Curious - where does your oil pressure gauge start when cold - pegged at 80? If so - how long does it take to drop?

Mine runs much higher than yours - confirmed by a mechanical one in the engine bay. Like 60 at 3k flat cruise. I never see anything as low as 20 - even hot at idle.

Finally, when I shut it off in the garage I did not see any oil leaks--yet.

Altogether, a good first drive for 2023. Now I can start building up my time driving my 914. Right now the ratio of drive to wrench time is about 1:1000.

Yes, around 70 to 80 at cold start. From what I have read, 10 psi at hot idle is normal.

Ok - interesting - thank you. Wonder why mine is so high...not that it's a bad thing, I guess...

Looks like victory on several fronts.

Will you soon be looking for a rust bucket 914 to rebuild in your (now) spare time?

Congratulations on a great 1st 2023 drive Bob. No one likes oil leaks.

Tempting, but I promised my son I would help with his project next. Car TBD. He would like a 356 but might have to settle for an MGB (his choice).

Don't jinx me!

Congrats on a great project, but are they ever complete? Also great news with the MGB.

Hoping the oil leakage is cured, where was the source?

i have wondered, if i should get a oil pressure gauge for my new motor, and if i did , what does that require wiring wise and as far as pressure sensor does a new pressure sensor get mounted to the same spot the current one is for the dummy light?

Phil

is that battery a AMG? what is the spec ? did you buy that locally?


Phil

I ran a new wire from the engine to the center console, through the rubber snorkel and into the tunnel.

The simplest way is to replace the stock sensor with a new VDO unit. They sell sensors just for new VDO gauges, but then you give up the idiot light. VDO also makes dual circuit sensors, with an idiot light sender, but this triggers the light at a lower pressure than stock. I decided to use a T-fitting so I could keep the stock idiot light sender and mount the new VDO sender. See my build thread for more details.

Yes, AGM. I bought it from Amazon, after several positive recommendations. Happy with it so far.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B7WIKJ...=UTF8&psc=1

Took a fun drive to our local C&C today, with one of the best turn-outs ever, at least 70 cars. Oldest was a 1929 Ford Model A pickup. We had just about every variation of car and truck categories, plus a couple of bikes.

Here's my car with Mike's (second from left) 914-6.

And a 914-Subaru, with Subaru drive train. Note the passing Durango historic steam train, on the way to Silverton.

I looked under my 914, parked since I drove it home from C&C on Saturday.

Oil drips from near the front of the engine.

Fudging you know what!

i feel your pain lol! is that from the oil filter area?

Phil

Sorry about the leak. I know you've put a ton work into it.....

IF it doesn't leak oil, it doesn't have any in it.

Seems more like center to left side. I am too frustrated to explore more right now.

Maybe that's the way. Drain the oil out and no more leaks!

Myself (and probably many others) are in the same boat. When I get around to it I will get her up on the lift and run her for awhile. Over the winter I changed out one of the threaded plugs, but now I am thinking oil pump cover gasket. Other than that how are the other systems? btw: great restoration and great documentation

Hi Bob, have you though of using leak detection dye? There are several sources to purchase it from. Maybe available from you local flaps. It is a UV oil addative that will then show up where the leak is coming from...I would suggest adding it and then run the car. Dont drive it , just run it, otherwise any oil that has the dye in it will be everywhere.

Of course you will need a UV light source, maybe a black light....Not real sure.

Good suggestion, Kevin. Looking up info now.

AWOL for almost a month! But with good excuses, like attending my son's PhD graduation, helping him move to start his first job, helping my daughter and her family move, teaching a week of geology field camp for college seniors, and then flying to Iowa to pick up my new F-150 that I ordered last year.

Now I need to get pack to working on my 914. To start, I wanted to get back on braking issues, both effectiveness and pulling to the right.

The master cylinder brace definitely helps.

I went out for a brake bedding session. That meant multiple stops from over 50 mph down to 20 mph. After a few, the brakes felt stronger and did not pull (much). I measured temps of the front disks and calipers, and the right side was higher but only by 5 to 10°. I kept repeating the stops until the brakes started to fade.

After driving 20 minutes to cool things down, I tried some hard braking. The car stopped straight and strong.

But today I tried again. Once warmed up, the brakes felt strong and stopped straight. But after a few more stops, I felt a pull to the right again. This is mostly after the car decelerates to below 10 to 15 mph.

I will try again tomorrow, but would appreciate any ideas.

Hi Bob,

When you are doing your brake stop testing, is it in a level place or on a roadway? Colorado tends to add extra crowning to its roads, in order to allow for drainage to prevent ice. That extra crown could acount for the pull at low speed. You might try a good large level parking lot, or do like I used to do, wait till there is no traffic and do it stradling the yellow line.....hehehe

Thanks for the reminder--and the tip. I did another session of brake pad bedding and testing today. After a little warmup, the first couple of hard stops were very straight. A few more and I felt just a slight pull to the right. I drove for a while to cool things down, and went through another 7 or 8 stops, and all felt straight. Maybe the problem is cured?

I hope crossing it off the list will not jinx me.

In any case, I put the car back on stands so I can check brake action and clearance.

And I need to start looking for the oil leak source--again. Here is what dropped on the floor after driving for about 45 minutes today.

Bob,
(smartshit answer) You could buy to containers. One tha pours oil back into the oil cap, and one that collects it from the bottom. Sorry...we must keep our humor. But maybe im onto something.

Kevin

Or turn it into some kind of 914 rust-proofing?

You're right. We are in this for the fun--even with the aggravating episodes.

Bob
Going back thru looking for pictures of the door jambs where all the weatherstrips come together. I didn't want to cut anything short and everything always shrinks.

I saw this and I too have that annoying gap. hoping with summer sun it will go away.

Kevin

Also did you ever hear the original exhaust on the car wit the two glasspacks?

Like I said, as longs as none of my friends see your car, I'm golden

I did fiddle with it more, and over time it seems to be better. Best plan is to leave the top off and not look closely.

I did a quick review of the brakes today. Every looks good. Both fronts spin freely, and no signs of drag or overheating.

The rears also look good and spin. But the clearance on both sides dropped to less than .002".

For my next test, I set up a prop for the brake pedal so I could gradually add pressure. Here's what I found.

With just a small amount of pressure after taking up the free-play, both fronts had a small amount of drag, and equal L and R. Both rears spun freely.

With a bit more pressure, both fronts locked up (at least with hand power on the disks). Both rears could still move, with slight drag, again equal L and R.

And with more pressure, all 4 wheels locked up.

Seems good, but I want to check it again tomorrow.

I set the rear brake pad clearance to .005" (not sure how the similar gap I set months ago got closed to new zero).

And again I tested brake action from L to R as I very gradually stepped on the brake pedal, with my fancy robot driver. Both front and rear braking was very equal side to side.

I hope I can cross the brakes off the list.

And then the big problem. Where is the oil leak? Here's a photo before I did any cleaning. I will do that and then try the UV dye.

Getting ready for finding the oil leak with my new UV light and dye.

Just testing, and the light makes the dye glow bright yellow-orange.

I figured I should clean off as much oil as possible, so I first wiped everything I could reach and then drenched the motor top and bottom with cleaner.

And then flushed it all with water. Once it dries I can get ready for the dye test.

Drum Roll ������

Here we go, with the AC Delco fluorescent dye.

Just to check, the Valvoline 20W-50 I used glows light blue in UV light.