Opel GT Forum banner

Clean oil won't drain

4K views 42 replies 20 participants last post by  kwschumm 
#1 ·
Hey guys, first post here so I'm sorry if it is in the wrong place. I am trying to change the fule pump on an Opel I acquired and there is something in the drain hole stopping oil from flowing. The oil is in good shape and this should be the drain as maybe a tablespoon of oil came our when I removed the cap. There was a spring behind plug as shown and the other picture is the object in the drain. It moves when I poke at it but it seams to be held in place and not magnetic. It's a 71 GT with the original 1.9. Thanks in advance for any advice. Also yes, I plain to clean the cat hair off before reinstalling the plug.
 

Attachments

See less See more
2
#3 ·
It looks to me that you've removed the pressure relief valve from the oil pump cover. At the end of the spring there should be a pressure relief piston. Examples of both can be seen on this order page from Opel Gt Source:

Oiling System - 1.9L Engine - Opel GT - Store | Opel GT Source

The piston inside the pump cover is forced back when the oil pressure gets beyond a certain point, thereby maintaining a safe and adequate pressure.

The oil drain plug, as noted, is on the bottom of the oil pan.
 
#4 ·
I agree with Opelmel. I hope you didn't lose prime on your oil pump by removing that pressure relief valve. There is an easy way to check.

Put it back together. Disconnect the coil wire on your distributor (the one in the middle of the distributor cap). Crank your engine until you see oil pressure on your oil gauge. Once you get pressure, you can reconnect the coil wire.

If you lost prime, you won't get oil pressure. No oil on a running engine is a bad thing!!

The drain plug is on the bottom (steel pan) or the side (aluminum pan).
 
#5 ·
As pointed out, that is NOT the oil drain plug. With this tidbit of knowledge, I am going to make the assumption your either very young and know very little about motor vehicles, or your older and not mechanically inclined, sooooooooo, I would strongly suggest you ask someone who is more knowledgeable about engines and car repairs/service before tackling anything further and most certainly verify if you have lost prime or not, if you have you are going to need someone with mechanical knowledge and skill to help you restore prime, otherwise your going to be needing help from someone to replace your engine. It's fun to learn, but not when you know little and have no one to stop you from making a critical mistake :no: Good luck getting it straightened out.
 
#7 ·
Thanks. Im 21 and know a bit but want to know more so I bought this opel for $400 to work on when I'm not in school because I could afford to mess it up and I love the little car. I assumed that was the drain since it was a low point in a similar spot as my focus. I do not believe there was a pressure relief piston on the end of the spring so I'll probably have to buy one. The car had a distributerless ignition system (link bellow) installed when a previous owner put in all new wiring. I have never seen it start, only a video of it running with someone squirting gas into the carb so I'm not sure if the gages can be trusted. I should be able to just remove the cables to keep it from sparking though since I'm not too familiar with the system. Can anyone tell me if this is any good? I know a distributor can be a hastle sometimes for timing but I don't know if this is junk or not. https://m.summitracing.com/parts/cf...wW67G3Ds1uREk9vc7yKW_quS5BUEc48cKYaAi_j8P8HAQ
 
#9 ·
Thanks. Im 21 and know a bit but want to know more so I bought this opel for $400 to work on when I'm not in school because I could afford to mess it up and I love the little car. I assumed that was the drain since it was a low point in a similar spot as my focus.
Which is a perfectly reasonable and logical assumption even though it's entirely wrong :cool:

The fastest way to learn stuff is by doing and you've just learned something new, my motto when working on cars is "how difficult can that really be", sounds as if you've got the perfect attitude to become a full blown Opeler. Good luck with the car, I'll certainly be looking forward to further updates on your progress. Just remember that there's no shame in asking questions before doing something you're not sure about and the only stupid questions are those you've asked before but didn't care enough about to remember the answer.

If your oil pump has lost it's "prime" there are a couple of ways to restore it but one of the easiest ways is to undo those 6 little bolts on the oil pump and pack the gears with grease before putting the cover back on.

What is a "prime" in this case. Well a completely dry gear pump, the oil pump consists of two gears inside a housing, have a great difficulty sucking a thick liquid like oil because when dry the gears have no seal against the housing and isn't able to create the vacuum (suction) needed to get the oil flowing. You need som kind of fluid in there to get things started

Btw, you learn from making mistakes than doing them the right way. If you had guessed right all you would have learned was how to change the oil on your Opel, with your mistake you've learned not only that but also where the oil pressure relieve is, how an oil pump actually works and why it's important to "prime" it
 
#8 ·
You seem like a nice young fella who's eager to learn and you've managed to take your first punch from us with grace and style.

I therefore bestow upon you the.........





