944S2 16V Turbo Build

[Bergerac]

Yeah I picked mine up for under 600euro on special

[BasHenneman]

Yeah I picked mine up for under 600euro on special

You sneaky man! Thats a steal!

[Bergerac]

Prekom sports hardess bushes and M030 rear sway bar have arrived. I assume these are the same as what Elephant Racing sells, from what I've read Prekom was the OEM.

[Bergerac]

It's alive!

PXL_20250820_041146708.jpg (1.99 MiB) Viewed 2952 times

[Bergerac]

Ok, Im a bit stumped on this one, we cranked the engine over until we got just under 2bar oil pressure. Started it and it jumped straight to 4.5bar with a lot of lifter noise, ran it for a couple of minutes to see if they pumped up but no change so we stopped.
Ended up pulling the cam cover off and theres no oil in the head at all, confirmed the check valve is in and the vertical oil passage from the block is clear.

What next? Fill the head oil passages, reinstall the check valve and try again?

I cant think of anything else it could be apart from the main oil passage being blocked and I would have thought we would have excessive oil pressure if that was the case.

[BasHenneman]

Ok, Im a bit stumped on this one, we cranked the engine over until we got just under 2bar oil pressure. Started it and it jumped straight to 4.5bar with a lot of lifter noise, ran it for a couple of minutes to see if they pumped up but no change so we stopped.
Ended up pulling the cam cover off and theres no oil in the head at all, confirmed the check valve is in and the vertical oil passage from the block is clear.

What next? Fill the head oil passages, reinstall the check valve and try again?

I cant think of anything else it could be apart from the main oil passage being blocked and I would have thought we would have excessive oil pressure if that was the case.

Start the engine with the valve cover removed to see if you have oil coming out of the passage.
Remove the check valve to make sure you get oil to the top.

Then check the check-valve; mine was rusted solid after having been in the engine for a long time.. New ones are pricey though.....

[Bergerac]

Ok, Im a bit stumped on this one, we cranked the engine over until we got just under 2bar oil pressure. Started it and it jumped straight to 4.5bar with a lot of lifter noise, ran it for a couple of minutes to see if they pumped up but no change so we stopped.
Ended up pulling the cam cover off and theres no oil in the head at all, confirmed the check valve is in and the vertical oil passage from the block is clear.

What next? Fill the head oil passages, reinstall the check valve and try again?

I cant think of anything else it could be apart from the main oil passage being blocked and I would have thought we would have excessive oil pressure if that was the case.

Start the engine with the valve cover removed to see if you have oil coming out of the passage.
Remove the check valve to make sure you get oil to the top.

Then check the check-valve; mine was rusted solid after having been in the engine for a long time.. New ones are pricey though.....

Thanks Bas, Ill give that a go tomorrow, we did pump oil in through the filter housing before we turned it over so I would have thought at least some would have made it to the head but maybe there wasnt enough pressure.

I do have a spare check valve, I bought it by accident not realising my head already had one. I dont think it was seized though, it came out pretty easily.

[BasHenneman]

Ok, Im a bit stumped on this one, we cranked the engine over until we got just under 2bar oil pressure. Started it and it jumped straight to 4.5bar with a lot of lifter noise, ran it for a couple of minutes to see if they pumped up but no change so we stopped.
Ended up pulling the cam cover off and theres no oil in the head at all, confirmed the check valve is in and the vertical oil passage from the block is clear.

What next? Fill the head oil passages, reinstall the check valve and try again?

I cant think of anything else it could be apart from the main oil passage being blocked and I would have thought we would have excessive oil pressure if that was the case.

Start the engine with the valve cover removed to see if you have oil coming out of the passage.
Remove the check valve to make sure you get oil to the top.

Then check the check-valve; mine was rusted solid after having been in the engine for a long time.. New ones are pricey though.....

Thanks Bas, Ill give that a go tomorrow, we did pump oil in through the filter housing before we turned it over so I would have thought at least some would have made it to the head but maybe there wasnt enough pressure.

I do have a spare check valve, I bought it by accident not realising my head already had one. I dont think it was seized though, it came out pretty easily.

Well, getting the valve out was the easy part to be honest, but once you take a look at the actual valve, you'll see what I mean.
I didnt take a picture of the stuck valve, but did find a picture of doing an oil pressure test on my S2 turbo (I sent it to you through Facebook Messenger).
If you start long enough, you should get up to 4.5 bar of oil pressure, maybe even 5.

[Bergerac]

Yeah the spring looked fine and the ball moved freely. Got 4.5bar oil pressure started the car but the head is bone dry.

[Bergerac]

So we got oil with the valve out, put it back in no oil.

Turns out the check valve seat hadn't been fully pressed in from the factory so it was partially blocking the oil passages and not allowing the ball to move enough.