More greddy oil feed line madness!
 

Was chasing an oil leak right after installing my Greddy kit. Went on a bit of a wild goose chase involving a valve cover gasket, found out today that the leak was coming from the fitting on the block (m10X1.50). Looked like the tension from the oil line backed out the fitting. Put a wrench on it to tighten and it broke off in the block! This was a used kit and I suspect the fitting was cracked, although it didn't appear that way before I installed it.

Long story short, I'm a bit screwed.

Had a friend pull up a parts diagram of a 323gtx to see what it used for oil lines and fittings. To my surprise it uses a banjo fitting on the block side. So in my quest to have the most generic easy to replace oil line I'm thinking of building a line that has a 10mm banjo fitting on each end connected by a AN -3 hose.

Quick survey of Summit racing gave me the following parts:

Block
RUS-640541 Fitting, Brake Adapter, -3 AN to 90 Degree 10mm Banjo
EAR-977520ERL Fitting, Brake, Steel, Zinc Plated, Male 10mm x 1.5 Thread to Banjo 10mm

Turbo
EAR-997631ERL Fitting, Brake, Steel, Zinc Plated, Male -3 AN to Banjo 10mm
Fitting, Adapter, Banjo Bolt, with Crush Washer, 10mm x 1.25 Single

Hose
RUS-656080 Braided Stainless Steel Hose, Female -3 AN to Female -3 AN, 30 in. Long

Can someone tell me why this wouldn't work? Is -3 AN too small?

The reason I think banjo fittings would be perfect is the ease of finding or making the banjo bolt. WAY WAY easier than trying to find a 10mm X 1.50 to -3 AN adapter. 10mm banjo fittings are commonly used for brake lines, so in the event that one of those fails I should be able to source one locally.

I figure banjo fittings are reliable enough for my brakes, should be good enough for an oil feed line. And since Mazda used a banjo fitting on the block for the GTX, I know it'll fit.

Being able to source things locally is a big deal for me, being in Canada ordering from Summit or FM is time and cost prohibitive. Local speed shop carries Earls, Russel and Aeroquip fittings.

Aside from the annoyance of having my car out of comission for a couple of days I was pretty damned happy that it was "just" the oil feed and not my rear main seal or head gasket!

Comments? I figured this might be useful for someone else who wants to ditch the POS greddy lines.

Jay

I think most people use a -4 AN for the supply. At least that's what I recall seeing around the forums.

Yes, banjo fittings should be fine, and a -3AN line is probably fine, too, but I want to say the stock Greddy feed line for the Mitsubishi turbo is 1/4", or -4AN. I'm not sure if that's enough to cause problems, but, they way I see it, with a sleeve-bearing turbo like the Mitsubishi that's also oil cooled, and not water cooled, you'll want as much oil going through it as possible w/o going overboard.

So, long story short, I'd do a little more research before settling on 3/16" (-3AN).

I don't need to be concerned with over oiling do I?

I look through the fittings and see if I can't find the banjo fittings in -4AN. I think the only one that might be an issue is the 90* banjo.

When I go to pick everything up I'll take a look and compare the old line to both -3AN and -4AN.

Thanks for the advice.

Jay

that's why -4an use the m10x1.5 to -4an straight adapter.

keep in mind the gtx uses a small water-cooled turbo, too.

Yes, you do need to worry about "over-oiling" and under-oiling; that's the trick is knowing your turbo's specs and requirements.

In your case, with the Greddy-spec Mitsu. turbo, I'm pretty sure you're going to want/need -4AN.

My whole point of going with the Banjo fittings is this AN to metric adapter is hard to find locally. A 10X1.5 or 10X1.25 banjo bolt is very common and in a pinch I can make one.

Jay

Then -4AN is what I'll use. I can use a -4AN 90 or 45 on the end of it to ease routing.

I wonder how big the hole in the banjo bolt is when compared to -3AN and -4AN? Ultimately no matter how big the hose or the fitting is the banjo will make the difference here.

Thanks again for the help.

Jay

I am using a -3AN fitting for the last 5-6 months. I could not source -4AN fittings locally when I put my greddy back on. It has been fine.

Chris

I ended up buying -3AN. It's a much closer fit to the standard greddy adapter and line. I think -4AN would be too big. So far so good, and the -3AN is really easy to route. The banjo fittings appear to work really well too, not a lot of room to get in there with the turbo still in the car.

Jay

What's the thread pattern on the stock Greddy adapter for the stainless line side anyways?

The line itself looks to be M10X1.00. However using a thread gauge it actually reads M10X0.9. Since never hearing of that before I assume that it's 1.00. Either that or it isn't a normal metric thread. Either way, ditch the bitch. If any part of the line fails you'll be replacing the whole thing due to the really oddball thread of the line itself.

The adapter into the block is M10X1.5 and the Turbo is M10X1.25.

Nice thing about the banjo fitting is they are common and easy to get replaced if needed on short notice.

I think it's actually a pipe thread fitting on the hose end. We went through a whole all of metric fittings at a hardware store and nothing fit.

I tried 1/8NPT and that wasn't it. It's a very fine thread, on the gauge it messures 0.9.

So what was the actual size?

Actually, it is 1/8th npt. I forgot, I have a 1/8 npt adapter for my EGT probe and it fits into my oil feed line perfectly, that and I called Greddy today and asked and as soon as he said that I remembered fitting my adapter into it.