SR20DET OIL PUMP ISSUES

SHORT HISTORY AND OPINIONS PLEASE !!?

When I bought my S13 , the guy told me that occassionally there was a noise at start up but it goes away. On my way back to Cape Town with the car , I could hear slightly noisy lifters , but I put it down to the fact that the oil looked like it had been in the car for a hundred years. I slept over at Beaufort West and the following morning at start up it sounded like a broken diesel tractor. A few seconds later it went quiet again. I then also noticed that there was no oil light on the cluster. I put in an after market oil pressure guage and sender. While doing this I noticed that the oil pressure wire had been removed as well as the globe from the speedo cluster. ( obviously the reason behind the sale of the car ). At first , the oil pressure was at around 2.5 bar cold - 1.2 bar warm. Then I decided to see if I could shim the pump (cheap fix) , removed the sump and saw that there was no way to do this without removing the pump so I put the sump back. Started the car and the oil pressure had dropped to 1.5 bar cold - .8 bar warm ?! I hadn't done anything. I have just removed the oil pump and shimmed it , put it back and now, .2 bar cold. NO OIL PRESSURE. The motor is as noisy as hell. I removed the pump again ( not an easy task as I am sure most of you will know) and removed the shim and it is still the same.

My question : Is this just epic oil pump failure or have I done something to cause this ?!

the pump is shot

my oil pressure is 5.5bar cold and 4.5bar when warm

i think its time to just bite he bullet and buy a new pump

Thanks Mical. I assumed as much since I bought the car , but have spent money on everything , but the pump.

I have however been wondering whether I should spend +- R2500 on a pump or just buy another motor ?!

There isn't really a big difference in price and at least then I have a motor that I can build up over time. My only issues are the following :

1. SR20DET RED TOP was R6500 10 months ago , now the guys are quoting me R8500 ?! Maybe I can ask for motor minus the turbo and add ons ?

2. OEM oil pump or is there an aftermarket pump at around the same price that would be better ?

Sorry for all the drama so early on a Thursday morning ! 🙄

....By the way ..my other issue is that I have sold my workshop and have to get the car out of here by tomorrow afternoon.

So I have decided to take the car home and plan from there.

I read on a forum in the States the other day, a Technician told a guy with similar issues like mine , that if you work on this motor just to get finished , you are going to shoot yourself in the foot. You need to plan and do everything meticulously otherwise you are just wasting your time. which is what I have done in the last 3 weeks. 😳

Is there a better uprated oil pump for the sr20det? or is it best just to get the original sr20det oil pump. I'm in the progress of rebuilding my engine and want to do it right

VeNoMiZeR wrote:

Is there a better uprated oil pump for the sr20det? or is it best just to get the original sr20det oil pump. I'm in the progress of rebuilding my engine and want to do it right

Same question I am still waiting to be answered by the fundi's !

afaik there is no aftermarket high flow pumps avaid for the sr20.. but the rumor mill says that the s15 sr20 pump flows a bit more than the early pumps..

So instead of hunting ...I should just go for the OEM pump?

The manual from Nissan themselves say 1.8bar on idle when the oil is hot. I have a S15 pump on my car which I bought from Import Parts when I built the motor. I payed R2500 for the pump about a year ago. The pressure is exactly what they say in the manual however when I compared the pump to the old one there was some differences. the gaps in the inner gear and corresponding teeth on the outer ring are slightly larger which should translate to slighty higher volumes being pumped but it is very small amounts and my pressure is still same as book when hot and about 4bar - ish when cold.

Watch out for the cheapie guages though. I had a guage which read 5 bar cold and 3 bar hot. (Was a autoguage oil pressure guage.) I then fitted VDO guages and the pressure read out is now correct.

Andrew.200SX wrote:

So instead of hunting ...I should just go for the OEM pump?

the only pump to use, remember you have toe have the top of the block skimmed with the oil pump cover fitted, you can not just go and fit it straight in there.

You can run a higher flowing oil pump, but it is still OEM, the GTiR or SR16/20VE oil pumps flow more but are more of a pain to fit.

The standard new OEM one is very good though.

Just for interest sake , I opted to get another motor and after startup , I gave the motor 1 quick rev and it shot the oil filter clean off the motor. The oil pressure gauge only reads to 7 bar and it goes way beyond that. When the motor has warmed up , it is at 3.5 bar on idle and around 6 - 6.5 bar under acceleration. I fitted a 300ZX filter and drive respectably until she is properly warmed up , for safety sake ( like I should anyway) , and she runs like a dream. A lot of people have told me that it is to high , but when fitting a gauge to a 1300 Golf in the workshop , it was also at 7 bar , cold !

could be a stuck pressure regulator on the oil pump - when these get stuck closed the pressure will go up if the pump is good and the excess pressure is not very good for any pressure seals - i.e. turbo seals...

Well so far so good. Everything is holding up perfectly. Here's hoping 🙂

I ran bearings when my oil pump gave in going around Midvaal track,used to be 3bar cold ,.8bar warm.
Bought another motor and replaced the pump ,then it went to 6 bar cold 1.7bar warm and 4-5bar when being hammered. No problems yet-I heard Midas can source a aftermarket pump for R1200 but havent heard of anyone using yet on the turbo motor.

Better just get OEM from america-import it yourself it the cheapest option.

I am bringing everything that I need in from the States and Japan and saving myself thousands. It is ridiculous that we must be raped for parts locally for these cars. I am selling the old motor which only needs an oil pump , otherwise perfect and I have had on average of around 50 people who were coming to buy it and never pitched. Now I am wondering if I shouldn't spend the money on another pump ( which I don't really have to waste ) and keep the motor for a spare or another project !

final price on the pump?I also have half complete spare one