Good that you have found the cause. When this happened to me the car was my daily driver, so I had to get it fixed quick. What I did was to replace the oil gallery plug, and then drill and tap a small hole to 2BA size just next to the oil gallery. This was close enough to the gallery plug so that a 'penny washer' under a 2BA bolt was overlapping the plug to stop it coming back out. The 2BA bolt was loctited in place... has been in place since 1989, seems to work.
PS. The reason it popped out in the first place was possibly that I was using a large ball bearing instead of the standard pressure relief valve. The oil pressure seemed to be OK for normal conditions, but was reading just over 100psi on start-up from cold. On the occasion when it popped the car had been outside overnight in about -5C.
No oil pressure
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carbon
- 998 Cooper
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251 ENG
- 1275 Cooper S
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Re: No oil pressure
We fit threaded oil gallery plugs in all our cooper s engine,s .
Use a modified 5/8" UNF allen grub screw although this does require the gallery to be machined out slightly bigger .
Use a modified 5/8" UNF allen grub screw although this does require the gallery to be machined out slightly bigger .
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Gray
- 998 Cooper
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Re: No oil pressure
I guess that is not an option without pulling the whole engine down though? any other ideas on keeping the plugs in place, the washer idea is good option on a daily driver but it feels a bit agricultral.251 ENG wrote:We fit threaded oil gallery plugs in all our cooper s engine,s .
Use a modified 5/8" UNF allen grub screw although this does require the gallery to be machined out slightly bigger .
I had the minispares oil pressure spring with ball bearing fitted should I go back to the original style one ?
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251 ENG
- 1275 Cooper S
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- Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2010 5:26 pm
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Re: No oil pressure
If you can find a plug / tap combination that will fit , cover the tap with grease and the swarf should stick to it .
A spiral flute tap will tend to push it up out off the hole .
If the engine is freshly built , take it back to the engine builder .
A spiral flute tap will tend to push it up out off the hole .
If the engine is freshly built , take it back to the engine builder .
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scooperman
- Basic 850
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Re: No oil pressure
I looked at a tapped-gallery block this morning. The 3rd main bearing passage intersects the gallery about 1/2 inch inward from the end of the block. That is not enough distance to block it off and then tap, not with a hand tap, and I would not try the grease trick. Also, your description of spinning on the starter and not getting oil pressure suggests that it is time to look at the bearings anyway.