You need to take it slow at this point so that you don't blow unnecessary money as you work out your car's glitches. I suggest starting out showing and telling us more about this car so that we can better walk you through the basic steps to get you evaluated and running. A good start would be to take some pics of your engine compartment so that we can get a grasp of the modifications done to your car.

You've got a somewhat long journey as we walk you through the steps and school you up on cars, so be patient and we'll get you through it.

:veryhappy
 
#10 ·
A factory service manual is in need here. They are easy enough to get off e-bay or someplace similar. Even though the p.o. made some mods it will still get you in the right direction. I believe there may be one on this site for download. Good luck!
 
#12 ·
Information at hand is your friend! Welcome to the site and to the world of Opels. Please take a read on your headlight wiring system before you have plans on taking the car for a long run. You will have to inspect and repair the headlight wiring harness from the head lamps back to the engine compartment. 40 years of rotating headlights and high current have helped to crack the wire's insulation and in very short order, a dead short between wires in that loom can burn the car to the ground.

Opel GT Source has a wealth of information with many of the parts you buy; tech tips they call them. For now, to get better acquainted with the GT, here is the Brooklands Workshop repair manual they sell. It can better help you in doing maintenance and repair, with this book in hand: Link: Opel GT Owner's Workshop Manual - Books and Literature - Opel GT - Store | Opel GT Source Buy this book, buy an old factory service manual on flea bay and in conjunction with this site, you'll be on your way.

Good luck!
 
#13 ·
Hi Zachary, Welcome to the club, You picked a Great Car to restore, There are a lot of good people here that are willing to help a newbie Opeler / Mechanic. These Opels are pretty simple to work on and have a very unique style.

I guess by now you've found the drain plug..It's usually always in every engine on the bottom of the Oil Pan ( oil Sump) for easy draining.. The oil filter should be tighten one more turn after hand tight.
If you only lost a couple table spoon of oil from the oil pump psi spring Cap .. you should be fine..
re-install that plug/Cap with the spring and copper washer and Drain & refill oil ( oil Change) note: drain plug washer installed / crank it a few times with no gas and see if you get the oil psi needle to move.. then you'll be ok again.

I would read up on info.here lots to learn on Car maintenance if you want to keep your Opel GT running properly:)

Take pictures with your posts ..there easy to upload and have fun with your GT
 
#15 ·
The compufire ignition is fine (and actually good) although I "think" it messes with the firing order. There is a thread here somewhere on the conversion process. Before you put that relief valve spring back in make sure you carefully clean the 4 sealing surfaces involved, which are the bottom of the hex shaped plug, both sides of the copper washer, and the face of the oil pump cover. Don't use anything that will put heavy scratches in the surfaces or you will create a leak. For the parts that you can hold in your hand fine steel wool will work nicely but be sure to clean off any steel wool fibers, you don't want to introduce steel wool into the oil system. Some brake or carb cleaner on a rag on the end of screwdriver can be used on the cover but again, be careful not to scratch the surface if the screw driver pokes through the rag! I doubt you have lost enough oil out of the pump to require re-priming but better safe than sorry so do as others have suggested and check before starting. Instead of pulling the wires off the plugs you can pull them out of the Compufire and then you won't have the possibility of sparks flying around out the end of the wires if they get too close to a ground point. This avoids the hazard of fire. Just keep track of which one goes where as stated before.
 
#19 ·
I appreciate the support! In response to all the posts, I have had things I'm working on so I haven't been out to the car since the original post, but I hope to this afternoon. I plan to post in the intro thread I think I have seen but have been away at school without enough good pictures. Im on spring break now so I took some more and will be getting to that. Im not sure why I haven't bought that book already, I've read many people talk about it on here. The car is pretty rough so it won't be on the road for a while, but I was hoping to get it started and test the clutch this week. it feels bad buy the transmission at least goes into gears fine. I will get more pics posted soon (hopefully tonight). I have been silently reading on here the last 3 or 4 months but I'm new to forums so I've been figuring that out. I was planning to clean the plug with gas to get the gunk out of everything and then rinse it off just in case. My dad always uses gas with grease so I assume thats fine as long as I'm not mixing gas into the oil? I will be sure to check for prime before starting and to record it. So the relief piston is that raised portion in the hole their? Also I will look into the ignition thread here because the order of the wires is 1243 right now which I thought was wrong but maybe not for that system.
 
#20 ·
#21 ·
Firing order is 1342
 
  • Like
Reactions: Zachary
#22 ·
Cleaning things with gas is perfectly fine, although I prefer to use spray bottle degreasers or aerosol carb/brake cleaner. In a pinch I have added gas to an empty spray bottle, I cleaned all the grease off of my engine with less than $1 of gas with that particular technique. Just remember that it is incredibly flammable.
 
