OK! Just serviced my VH, it's a blue 253 - mind you it's been sitting around for about 6 months and hasn't been started in that time. I drained the oil, but left the sump open for over a week, topped it up with oil (left it for about a week again) then changed plugs/leads/rotor cap/rotor button and fired it up. And my oh my does it sound bad. I'm stumped as to what the problem is, the engine sounds like it's got a really bad exhaust leak or like the engine is working metal on metal, and it's verry loud. At first I thought it was because all the oil was sitting in the sump and not circulating through the engine, so drained the oil again, filled it and started it soon after, no luck - tried running the engine for a while to work the oil through and to see if this would fix the issue, again no luck. Checked the leads and they're all in the correct spots. I haven't got a timing light to check i didn't set the button in the correct spot, but it couldn't have moved more than a degree or two, doubt it would cause the engine to sound as it does. As it is I'm hesitant enough to screw around with the car unless I can get some ideas on what the issue could be as I'm not keen on doing any (more) damage. A mate of mine suggested that the problem could be the oil pickup isn't getting oil so it won't circulate through the engine but no idea on how to rectify the issue (if that is the issue). Any ideas as to what the problem could be? and possible solutions for? PS; also should mention the oil gauge isn't registering any pressure which led to me thinking that oil was the problem, but I can't remember if it worked to begin with.

lol describe the noise man is it a scraping noise thud tick knocking more of an air escaping from somewhere noise?

Hard to describe billy.. half knock/scrape and LOUD, exactly how I'd have thought a engine running with little or no oil would sound. But it's got oil! I'm thinking it's the pickup, but like I said I left it running hoping that if that was the problem that oil would start getting through the engine and solve the problem. Didn't work.

put a 4 cyilnder in it... might go better than the 253.... does it have an oil pressure guage or switch? pull out the sender and start it? if oil squirts out, you got oil pressure? could be an exhaust leak? if u got oil pressure, move the dizzy a little see what happens... check yourleads, could be on not the right way or a better solution... fix the vl and drive that?

leads are all on the right way, fair sure it's a oil pressure gauge as it's got a gauge on the cluster. And could be an exhaust leak, but I don't see how it could have happened - as I said car's been sitting around for 6 months and was fine before then. I'll have a crack at playing with the dizzy and see what I can get to happen, could be something simple as that. As for fixing the VL, need more money!

how long have you ran it for?

maybe 2 or 3 mins, it didnt really start sounding any better so turned it off

sounds like a bent rod to me, no oil pressure = bent rod does the sound happen every second or 2? cos that would be the rod fowling

nah its more constant than that, sounds just like i'd expect a engine with no oil to sound. Apparently the older 253/308's had problems with the oil feed/pickups so would explain it.. i'll fiddle with the timing later and see if I can get a better result.

dude try filling up the oil pump and then whack it straight on and start it my mate had the same problem on his 308 it was sucking air not oil as there was no oil in the pump hopefully that works if you havent already done damage..

It sounds like oil pressure, maybe it drained out when you had the sump off, repack it with vaso to get the vaccum happening again.

Quote: Originally Posted by 88wagon dude try filling up the oil pump and then whack it straight on and start it my mate had the same problem on his 308 it was sucking air not oil as there was no oil in the pump hopefully that works if you havent already done damage.. sounds like what i was expecting, i'll try filling it from the oil pressure sender hole then put it back in, should do the trick. doubt i've done any damage, it didn't sound any worse and was a low idle

Problem fixed, was due to no vacuum pressure in the oil pump - took the cover of the pump and jammed a whole heap of vasseline in there (dissolves in the oil at normal operating temp) and had it running nice and smooth fairly quickly.