any way to check oil pressure?

[slow96hater]

is there anyway to check the oil pressure, and if so, does anyone know where it should be?

[TRXRacer1]

What you do is open the valve adjustment caps and turn the quad on. If you see oil then you have pressure, if you see oil flicking out and making a mess then you have good oil pressure.:p

[slow96hater]

see, i can do that by takeing my oil dipstick out also, and have it splatter everywhere.... that method works well. i just wanna know where about it should be at, i have a cold start tick, that goes away after its warm, and im trying to trace the problem. i've checked rocker arm clearence, i've checked my timing chain, and chain guides, everything up top looks to be good. i dont know how to check the decompressor, but, i can hear that working right when the quad starts, over the tick i have anyways.

im not used to single cylinder engines that are this small. when i put a new piston in the bike last summer, my connecting rod had a little bit of play, when you twisted it back and fourth, but no excessive play, i could not move the rod up and down, or side to side. im kinda thinking the tick i think im hearing, may actually be a knock.
so thats why i was asking about checking oil pressure.
thanks.
rob

[f4istunna]

a light tick is pretty normal on cold start until the oil pressure builds up.

As long as it isnt knocking when its warm i wouldnt stress yourself over it. Sounds like you covered the basics maintenance wise. Id say your in good shape ;)

[TRXRacer1]

Well in all seriousness there is a big difference from pulling the dip stick and seeing oil splash in the crankcase. These machines don't rely on oil pressure like a car would. If oil is getting up top and making a splash that's all you really need to know.

[drew416ex]

A dry sump engine does rely on the oil pressure like a car. The top end would starve if there was not enough oil getting to it. The timing chain alone would not bring near enough oil to the topend to keep it lubed.

[slow96hater]

ok, so how long should this light tick last? it ticks for somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes before it chills out. then, when i blurp the throttle, you can kinda hear this same tick noise, but only just as the engine is coming down in rpm. i know with a car engine, when the main bearings are going bad, the motor will usually knock on initial start up, and go away, and as the car wamrs up, the oil pressure will drop to almost nothing and will "flicker", but the motor usually wont knock loud enough to hear it. im wondering if this could be the same thing goin on with my quad. thats why i was askng if anyone knew what the oil pressure might need to be.



Originally posted by f4istunna
a light tick is pretty normal on cold start until the oil pressure builds up.

As long as it isnt knocking when its warm i wouldnt stress yourself over it. Sounds like you covered the basics maintenance wise. Id say your in good shape ;)

[TRXRacer1]

Originally posted by drew416ex
A dry sump engine does rely on the oil pressure like a car. The top end would starve if there was not enough oil getting to it. The timing chain alone would not bring near enough oil to the topend to keep it lubed. A car needs the pump to feed bearings journals so the internals can basically float. A 400ex is nothing like this, it mostly runs on ball bearings. Oil pressure won't make a bit of difference on crank noise. When you loose oil pressure in a car the internals can no longer float like they are supposed to so you hear the parts start slapping around. There is no gap between the crank and bearings in a 400ex like there would be in a car so low oil pressure slapping is not an issue.

[f4istunna]

My girls ex rattled a little on decel could hear it in the topend. I swapped the cam chain w/ a crf chain and adjusted the valves and it took care of it.

Same thing on my streetbikes . Sounds like bb's in a coffee can when the stock tensioner goes bad or the chain gets slop

[drew416ex]

I wasnt saying anything about the crank bearings. We were talking about oil pressure and you said, "These machines dont rely on oil pressure like a car would" when they do infact rely on it. Maybe not the exact same way, but they do rely on it. Anyways Slow96hater, how long has it been since you adjusted the valves? It only takes .001" - .002" out of adjustment to make a ticking noise.

[TRXRacer1]

Originally posted by drew416ex
I wasnt saying anything about the crank bearings. We were talking about oil pressure and you said, "These machines dont rely on oil pressure like a car would" when they do infact rely on it. Maybe not the exact same way Drew, you just said yourself they don't rely on pressure the exact same way. I'm not sure what the malfunction is here but there is major differences between how a car would use oil pressure and an antique air-cooled single cylinder bike engine design would. If you read my earlier posts you'd know that I already expressed the importance of the top end being oiled. He's not going to have a knock due to low oil pressure as long as the top end is wet..........period.

[slow96hater]

well i was thinking tensioner also, like on the ford sohc 4.0l motors out of explorers, but the fact that it just goes away, has got me scratching my head.

anyways, i'll post whats up with it within the next week, im tearing it down AGAIN during the week, and throwing a cam in it also.


thanks everyone for your imput.

rob

[250x_kyle]

as far as a tick that goes away. could be a streched cam chain thats what mine ended up being.