Anyone know anything about the Vauxhall Ecowreck engine?

[JonnyBoy]

Just replaced the cam cover gasket and topped up the oil on my mates Vectra 2.0 (it had next to nowt in the sump) and now the oil light comes on and the engine makes a tapping noise. Bloody weird if you ask me, an engine that doesn't like oil...

Anyone got any experience with these engines? The stupid thing actually ran OK with hardly any oil in...

(oh, and don't tell me that they're just s**t engines, I know that already )

 

[custard]

they use hydraulic tappets so it may be you used too thick an oil?

 

[JonnyBoy]

they use hydraulic tappets so it may be you used too thick an oil?

Thats a possibility - I've posted on migweb and a guy on there said it should use 10/40... whereas the guy at the motor factors said I needed 15/40

Oh well, it needs a service anyway, so if it carries on I'll change it to 10/40.

 

[custard]

just know if you do engine work they can be noisy when the tappets are refilling with oil

 

[JonnyBoy]

Yeah, that was expected, but it'd been ticking over for about 15 mins then driven for 5 before the problem started. And the oil light adds an extra worry too I'm gonna give it a service, engine flush and fresh 10/40 and see if that sorts it.

 

[chaos]

Hmm...............I've slung 15W40 into an Ecotec lump before with no problems

 

[HP]

Oil filter?

 

[T14086]

they use hydraulic tappets so it may be you used too thick an oil?

Ooops...mate done that on his mondeo,despite advising him to use ford oil he went off & brought cheap stuff(too thick).....16 hydraullic tappets & a huge repair bill later he was back on the road!

 

[JonnyBoy]

...16 hydraullic tappets & a huge repair bill later he was back on the road!

:bang:


Hmmm, I'd better get it fixed ASAP then...

 

[chaos]

Like I said, I've used 15W40 (branded 'High Mileage' ) in a 130K Vectra with no damage/problems to the valve train.

 

[StiloSport]

Sounds like the tappets aren't refilling due to thick oil as previously mentioned. You'll also find that Vx tappets have a habbit of not "taking oil" if just left to idle, sometimes they need to be driven for about 10mins. Be carefull though, depending on how bad the ticking sounds, you could well knacker the engine.

Just another thought, the manifold hasn't been removed or has become damaged has it? Not sure on other manufacturers engines but on Vauxhalls, if the manifold isn't seated properly you get the exact same ticking noise.

As you've already said, migweb is the best place to ask.

 

[Chas Uno]

If the oil warning light 'flickers' at tickover, but goes out when you rev the engine then it sounds more like the oil filter bypass valve is coming into play. This normally happens when the oil filter itself becomes blocked and the bypass valve feeds the oil past it, hence the pressure switch not getting the full supply of oil to it.

Not sure why it causes the noisy tappets though. Are they noisy whatever the revs?

Hope it's not an obvious question, but you did change the oil filter when you changed the oil didn't you? A surprising number of people don't...

Also, when you changed the rocker cover gasket, did you use any gasket cement? If you did and you used too much, it's possible that some can fall into the oil, circulate round the engine and then block up the oil filter or even the oil pump gauze filter. This would then cause oil starvation, the oil warning light coming on and noisy hydraulic tappets.

By the way, the difference between 15/40 and 10/40 oil is negligable. I wouldn't have thought that would have made much difference

Chas

 

[JonnyBoy]

I didn't change the filter as it wasn't an oil change as such - it just needed about 2.5 litres worth of topping up! I wonder if the thicker oil is struggling to pass through the (probably very dirty) filter, hence the loss of pressure. That would also explain the tapping from the hydraulic lifters as they depend on oil pressure to work properly. :chin:

 

[custard]

how come its was so low on oil? sounds like it dont get much TLC

 

[JonnyBoy]

how come its was so low on oil? sounds like it dont get much TLC

Exactly. The lad who owns it neither knows nor cares about cars. I asked him when he last checked the oil, his actual reply was "what do you mean by check the oil?"

The word dipstick springs to mind, in both senses of the word