Engine hydrolocked from oil while cranking?
 

Okay, I have tried to search all over for this issue to avoid getting slaughtered for asking but I cant find any answers.

Car is a 2004 Mazdaspeed Miata. I tore apart the car to install my ARTech manifold and downpipe with EFR-6258, FIC 750cc injectors and Reverant MS2enhanced ECU.

I finished my turbo install yesterday and I started the car. It idled for about a minute and then died. When I went to crank it back up I heard a POP and then it stopped cranking. I tried to crank it again and it was obvious there was something locking the motor up. I pulled the plugs and cylinder 2 was full of what I thought was coolant. I thought that I had some how popped my head gasket while cranking and hydrolocked my motor! I've never heard of a head gasket blowing while cranking though.

I used my mityvac to try and remove the fluid from the cylinder to hopefully keep as must rust from forming as possible only to find out that it wasn't coolant at all, it was oil. almost 2oz of oil! I wonder of maybe I blew out the valve stem seals but how could there be that much oil? Enough to stop the motor from turning over after cranking a few times.

I then tried to do a compression test on that cylinder and it was 220 psi, I moved to cylinder 1 and it was about 180 psi I assume the higher psi is due to the little bit of oil that I couldn't get out. after checking cylinder 1 I stopped and put the mityvac back in cylinder 2 and pulled another oz. out of it? I didn't even bother to continue checking the rest of the cylinders after that. What just happened to my motor? Does anyone have any thoughts?

The last thing I did was pull the valve cover off and try to see if any of the valve seals on cylinder 2 looked any different from the rest of the cylinders but I couldn't tell any differences between them.

Drain the pan, see how much comes out. Pour contents of pan into milk jugs for accurate measuring. Or just check the dipstick......is this a 100% factory stock motor?

Have you tried to crank after pulling the plugs?

Well when I was installing the turbo setup I did an oil change and filled it up with 4.5qts of oil. I haven't touched a thing inside the motor 90k stock MSM engine.

Yes, it will crank with the plugs out.

Head gasket on wrong alowing oil in..?

Car was running fine prior to turbo install. I haven't touched the headgasket either so don't think that could be it. However I'm not 100% sure if there is any oil galleys running directly next to cylinder 2 that I could have blown a headgasket that way.

The furthest I went into the motor was removing the top of the intake to install the injectors.

Did you have the valve cover for an extended time?

No the valve cover wasn't off at all during the install and only for a moment while I tried to inspect the valve seals.

I've got no idea how you did that. I would put new plugs back in and try to crank it now, though. The starter doesn't make enough torque to hurt the rods if hydrolocked so you are OK there. PCV line or something drained into it when moved around, perhaps? Just crank it and let it burn off the excess, I guess.

Subscribed, because I want to see how the hell you oil hydrolock an engine while cranking.

C

Stumped!

Tell us a little more about when the car was idling. What was the duration between the shut down, and your attempt to restart it? Was it a hard fast shut down?

I would take off a charge pipe and look to see if it is pulling oil from somewhere upstream from the throttle body, and work your way down stream.

Same here: I'm just as puzzled as you are. Must have opened this thread and your build thread like 5 times each now and each time just close it without any real idea or hypothesis. This is pretty rare, at least the way you say it happened anyway.

I'd get all the crap outa it and try it again like shooter said. if it fills up quickly again then you've no other choice but to tear it open. If it doesn't then try another comp/leakdown test and decide from there what you want to do.

*edit: have you drained the oil yet? is it normal or is there coolant in it?

I'm no mechanic, but if I had to guess I'd say your engine is shitting itself in fear of that EFR. I'd recommend some forged rods and some oil with Prozac additive.

When I started it up I was using the MS2E and the car sounded like it was idling fairly well for the initial base map. No adbrupt shut down, the car just seemed to die out. Thinking back there was probably around 30 seconds between the car dying and trying to crank it back up. I was actually about to start rechecking the base timing when I started it back up and I was connecting my timing light between the shut down and cranking.

When I get off work I'll pull the coupler of the throttle body and check for oil. I'm just as stumped as everyone else.

I have not drained the oil from the pan yet the oil in the cylinder was pure oil and had no coolant mixed in but I guess I'll have to try and find a clean container and drain the pan like previously stated. If that checks out and the throttle body checks out, I'll try once more to get as much oil out of the cylinder as possible and then put her back together try to start the car again and cross my fingers. If its still filling with oil I suppose I will be forced to tear down the motor. If I try to restart the car and say I get it to idle.. If the cylinder fills up enough to lock the motor while idling. Is there enough torque to bend a rod while idling?

I don't think so, but who knows. Don't run it long if you get it to restart, that's for sure. I'd let it cycle through for a few seconds and then attempt another comp/leakdown test.

Do you remember what your afr was when it did idle?

I'm guessing the 2oz of oil in the cylinder would not do good things for the WBo2, would the readings even be accurate at this point?

Okay sounds like a plan. No, I don't remember. I was actually out and the car and preparing to recheck the timing. Then when it died I didn't really think much of anything about it. I finished hooking up the timing light and then went to restart it.

True, hopefully the sensor isn't damaged though and I can recalibrate it once the issue is fixed.

How much smoke did this thing pump out just before it died?

To have that much oil in it, you had to of saw a huge ploom of blue smoke.