#24 ·
Cleaning things with gas is perfectly fine...
Kyler,

NO IT IS NOT!!!!!

Umm, engineer's need to look things up before they give advice. Just a little advice, from one engineer to another who will be one day. Unless they die or kill someone by using gasoline as a cleaning solvent
 
#23 ·
GAS

The year, 1980. The place, Portland Oregon. 10023 NE Glisan, to be more precise.

A friend of mine and I would often play jokes on each other. In retaliation for me spraying oil in the heat exchangers on his VW he decided to dump a gallon of used motor oil down the carb of my 1965 Lincoln Continental (suicide doors).

After finding out why my Lincoln wouldn't crank over, I removed the spark plugs and pumped out all the oil by cranking the engine. Oil was EVERYWHERE, including the roof and the windshield. I replaced plugs and tried to start the car. No luck. Pulled plugs and they were coated with oil again.

With the plugs out, I poured a half gallon of GAS into the carb. Turned the key and cranked the engine for about 5 seconds. Naturally, oily liquid sprayed everywhere. Just to be sure it was all out of the cylinders, I turned the key again and..... WHOOOOOOOOMP!!!!

I was inside a car that was fully engulfed in flame. Black smoke pouring out from the whipping flames.

I quickly departed the car in a barrel roll fashion and went for the garden hose. Luckily I was parked on grass so the fire didn't spread much when the water hit it.

Oddly, the damage was limited to part of the wiring harness along the cowl and the spark plug wires.

I escaped without injury.

Later the neighbor recounted the fireball, aka nuclear explosion style, that came from the hood of my car.


Moral of the story.... GAS is not a cleaning solvent!!
 
#25 · (Edited)
Ya, never use gas to clean parts that's dangerous !

Use something safe like a pressurized, highly poisonous, flammable and explosive can of brake & parts cleaner!
 
#26 ·
Not all brake cleaners are flammable.

Using gasoline to clean, NO, HUGE FREAKING NO. DON'T DO IT. All it takes is flipping a light switch, static electric spark, or any other number of possible ignition sources and YOU become a human fire ball, burned severely and maybe even dead.

Safety Clean (thats the kind of stuff you run in a parts washer) or any other NON flammable cleaning solvent for cleaning parts.

Little story bout gasoline. Buddy of mine threw a big bonfire party. He had a pile of dead tree limbs and old wood and who knows what else, all piled up in a pile that was approximately 20 feet in diameter and and like 8 feet tall, grabs a five gallon can of gas and starts splashing it all over the pile and and then after he had almost emptied the can he poured a trail from the pile for about 20 feet or so, and as he takes the can back towards the garage he says to me "Quick light that before it evaporates."

Let that sink in a minute.

I, dressed in shorts, tank top and sandals and having already drank enough to not be thinking straight, withdrew a lighter from my pocket, leaned over and flicked the Bic, and just like I was watching a movie in slow motion I remember seeing the wheel of the sparker on the lighter turning and the sparks start to spray out to where the gas from the lighter was shooting out, saw the little blue flame start and started to form the typical lighter flame shape BUT IT NEVER STOPPED GROWING!!!! That fireball was seen over a mile away. I don't remember actually running, but everyone that was there said that that was the fastest they have ever seen a guy 6' tall and 240 lbs run while literally parallel to the ground (I guess I was thinking just clearly enough not to try to run away by standing up to run).

I did not stay for the party. I was stone cold sober, a little shaken, and I stunk of burnt hair. It burned ALL the hair off my entire right arm, my arm pit, my entire right leg and right side of my left leg, I had about a couple weeks growth of beard and mustache before the incident but the right side was now gone, burned my hair on the right side of my head, and my eyelashes.

Moral of the story, gasoline is magical stuff when used inside a combustion chamber, it can be downright deadly outside of that chamber.

Go ahead, laugh, I can laugh about it now, but the truth is, that could have ended VERY badly. I got freaking lucky. :yup:
 
#29 ·
I stand by my comment, Gasoline is only dangerous in a dangerous environment. As long as you have fire counter measures nearby and check for any sources of ignition it's not dangerous. Almost any solvent you use is going to be flammable, dangerous, poisonous, etc. I choose to use gasoline because it is a lot cheaper than the alternatives and I take enough precautions to make the risks ok with me.

If you don't think it's safe you don't have to use it.
 
