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Last Friday I drove the Saturn out to Nelson Ledges for some test and tune. After about an hour on the track (in two 20 minute segments and two 10 minute segments) I spun a rod bearing. After the power dropped and I heard the knock I pulled in the pits and checked the oil. It was a quart low. At the start of the day it was almost full.

It seems likely that I starved it for oil but not sure. All the other bearings looked really good. Seems like 1 qt low should not be enough to cause oil starvation unless you add it the sustained side loads from the long corners at the track. I'd think if we had starvation that some of the other bearings would show signs.

Any thoughts about this?

Problem is, that motor barely holds 4 quarts. Being one quart low is 25% of the oil and the lower it gets, the harder what's left in there has to work. I always ran mine a half quart over filled with no problems / issues to speak of. My twin cam used about a quart per 1000 miles under normal driving so I was always extra aware since there wasn't much capacity to the system. I would recommend synthetic and a little extra oil and you should be OK. Sounds like you'll need to come in about every 45 min or so to add oil though.

-BP

Possible solution:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1874939228223

Will it work?

What about using one of those oil accumulators?

Did you have any low pressure indications?

Seems like the test should be done with oil being removed from the center, where I suppose the pick up is. Would oil return to the center or outside sections? Would be good to see what happens when oil pump out and return are going on.

Also, the crank would be flinging oil outside the baffles. I wonder if oil would actually accumulate in the sides, reducing the amount in the center, under actual conditions with oil pump working and crank spinning.

Could at least inquire about the expected effects of oil circulation and crank rotation.

Racin'Jacin wrote:What about using one of those oil accumulators?

Did you have any low pressure indications?

You mean one of these? http://accusump.com/ Thinking about it.

I did not see anything indicating low oil pressure. It has an idiot light and an idiot gauge. The light did not come on and I can't honestly say I was watching the gauge. Maybe we can add something that would light up below 30 PSI or some set level?

Maverick wrote:Seems like the test should be done with oil being removed from the center, where I suppose the pick up is. Would oil return to the center or outside sections? Would be good to see what happens when oil pump out and return are going on.

Also, the crank would be flinging oil outside the baffles. I wonder if oil would actually accumulate in the sides, reducing the amount in the center, under actual conditions with oil pump working and crank spinning.

Could at least inquire about the expected effects of oil circulation and crank rotation.

I'll probably do some experimenting with this though I am not the first Saturn guy to have this done. I'll also see if I can talk to any other guys who already had this done.

I think an oil pan modification is the answer.
If clearance allows, maintain the same depth, but increase capacity by 2qts, by expanding the pan side to side, (or front to back).
I'll bet Jason would have some ideas.

I had a oil psi light in the Nova, the sensor would activate at 15lbs or less. A hard stop would set it off! Even with a 6qt pan.