I took the SRT to work this morning and tried some short sprints to try the 47 degree morning air. It pulled great but when it shifted it acted like I was pushing a clutch in and popping it. I thought it might be some dew on the road and figured I would check it again on the way home. So I do the sprint on the same road on the way home and no funny shifts at all. Everything is normal. I slowly brake to get back to speed limit and notice some white smoke in my rear view mirror. Me thinks..this is odd. Keep watching and dont see any more. Another 3/4 miles to the house and I notice that hot oil smell. I pop the hood to check things out and I have oil all over the passenger side of the engine bay. Shi$$$! The car was running normal but when I put it in part it was ideling at 1500rpm instead of 700rpm. No CEL. I did have a low tire indicator on in the morning that went away and on the way home the radiator indicator came on and went off a couple of times. I just did a OBDII read and there was only the old CEL DTC P0335 for the flakey crank position sensor connection that I got Saturday and didnt clear. While cleaning up most of the mess in the compartment I did find this plug laying on the fender. But it has no oil on it and it looks like a spacer. Maybe from the hood. I pulled the intake and cleaned up some more and dont see anything obvious. (yes, the oil was obvious smart ***!) I'll have to wait till tomorrow when it's cold to start taking things out and see what I can find. I think I probably blew a valve cover gasket on the passenger side. No racing this week!

MikeR

 

This is a great forum!! It looks like I didnt blow a gasket after all. I blew a dip stick!!! One of our friendly genius's PM'd me to check my dip stick as he had a similar thing happen. Sure enough, the dip stick was sticking out all the way to the wire at the cap. At high speed runs it squirts out out the dip stick tube if not seated. Looks like about 1/2 quart of oil. It looks like 5 gallons on the inside of my engine compartment! I guess my engines gets the bath that I have been thinking about giving it. Maybe I need to design a keeper for that dip stick. Hmmmmmm.....delrin clip, hinged snap over.. this might be easy...

MikeR

 

Glad you got it figured out bro. I was worried for a sec.

 

Me too!!! Whew!

 

You definitely had me paranoid man.

 

Ok me too. You have some nice metal crafting skills, make sure you make enough for all of us.

 

In my "Tale of Three Dyno's" thread - I mentioned that this happened me on one of the dyno runs. I wasn't sure if I left the stick partially out, or if the operator, when looking for a place to mount his tach light (VS a plug wire) had knocked it loose or what but the same thing happened to me. What a mess.

When I went to the Corvette shop the next day; I related this experience and they said it has happened to them before (650+ HP Vettes!!). When they looked at my dip-stick it was very sloppy and lifted with the least touch. They made a little crimp on the tube above the o-ring. For added protection against splewing oil in Andy's dyno bay - they also wired the stick to the post attached to the valve cover -- but with just enough slack to let it raise a little.

Three 350HP+ dyno runs later - not a mm of movement. They suggested a thicker o-ring. I have since run it hard several times with no issue.

I do believe installing the oil-air separator and blocking off the larger vent port on the intake "Y" and the valve cover aided this at WOT, but I don't think it's a big issue to overcome.

If I were at the track - I would wire or secure the dip-stick to prevent any possibility of fouling the track and having the wrath of ………....

 

How many miles you got on that thing?
Could it be blow by? I turbo'd a car and the boost would blow past the rings (old engine) into the crank area and force the dip stick out of the tube (messy).

 

Mike , I noticed in your previous post you mentioned doing a OBDII read. Since I'm a new owner I'm not sure If I need a buy code reader or if the car has a way of spitting out codes itself. My Z used lights, my Cad displays on dashboard. Anyway, if it will display, how do I access ? Thanks

 

I only have 24K on the car. I may have pulled the dip stick when I was pulling the new surge tank back out on Monday. Or partially out. Then I did the little power testing and gave it the final push. Brian is right though. The dip stick does NOT take much to pull out. I am going to make myself that handy little clip to hold that little begger where it belongs.

MikeR

 

Note to self: Duct tape the dipstick.

 

Did you figure out where the little plug goes? Glad you found the problem, I will look at mine.

 

My previous toy was an 1988 Shelby daytona 4 cyclinder that I drove at 7000 - 7500. Could not shift on the autocross track, because 2nd gear was too high for the corners and there is not time to shift that often. With 18 PSI boost the crankcase bypass gasses wanted out faster than they could otherwise go. They started pushing up the dipstick, a sure sign that the crankcase is under positive pressure.

Fixed it with a simple SMALL bungie cord to retain the dipstick. Easy to remove and elastic in nature, worked for me.

Lots of racers have piping / evacuators to maintain a partial vacuum in the lower end to increase horsepower by reducing windage losses, FYI

Blowing on by, Woody

 

Mr. Max, You need an OBDII reader to get the codes. There is a connector just in front of the hood release under the dash.

Crossfirefun, I haven't looked to see where that little plug goes yet. That will be today while I am cleaning up all the dang oil.

MikeR

 

Zip tie that sucker! That will keep it where it belongs.

Later,
KrzyFast

 

Okay. I got the engine bay cleaned up. Didnt find where that odd plug belongs yet. And I WIRED the dip stick down for a temporary fix while I fab up a 'purty' one. Everythign seems to be fine. No CELs, no random dash indicators and the idle is back down to 700rpm and smooth. I think there is a reason they call it a 'dip stick'. I still need to pull the tray/shield off the bottom and give it a good cleaning.

The weather is supposed to be in the low 70's tomorrow and I have some Klotz Octane booste. I will drive it to work tomorrow to double check there are no issues and if all is good, we go racing tomorrow night.

MikeR

 

Guys the engine oil dip stick has an o-ring on it which is supposed to help keep it tight in the tube, however that OEM o-ring is actually to small form the factory, we always replace them with a thicker size to have it fit snug into the tube, this allows a tight seal, and it wont jump out on you, and will actually help keep dirt out unlike the factory o-ring which does nothing! I can't think of the exact size i'd have to take a look at my o-ring container. We figured this out one time ordering new dip sticks and even the o-rings alone form mercedes and they were all wrong (too thin).

 

I use one from the oil filter, the small one fits just fine, nice and tight.

 

Me too, works great.

 

Me three.
I change it out whenever I do a new filter also.