#30 ·
I stand by my comment, Gasoline is only dangerous in a dangerous environment. As long as you have fire counter measures nearby and check for any sources of ignition it's not dangerous. Almost any solvent you use is going to be flammable, dangerous, poisonous, etc. I choose to use gasoline because it is a lot cheaper than the alternatives and I take enough precautions to make the risks ok with me.
If you don't think it's safe you don't have to use it.
Kyler, thinking something is safe doesn't make it so. Do yourself and your family a favour. Google "danger of gasoline as a cleaning solvent". Or go down to your local fire hall (my son in law is a fire fighter) and ask their opinion. You'd find out that you are wrong. Dead wrong. There are no precautions sufficient to making the use of gasoline as a solvent safe. It has too high a volatility, too low a flash point, and too wide a Lower Explosive Limit (LEL) ratio. ANY environment is dangerous with gasoline fumes present. It's not "if", it's "when".
 
#32 ·
The difference between gasoline and cleaning solvents in one, concise, post. Gasoline can act as a solvent.
Solvents, sometimes can be used as a fuel

The #1 purpose of gasoline IS to catch fire and explode. It is made with the explicit purpose of making that happen.

The #1 purpose of a cleaning solvent is to dissolve whatever it is intended to dissolve. It is not designed to catch fire or explode.

Again... Gasoline CAN be used as a solvent but it is DESIGNED to catch on fire easily.

Look up Darwin awards.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JudokaJohn
#33 ·
I used a little Gass on an old shirt and some steel wool to clean things up, then checked for fibers. I left the gas can in the opposite corner of the shed so worse thing that could happen is the shirt catches fire.

Now I am about to change the fule pump, is there anything specific I should watch out for? The directions say to add greese to the end of the pushrod but is that a good idea since there is oil there? It sounds like people mostly do that just to make installation easier.
 
#35 · (Edited)
""Cleaning things with gas is perfectly fine, although I prefer to use spray bottle degreasers or aerosol carb/brake cleaner. In a pinch I have added gas to an empty spray bottle, I cleaned all the grease off of my engine with less than $1 of gas with that particular technique. Just remember that it is incredibly flammable."" quote/ Knorm65




We all see that you have a lot to learn... weather you listen is another thing.. like said Gasoline is fuel. The purpose meant to be burnt, explode ... the vapors are toxic and probably a Big Cancer causing chemical too..
The only time I ever used it was to clean the Tar off my boots Outside as there was nothing else in a emergency...if anything Kerosene is better less flumes,vapor.

Gasoline is just wrong..and you put it in a spray bottle too. I wouldn't want to work with You........BooM :yikes: Good Luck

As far as the grease at the end of the fuel pump shaft...that's a Good thing
That's there to help lubricate the Cam on the Dist. shaft that runs the fuel pump..not to make installation easier FWIW
 
#38 ·
#37 ·
Fire danger aside I'll never use gasoline as a cleaning agent because of the smell, good grief. Just the idea of sitting over a bucket "filled" with gasoline and breathing those fumes while you clean .....

For the most part I use "White Spirit", not sure what it's called on your side of the pond but perhaps "mineral spirits" ?, which is flammable but much less volatile than gasoline and it doesn't smell all that much
 
#39 · (Edited)
Only misused gas one time, but that's all it took. My kids were coming to visit, so I wanted to get all the tumble weeds out of the front yard (about 3/4 acre). Pulled the tumbleweeds and put them in a pile to burn. poured gas all over them, then made a gas trail in the sand so I wouldn't be near it. Lite the trail and it worked perfectly, except it didn't ignite the gas and tumbleweed mixture. I knew enough not to walk close to the pile, so I waited about two minutes and then walked over there and poured more gasoline. Well there must have been a live ember in the pile, because I heard the explosion, then ran for my life. My shorts and tennis shoes were on fire, I rolled in the sand to extinguish the flames, but every time I rolled over it ignited again. Knowing I was going to die if I didn't get the flames out, I sat in some loose sand and covered my legs. It hurt like h---- but I went inside and took a shower to get the sand out of the burns on my legs. My wife said I am taking you to the hospital. I didn't want to go because I didn't think it was that bad. On the way there, I told her to step on it because I didn't think I was going to make it. A morphine injection eased the pain for a few hours while the doctors and nurses cleaned the sand that was stuck in the burns. I was out of work for 16 weeks. Had to go to the doctor every day for almost two weeks, to do "debreeding" the burns. First was an iodine soak, then out came the tweezers and the long process of removing the dead skin so it wouldn't turn into gangrene. I almost passed out every time I went, and I was on some pretty strong pain killers.

Since that time, I use gasoline for nothing but fuel for my cars. No easy start fires for me. You don't know how much damage it can create until it's too late. I was lucky that my company paid my full wages and benefits during those 16 weeks. But I felt blessed that I didn't die in that incident. I too had heard stories about gasoline, but I knew it could never happen to me because I was so careful....WRONG. Unfortunately it only takes one time, and if you live through it, it will be the last time. Great stuff for our cars, not so good for anything else....trust me.

Bob
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top