2004 Super Sport low oil pressure

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tryathlete Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Platinum Member Joined: April-19-2013 Location: Lake Villa, IL Status: Offline Points: 1797	Post Options Post Reply Quote tryathlete Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: 2004 Super Sport low oil pressure Posted: October-03-2020 at 11:57pm
	Every bit of wisdom garnered here will be properly transmitted.

MrMcD Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Grand Poobah Joined: January-28-2014 Location: Folsom, CA Status: Offline Points: 3750	Post Options Post Reply Quote MrMcD Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: October-03-2020 at 10:53pm
	My wife has a BMW X5 with the V8, there is a nice engine oil cooler. Like your Volvo they used Orings to seal the cooler lines. German law says they must use Recycled product, these Orings go out around 100,000 miles and create a high pressure oil leak. Of course they are mounted on the side of the engine between the motor mount and the frame, below the exhaust and above the front differential. BMW says 17 hours to change these $7 Orings. I did hers in the garage, did all other service at the same time. I never want to wrench on it again. Nice car but that is ridiculous. On the GM LS engines if you replace the Oil Pick up tube Oring, be very careful to match up to what you already have. GM used 2 designs I know of. I think they color code, Red and Green, there might be a black option also, but match the size. Melling Oil Pump company sells the Orings, so does Fel Pro or the dealer if it comes to that.

Gary S Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Grand Poobah Joined: November-30-2006 Location: Illinois Status: Offline Points: 14096	Post Options Post Reply Quote Gary S Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: October-03-2020 at 12:57pm
	Who ever thought o rings deep inside an oil system was a good idea? My sister in law's Volvo with only 110K has the same problem,the oil temp gets up,you get up to speed and the oil warning goes on. She took it into the dealer they said it needs a new engine for 16K or a used one for 5K. Had Blackstone do an oil analysis- came back fine for an engine with that many miles. Volvo forums say it's the o rings in the pan, so I thought with the test being decent I'd give it a go. Found out you have to drop the sub frame in order to get the pan off and while your doing that you should really remove the intake manifold and replace the PCV cannister and hoses at another 400 dollars. Since this was originally our car I always thought the turbocharger would be the first thing to go. 10 years ago I'd have torn it down now I have no desire to be under that thing. Little would I have guessed that it was a couple of dollar o ring that sent it to the junk yard....
	69 Mustang HM SS 95 Nautique Super Sport

KENO Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Grand Poobah Joined: June-06-2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 11112	Post Options Post Reply Quote KENO Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: October-03-2020 at 6:50am
	Let's see, the boat has an 04 engine, the above is about an 08 engine. You might figure out that AFM/cylinder deactivation didn't exist on a 2004 Chevy LS engine so some of the above doesn't pertain Most important sentence is his last one.............verify the issue before jumping to conclusions

MrMcD Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Grand Poobah Joined: January-28-2014 Location: Folsom, CA Status: Offline Points: 3750	Post Options Post Reply Quote MrMcD Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: October-02-2020 at 11:56pm
	The longer you run it the higher the oil temp can get, running at higher RPM will contribute to this. Higher temps will drop oil pressure. Example I saw yesterday, I have a 2003 Yukon with this same basic engine structure, This Yukon has always had 40 PSI or better at idle and 60 PSI at any RPM over 2,000. Pretty normal. I towed the Cobalt I have been working on 500 miles one way yesterday to its new home. Went over several mountain passes 4,000 to 7,000 ft elevation. The boat and trailer were 6,000 pounds. It was 100* out. At first I had my normal 60 PSI on the highway, I was driving in 3rd gear, avoiding overdrive with this load. After about one hour oil pressure dropped to 40 PSI, did not go lower except at idle. I was wishing I had an Oil Cooler on this engine. The heat and constant hard work dropped my oil pressure. The last leg of this trip over 20 miles I went from about 2,000 ft to 7,000 ft climbing a very steep, very winding road. The Yukon was in 1st gear taching 4,000 RPM for about a half hour. Made me nervous but it seems fine today. I was going all of 25-30 mph and could not go faster, it was horribly steep with that load. I have had the pan off the newer LS engines and there is a bypass built in to limit oil pressure. This was installed to avoid damage to the Cylinder Deactivation lifters used on some engines. Those systems can fail due to high oil pressure. Your boat will not have this option and the Pressure relief can be eliminated/removed/plugged. I have done this to a 2008 LS engine, you have to remove the pan to do that work. The Oil Pick Up O'Ring is a real problem in passenger cars and trucks, they get stiff and quit sealing. It is a $4 part and if you pull the pan change it so you don't have to worry. I would not think a boat would have the problem with that Oring due to lower heat and far less use than a passenger car or truck. Most tell you to change the oil pump. Oil Pumps are the best oiled part inside the engine, they get oil first always. Due to that they have less wear than most any part in that engine. What does happen is some particle can get stuck in the by pass keeping it from working properly. You can take it apart and clean it, add a shim if you wish for more pressure. If I had to guess which one is your problem I would lean towards the secondary bypass which is built into the pan, not into the oil pump but you may find out the secondary bypass was eliminated by the engine manufacturer since cylinder de activation is not used in boats. The 2008 LS 5.3L engine I worked on was reading zero oil pressure when I got it. Pulling the pan and blocking off the secondary relief, plus a new O'ring, had that car at a solid 50 PSI at idle with the same oil pump. Before doing any of this you would want to verify you have an issue and not just a bad Oil Pressure sender.

tryathlete Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Platinum Member Joined: April-19-2013 Location: Lake Villa, IL Status: Offline Points: 1797	Post Options Post Reply Quote tryathlete Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: October-01-2020 at 8:49pm
	Assuming the long shot of higher viscosity oil fails as it probably will.

tryathlete Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Platinum Member Joined: April-19-2013 Location: Lake Villa, IL Status: Offline Points: 1797	Post Options Post Reply Quote tryathlete Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: October-01-2020 at 8:40pm
	Yeah, if it were my boat I’d have a lot more detail to share. I’m just trying to help by remote control but I’ve been able to assemble enough pieces of info to start leaping to conclusions. I’ll be sure to pass back what we learn about the engine after we get the pan off.

