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[sjr47]

 IIRC the V6 oil pump run directly off the crankshaft using a drive dog have heard of cases of these wearing or shearing off on pump. Looks a pig to remove pump ,cambelt/tensioners/cam sprocket/backing plate off + main casting above sump if you are removing sump to check strainer & thats clear might be worth carrying on to remove pump saves reinstalling sump then having to remove again.

[LC0112G]

IIRC the V6 oil pump run directly off the crankshaft using a drive dog have heard of cases of these wearing or shearing off on pump. Looks a pig to remove pump ,cambelt/tensioners/cam sprocket/backing plate off + main casting above sump if you are removing sump to check strainer & thats clear might be worth carrying on to remove pump saves reinstalling sump then having to remove again.

Haynes says you have to remove all the cam sprockets and the timing case to get the oil pump off/out. I think I'd prefer to get a new engine if it's not a simple sump & strainer clean.

[LC0112G]

Ok Car is home and undercover. £98 for a days car transporter hire and £60 of fuel. I'm hoping to drain the oil and drop the sump on Saturday morning.

Question about the oil pickup/strainer. Can it be removed by just dropping the lower sump cover plate, or does the whole 'big' sump have to come off?

[sjr47]

No if I remember correctly just removed sump pan, strainers connected to bottom off oil pump by 2 bolts easy enough to remove dont forget new O ring on refitting 

[2woody]

yes - that's how you do it.

In reality, the sludge will be stuck in the cupped end of the pick-up which dangles in the oil, so you'd not really need to remove it.

I've heard also of the oil pump over-pressure valve sticking open, but this is a "pump-off" to get to.

[LC0112G]

Ok, drained 9L of oil, and dropped the sump. This sump appears to have had a hard life with two huge creases/dents in it. Also - no sump gasket, just a bead of sealant - is that normal?

Anyhow, cleaned the sump up

..., and I think it's curtains for this engine ...


All the white gritty stuff i think is white metal off the bearings. It's got the texture of flaking paint. Then i found this...

..Lying in the bottom of the sump. I think it's a cam sprocket bolt.

Anyway, proceeded to remove the strainer - 4 bolts, one of which is hidden behind an oil return pipe, and a bit of a git to get at. Anyhow - strainer - blocked..


And with most of the blockages oiked out...


I'm still intending to nail it back together, but I reckon I know what to expect. Anyone got a spare X30SE auto engine for sale?

[Kevin Wood]

So, couple of cam cover O rings and a load of silicone sealant. Looks like someone has done a bodge job on the cam covers at some point.

[Andy H]

Any good for you ? http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/index.php?topic=121420.0

[sjr47]

Bolt looks like a conrod bearing cap bolt or off the upper ladder casting below crankshaft dunno how a cam sprocket bolt could get in
sump ? Either way looks like a dead engine hope I am wrong and it lives to fight another day hate to see another miggy meet its maker

[2woody]

yes, sorry Malc - that's what most of them look like when you drop the sump.

the "O" ring is from the centre of the cam cover - dropped during a cam cover job no doubt.

the bolt is from the main bearing tie ladder and not a con-rod.

The engine could rescue with a crank re-grind, but I'm guessing that you'll probably just get another.

later engines had RTV as the sump gasket

oh and yes, you should drop the sump and empty the strainer from the 'new' engine, too

[LC0112G]

Ok, finished cleaning out the strainer, and I got almost the same amount of sealant out in addition to that shown in the photo. I couldn't see any missing bolts, but you can't see much of the crank, ladder or con-rod ends with that guard plate thing in the way. Anyway, bolted everything back together, put about half of the dirty oil back in, and started up.

Then shut down, and opened all the doors of the garage to let the smoke out  . Then re-started. Oil pressure is back, and at tickover it sounds reasonable. However, even at low revs there is that distinct death rattle tapping.

I'm pretty pi55ed off that I didn't know about the strainer getting blocked by crud. Would be a fairly simple job to inspect and clean once every few years - I think it would only take about an hour or two. Now this engine is toast - good enough to drive to the scrapyard and that's about it.

For comparison, here is a photo of the X30X strainer off my car against that from a Carlton - well a sort of carlton 

[robson]

How many miles has the engine done. Should we all be doing routine maintaince in this area?

[LC0112G]

How many miles has the engine done.

From memory, 210K ish. It did have a full rebuild back in the mid noughties - at about 90K IIRC - due to a timing belt snap/roller collapse. Rebuild was by a Vx main dealer.  But I'm not sure milage is relavent here - what matters is the amount of crud in the sump,

Should we all be doing routine maintaince in this area?

IMHO - if this is a known issue with the X30 engine - Yes - though you probably only need to do it once every several years. I've owned 4 omegas, and have done a full service including Auto ATF filter change on every one at the first opportunity. I'll be adding a strainer clean to my list of things to do from now on. There is no way of knowing for sure what a previous owner has (or has not) done. If they've spread silicon sealant everywhere to try and fix oil leaks, then it doesn't seem to take much for it to end up in the sump and cause problems.

So, next time you do an oil changem drop the sump, look for any debris in the sump pan and oik out any crud in the strainer. Should be do-able in an hour or so, but check what sort of sump gasket or sealer you need in order to put humpty back together again - seems to depend on engine number.  If you start findng strange things (swarf/bolts) in the sump, then firther investigation is required.

[sjr47]

My V6 is due a oil/filter change next month now on 89K so thing I will now add strainer clean to job.By the way do you know the size of O ring seal to the pump body,MY 03- 52 plate so is it sealent or gasket ?

[Andy H]

I didn't bother unbolting the strainer when I checked mine. I reasoned that it introduced a load more work AND the risk that it might cause a new problem.

I didn't find enough crud to worry me but I did wipe or scrape all the surfaces I could reach just in case.

Mine has done 187K