Prongeron removal and oil pickup

[nsr250]

Hi folks. Just as a precaution on a recently purchased Elan I want to drop the oil pan and check the oil pickup for debris. The previous owner had the turbo rebuilt and I'm concerned that the pickup may be stopped up. My oil pressure reading is a tad on the low side. I had this same thing happen on my Isuzu Impulse RS once upon a time. Anyway, I haven't really taken a good look yet but I understand that the prongeron needs to be removed as well as the downpipe to make enough clearance to remove the sump. How difficult is it to remove the prongeron? I don't find much about it in the workshop manual.

Don

[Monty]

All depends on the state of the Nuts & bolts IIRC there`s 5 bolts on each side and 3 bolts on the front section going to the rad frame. Some of the bolts are difficult to get to

Before removing what reading are you getting on the pressure gauge and what oil has been used?

BTW if you need to move the car then you will need to re-attach the prongeron back on otherwise the suspension will do the splits lol

[Marcus_uk]

It pretty straight forward, the most difficult thing is finding the correct part of the manual! I think progereon removal is in the electrical section somewhere (possibly near alternator removal) . If you cant find it let me know and I will have a look when i get back from work...its usefull for the torque figures etc.

[nsr250]

Oil in there at the moment is 10W30 semi-synthetic. I've only driven the car a few miles but after it got warmed up the gauge was sitting at 2.5 bar going about 55 mph. Just got me to thinking about my past experience with the Impulse and decided to be safe than sorry.

How does the car need to be supported with the prongeron removed? Jack stands under the mounting points?

I'll look in the electrical section I guess? Strange.

[nitroman]

Just support it at the normal two front jack-divits. As Monty said, the most important thing is not to move the car at all whilst the prongeron is removed, if you wish to have the bolt-holes realign when you put it back together.

Oil in there at the moment is 10W30 semi-synthetic. I've only driven the car a few miles but after it got warmed up the gauge was sitting at 2.5 bar going about 55 mph. Just got me to thinking about my past experience with the Impulse and decided to be safe than sorry.

How does the car need to be supported with the prongeron removed? Jack stands under the mounting points?

I'll look in the electrical section I guess? Strange.

[nsr250]

All depends on the state of the Nuts & bolts IIRC there`s 5 bolts on each side and 3 bolts on the front section going to the rad frame. Some of the bolts are difficult to get to

Before removing what reading are you getting on the pressure gauge and what oil has been used?

BTW if you need to move the car then you will need to re-attach the prongeron back on otherwise the suspension will do the splits lol

OK, before I go remove it and start poking around in the sump, where does the oil pressure usually stay at a steady cruise with the engine warmed up?

Just got out from under the car. I see the 5 bolts on each side and the 2 or 3 at the front. It looks as though both CV axles need to be removed to get one bolt from each side out. Am I seeing this right? Also, after removing all 5 bolts from each side and dropping the prongeron, does the front suspension stay put if I don't move anything or is it going to flop around?

[nitroman]

Leave the CV axles be. Suspension will stay put as long as you don't move the car.

Just got out from under the car. I see the 5 bolts on each side and the 2 or 3 at the front. It looks as though both CV axles need to be removed to get one bolt from each side out. Am I seeing this right? Also, after removing all 5 bolts from each side and dropping the prongeron, does the front suspension stay put if I don't move anything or is it going to flop around?

[Specky]

As for the pressure it's all subjective...

I'm running a quite thin oil at the moment...

Cold start pressure about 5 Bar

Hot tick over about 2.5 Bar

Any driving, any speed 5 Bar

With a thicker oil that was well past it's due change date, I have seen 7 Bar

TTFN

[nsr250]

OK, got the prongeron off. Easy enough. So easy infact that I went ahead and pulled the downpipe as well as the sump. Pulled the oil pickup and took a look. Good thing too!! Loaded with all sorts of lovely bits (coked oil). I did this same thing with the Impulse RS and never had another oil pressure problem. Tomorrow the dentil picks come out to clean out the pick up screen. The sump had some debris in it but really not much. Most of it was in the screen.

Don

[nsr250]

I've just started getting out the coked oil. It's amazing how much is stuck in the pickup screen. No wonder I had low oil pressure. The other thing that I've noticed is that even though the screen is maybe 2" diameter and the oil pickup is around 1/2" diameter, when the screen is pushed up against the pickup it severely reduces the available area that the oil can be pulled thru. Even with a little bit of debris in the pickup your oil flow is going to be severely reduced. I'm pulling the screen away from the pickup tube slightly to avoid this in the future.

[Monty]

I've just started getting out the coked oil. It's amazing how much is stuck in the pickup screen. No wonder I had low oil pressure. The other thing that I've noticed is that even though the screen is maybe 2" diameter and the oil pickup is around 1/2" diameter, when the screen is pushed up against the pickup it severely reduces the available area that the oil can be pulled thru. Even with a little bit of debris in the pickup your oil flow is going to be severely reduced. I'm pulling the screen away from the pickup tube slightly to avoid this in the future.

Any chance off a photo?

[nsr250]

See if this link works:

http://s981.photobucket.com/albums/ae29 ... us0001.jpg

The debris shown is in a 5 gallon pail with mineral spirits. I removed even more but it ended up on the floor.

[Monty]

Thanks for that, let us all know if it did improve your oil pressure

[nsr250]

Thanks for the help with the prongeron removal. Everything went as planned.

As far as the oil pressure is concerned...........it's fixed!! Yup, I'm now cruising around with 5 bar oil pressure. More than double what I had before with the engine warmed up. I cleaned out the oil pickup screen, the turbo feed line as well as completely cleaning out any debris in the oil sump. I'm really relieved that I can finally start driving my recent purchase!!