first time.

Thank you.

RVANC

[RVANC]

This morning I discovered the cause of the leak. The oil filter gasket had blown out, sticking out past the side of the filter. When I pulled the filter the gasket was not deformed as far as I could see so I put it back in place and reinstalled the filter. Cranking the engine without letting it start the oil pressure came up to close to 120 on the gauge - maybe around 90 to 100. When I started the engine there was a noticable pop sound, the oil pressure dropped and I turned the engine off. And once again there is oil under my car. At least this time I had an oil pan under there.

Apparently something is obstructing oil flow or the oil pressure relief valve is stuck. Either way it looks like I will have to pull the engine again.

I am still very much open to suggestions or advice.

Thank you.

RVANC

[Tech II]

You don't have to pull the engine.....just the front cover......the pressure relief valve is sticking.....pressure should never get that high......Ran into this once.....customer had oil all over the ground....oil filter gasket had popped out.....thought it was a defect.....put a new one on, and it immediately blew the gasket again.....car had no gages....installed a manual gage, and the pressure shot up to 100psi and it blew another filter.....

Pulled front cover, and found the relief valve was not moving.....

[RVANC]

Thanks for the reply, Tech II, and for confirming the oil pressure relief valve. I have pretty much planned on pulling the engine anyway. My story was only complete enough to relate the oil pressure and blown gasket situation yesterday.

Actually I had the same situation the day before and I didn't realize the oil leak problem and get the engine turned off as fast as I would like to have. Only maybe 30 seconds passed after I cranked the car before I realized the oil had leaked out and I turned the engine off. But that may have been long enough to damage to bearings.

So I figure while I still have the car up on blocks and the engine hoist handy I might as well pull the engine and then pull the pan and check the bearings out. I'm not looking forward to doing that, mind you, but it seems like the thing to do.

Another question if you have the time - Can I check out the relief valve without having to pull the front cover? The valve and spring are inserted from the the filter mount side. Will pulling the filter mount be sufficient to service the relief valve?

Thanks again for your help! It is very much appreciated. And if you have more advice I'm all ears.

RVANC

[Tech II]

You can try it.....but my valve was stuck in the front cover, so I had to remove it.....pull the filter mount, remove spring, try and pull it out with a magnet......but chances are it is stuck.....

[RVANC]

The engine is out and on a stand, and a couple bearings look questionable so they will be replaced.

The pressure relief valve is definitely stuck. On my engine the spring goes into the front cover first with the the valve on top of that. Ordinarly the spring would push the valve out farther than the face of where the filter mount bolts on but it is stuck flush the face. Is there a way to come in behind it and push it out? I assume this would require me to remove the front cover as you said.

Thanks for your help.

Rick

[Tech II]

Trying to remember if there was a bleed hole where you could spray PB blaster and the use a pick to push it out.....but it looks like that front cover has to come off.....

[RVANC]

Thank you. I can't see any access to the valve from the outside. Your note implies there is access to it from the inside. Is that correct? When I take the cover off can I put something in a hole on the inside of the cover and push the valve out? If so that would be the way to go.

I thought I might try gently heating the area with a propane torch. As the aluminum of the front cover would expand more than the steel of the valve and the valve is currently spring loaded maybe it would pop out. Think that might work or would I be living too dangerously with that approach?

I appreciate your help.

Rick

[RVANC]

OK, the cover is off and the problem is fixed. Turns out the method used was tapping the valve in until the spring compressed enought to push the valve back out. Doing this several times did the trick. Having access to the spring from the inside of the cover helped but I may have been able to get the valve out without that. At any rate the problem has been resolved and I appreciate your help.

When I cleaned out the inside of the hole there was a bunch of very small, thin silver colored pieces of metal in there. They looked too bright to have been aluminum but I'm not sure what they were. Probably that was what caused the binding. Hope they don't come back and cause problems later.

Thanks again.

Rick

[irbf]

I wonder if this would explain the bizarre problem I had with a 2000 Regal GS. For about 1/2 year it periodically would blow out the oil pressure sensor. At first I thought I had damaged the sensor installing it as it is in an awkward spot but this was not the case. Mysteriously the problem went away after about five sensors... I got pretty good at changing them.

[RVANC]

Could be. What reading did the oil pressure guage have? My Buick service manual says normal oil pressure at normal operating temperatures should be around 60 psi. When cranking my engine would shoot up to around 90 - 100.

I'm glad for you your problem went away. Mine was a little more difficuilt to resolve.

RVC