Oil Pick-Up

Just finished doing some work on my 86 carbed motor, which included replacing the oil pan due to beat up drain plug threads. Well, after finishing the entire motor I went to replace the pan with a spare that looked exactly the same as the old one. But when I tried to place the pan on the block, the pick-up would not let the pan to fit properly. Went to the spare motor and took of the pick-up to compare. Yep, the pick-up off the old motor was about .1/4 inch shorter than the one on my good motor. Due to time and money constraints, I installed the shorter pick-up and torque down the oil pan. My question is...does this make a difference? Both pick-ups were identical, but one longer than the other. I hate to have a problem that could have been solved by finding the correct oil pan to fit the pick-up on the motor. My hypothesis is that the previous owner installed a si or other Honda (1.6?) pick-up and pan for some extra capacity and I am just replacing with the original parts for the motor? Any thoughts?

It sounds like you may have had a pan off an '85-'87 si. The pan from a carbureted engine from '84-'87 has a wider sump area than the si. I've never checked it that closely but I think that the si pan is a bit deeper to keep volume levels close to the same.

Jay

Well, the first race weekend was a long one and has some oil pressure related problems (don't know if the oil pump or what??) The car was running strong during Saturday's practice, then in qualifing I went into a corner a bit too hot....kinda lock up..then just let the car go into the run-off area. Car came to a stop (not hitting anything, BeaverRun's generious runoff area). The car stalled and would not start right away? Figured it was just flooded...waited about 45 seconds..fired up. Since the session was over I just hobbled back to the pits, but on my way back my oil pressure light was comming on???? I guess at this point I should back up for a second. When I was installing the motor over the winter I replaced that big breather type filter on the back of the motor with and open element type one. Anyway when I pulled into the pits we started to look around and discovered that the open element filer was kinda heavy and leaking oil. Fine, we had the orginal breather thing, but needed to remove my the machined and loctited inner fitting I used to hold in the open element. Needless to say that during the difficult removal process I cracked the neck off the breather on the block. Again...anyway...I rigged the breather neck w/ jb weld, etc. Put the orginal breather back in and everything seemed to be ok when the car fired up. Ran fine during qualifing (got pole, had to say it!). But on my way back to the pits the dam oil pressure light started to flicker again? First of all would the breather neck have anything to do with the oil pressure? Second, would oil pump thing I explained in the orginal post be more of the reason? Finally, would the damaged breather neck be the problem (kinda fixed but does leave a few drips of oil after each session?

Thanks

Your problem is not caused by the breather in any way, it may be as simple as a bad oil pressure sending unit. You need to check your oil pressure with a oil pressure gauge, I don't think that you have a oil pressure problem though, you would be lucky to make a full lap with low oil pressure. I also don't think that the problem is related to the oil pick up unless the pan is right up against the pick up, that would decrease the flow to the pump, but would cause the light to come on at wot, not when back at idle. there are other possible causes but start with the simple ones.

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Ron Carroll
REC Motorsports Inc.
#35 ITA integra

I agree, it's probably just not working properly. It makes no sense that the light would only come on during cool down laps. Also, as Ron said, if you really have a problem than you probably would have smoked the engine by now. I always suggest running with full gauges: oil presure, oil temp, and water temp. All your questions will be answered.

In response to your original post - you have a oil pan and pick up from a Si model. We have one on our '85 S so we can run a DC Sports header for a Si. It's damn near impossible to find a header to fit the S pan because the header passage is too narrow and no header manufacturer is going to make one for the S model. Oh yea, the oil capacity is nearly identical. The Si pan also sits a little higher for some extra ground clearance.

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Kevin
R2 Racing - bright orange racecars!
'85 ITC Civic S
'92 ITC Civic Cx - comming soon to a track near you!
'94 ITS Prelude Si

The 1300cc pan and pick-up are different than the 1500cc Si pan and pick-up

If you change the pan you should change the pick-up aswell

My 1985 civic ran oil temps above 300deg. before I got an oil cooler

Doodson