KENO Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Grand Poobah Joined: June-06-2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 11112	Post Options Post Reply Quote KENO Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: October-01-2020 at 7:14pm
	I guess only you and the friend and the mechanic might know the numbers, your first post said low at idle, no mention of what it was at any other speeds. Why does it take 20 to 30 minutes for any of the things mentioned to suddenly cause a problem I think somebody's jumping to some conclusions unless there's more info than what's given here.

tryathlete Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Platinum Member Joined: April-19-2013 Location: Lake Villa, IL Status: Offline Points: 1797	Post Options Post Reply Quote tryathlete Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: October-01-2020 at 6:17pm
	Based on a mechanic who had no interest in engine work measuring low pressure with a mechanical gauge, I think the plan is to check the pickup screen, pickup o-ring and possibly shimming up the oil pump pressure relief spring by about 1/4”—-assuming a few bearing cap checks don’t yield nasty visual inspection. Sure did get a ton of help here. Thanks for the contributions and advice.

KENO Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Grand Poobah Joined: June-06-2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 11112	Post Options Post Reply Quote KENO Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: October-01-2020 at 5:57pm
	Before I started tearing into the engine, I'd get some better information about oil pressure at various rpm's I'd probably have a mechanical gauge on it that I could see while driving it around......and one eye on the gauge the whole time

tryathlete Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Platinum Member Joined: April-19-2013 Location: Lake Villa, IL Status: Offline Points: 1797	Post Options Post Reply Quote tryathlete Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: October-01-2020 at 8:13am
	This is why I love this forum. So a hardened o-ring would allow air to get sucked into the pickup oil feed to the pump? That would surely reduce oil pressure. Sticking relief valve would prevent pump from achieving pressure?

GottaSki Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Grand Poobah Joined: April-21-2005 Location: NE CT Status: Offline Points: 3363	Post Options Post Reply Quote GottaSki Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: October-01-2020 at 8:05am
	huh. Relief valve hanging open, and hardening of the oil pickup oring are documented events on the LS series
	"There is nothing, absolutely nothing, half so much worthwhile as messing around with boats...simply messing." River Rat to Mole

tryathlete Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Platinum Member Joined: April-19-2013 Location: Lake Villa, IL Status: Offline Points: 1797	Post Options Post Reply Quote tryathlete Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: September-30-2020 at 10:59pm
	Precisely. Unfortunately I don’t know what the readings were when it was instrumented. The boat would drive for 20-30 minutes at speed and then go into safe mode. Just seems strange. Thanks for the reply KENO.

KENO Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Grand Poobah Joined: June-06-2004 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 11112	Post Options Post Reply Quote KENO Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: September-30-2020 at 7:17pm
	Does the blurb down below in red describe what his engine is doing and how it acts? It's hard to tell from your description it's from a PCM manual describing the 6.0 power reduction mode. Low oil pressure at idle won't put it into power reduction mode. Low oil pressure at 2500 rpm will put it into power reduction mode though POWER REDUCTION MODE The ECM monitors engine oil pressure and engine coolant temperature whenever the engine is running. If either one of these inputs indicate an abnormal reading, the system will go into “Power Reduction” mode, followed by the illumination of an indicator lamp and/or sounding of the warning buzzer (if equipped). This is a feature that will help protect the engine during an overtemp or low oil pressure condition. When in “Power Reduction” mode, the ECM will allow normal engine performance up to 2500 RPM. Above 2500 RPM, the ECM allows fuel delivery through only half of the fuel injectors. Once the RPM is brought down below 1200 RPM, normal engine operation is restored until the RPM exceeds 2500 RPM. The feature allows maneuverability of the boat while removing the possibility of high engine speed operation until the problem is corrected. NOTICE: If it is not possible to safely shut off the engine, return the engine to idle speed. Once returned to idle, the ECM will allow the engine to operate normally below 2500 RPM

SNobsessed Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Grand Poobah Joined: October-21-2007 Location: IA Status: Offline Points: 7102	Post Options Post Reply Quote SNobsessed Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: September-30-2020 at 6:45pm
	I would try the higher vis oil 1st. If that doesn't work, fix the root cause of the issue.
	“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” Ben Franklin

tryathlete Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Platinum Member Joined: April-19-2013 Location: Lake Villa, IL Status: Offline Points: 1797	Post Options Post Reply Quote tryathlete Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: September-30-2020 at 4:13pm
	A buddy bought a 2004 SS with a PCM ZR6 with about 500 hours. During test drive we hit 48 mph GPS and drove for about 25 minutes at varying speeds. Other than being over-propped and having an awful hole shot and test driving in a thunderstorm, the boat ran ok. After getting it home it kept going into limp mode apparently due to low oil pressure (supposedly had a mechanic put a gauge on it and it was low at idle. I don’t know how low, but no tappet noises or other signs of bad rod or main bearings. I’m trying to help and suggested running higher viscosity oil (40 or 15-40), or perhaps (Zach suggested) a replacement oil pump. Obviously if pressure is low there’s a clearance problem on the mains but I’d like to offer him some suggestions before pulling the engine and dropping the crank for a full checkup. Is there a possibility of buying a higher volume/higher pressure oil pump? I know the old 1969 Z-28 with the 302 had a higher volume pump. Other than that piece of trivia I know little to nothing to help him.

2004 Super Sport low oil pressure

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