Leaky Belt Tension Bearings

Those Cantons were a great experiment/experience for Carl (FBB), Dave (Ferraridriver) & me. We put them on all three of our 550's to replace the wimpy OEM filters and my secondary goal was to see if they would help the cold start spike in oil pressure that always unnerved me as I always thought that momentary spike of over 100 psi would be enough to blow up the OEM filters or blow a seal somewhere in the engine. The Cantons didn't help the spike but they sure look cool don't they? LOL

When I tore down my engine I did finally find the oil pressure regulator valve just downstream of the oil pump, and it must have been the location Mike Sheehan was referring to when he spoke of shimming to fix that startup spike that did indeed blow the early OEM filters. Brian are you familiar with that or seen it happen?

Apologies to the OP for the thread drift

 

Lots of times but it was far more than just at start up. I saw a 456 engine with a crankshaft that was a really pretty shade of blue. It blew out on the road somewhere. Really bad idea for a fix though. The valves cant dump enough oil. Those of us that actually tightened oil filters never had an issue. Its was nearly universally a problem with people who had a low level of product exposure. People in the real Ferrari business have not counted on screwing oil filters on by hand ever. When Ferrari started getting oil filters from low bidder suppliers many had a shallower seal locating groove. It was just the 12 with the smaller filters so close people could not get a good grip on where the problem became widely known. It was also people who have no understanding of motor oil who still insisted on using 20-50 oil. Too many still remember instructions from their Chevy filter saying to put on by hand. Italians have a long history of too small a dump port on oil pressure relief valves. Alfa lost head gaskets for years for same reason. If Ferraris had an accurate oil pressure gauge the real oil pressure when cold would scare people, especially if they still insist on using 20-50.
Its really easy. Tighten the oil filter properly, use the correct oil and let it warm up a little.

 

John...Those ferrari filters are 180 bucks too and who knows what they filter to. The canton filter lid looks thick enough to drill and tap for the sensor. What do you think of that idea.

 

Thanks for the insight. Did you ever shim the spring on that valve or do anything else to reduce that spike? I noticed that valve was TINY and in the end I resorted to 0W-40 Mobil1 but that didn't help either.

p.s. Do you still have your Lambo truck?

I think it's a great idea Carl if you don't mind fussing with the oil pressure sensor hanging off the lid at each filter change. Not a big deal for you & some of y'all but it might be a challenge for the boys at the "Quickie" oil change places.

BTW, Eric if you're following this, go ahead with your solution. I've apparently lost the CAD files for my little billet replacement for the sensor adapter and since I'm no longer an owner, I can't get the required measurements to redo my CAD files.

 

Yes we still have it.

Why fool with the valve? Its problem was not it was set too high to dumb the oil. It opens all the way. It isn't big enough to dump the oil.
Besides, all the cars I saw blow out a filter it never happened in their driveway. Sheehan is an idiot.

 

So you think the problem was simply down to too heavy oil & filters not tightened enough?

That cold start spike always effed with my head and nothing I did really helped. Guess I needed to just remachine that valve & give it some bigger passages.

 

May I ask if the oil grade can or should be increased as the engine piles up the miles? Is it still "reasonable" to run an original spec 5W40 fully synthetic oil on an engine that has run 50k or 100k miles?
If oil pressure dips "way below" the 30 psi / 2 bar mark on the gauge at idle on a fully warmed-up engine running a stock spec 5W40 oil, should this not suggest that an oil grade higher than 5W40 may be tried before replacing the main/rod bearings (in the context of a full rebuild)? 5W50 or 15W50?
I guess the oil pressure spike on cold start up that John mentions cannot be observed on the stock oil pressure gauge?
Is it really only because of the OPRV's small size that one may not run oil grades any higher than 5W40, only in order to avoid blowing up the oil filters and/or their seals when starting a cold engine?
Is it any problematic to see oil pressure stay at the 105 psi / 7 bar mark on the gauge when driving the engine at higher revs, regardless of load? I may be wrong but it seems to me that the OPRV just does its job as long as oil pressure does not exceed the 105 psi / 7 bar mark on the gauge?

Sorry for all the questions, but that is yet another interesting topic for me. I have dug through many older posts on oil grade for our engines and have never found much discussion apart from to stay with 5W40.

 

Its not what I think. Its been well known since 1994 when 456 was introduced. Not a problem that requires fixing.