Ok, so I was at the track and during my first session I noticed the oil pressure gauge was pegged beyond max on acceleration. I pitted and popped the hood and noticed I had a nasty crank wobble and oil blew past my filter seal (oil filter relocate on firewall). Confirmed all pulley bolts were tight and I could not wobble the crank by hand.

What happened?

I also melted my lower rad hose, but that's a different story...

 

Um, what car, what year, what engine, what mods, what power adder, if any, what conditions, and what the **** with no info...

Paging Merlin and the Wizard of Oz to look into the void here.

 

Crap, yea...shoulda included that in there.

1995 1.8 turbo, 12k miles on engine build.
12PSI on wg spring
GTX3071R
Manley rods
ACL race bearings
Wiseco pistons
Cometic head gasket
ARP head bolts
Stock harmonic balancer and oil pump
MS2PNP on pump 93
Top breather oil catch can with both pcv and exhaust sides routed to it. PCV deleted.

 

Where is your oil pressure sender located? Pre filter? Stock location on block?
This is important in finding the culprit.

How old/new is your oil filter relocation setup?
Could the lines have crossed somehow?
Is your oil filter adapter on the block properly installed with no blockage?

Also, what weight is your oil, and was it warm enough (above 120F) before you started flogging the engine?
(100+ psi is possible w/shimmed oil pumps if oil is cold)

Could you possibly have dropped o-ring bits, globs of silicone, teflon tape bits, etc in the oil galleries during engine work?

These are the questions that come to mind without seeing the engine.

 

Oil pressure sender is teed off the block with my turbo oil feed.

Oil filter relocate was a few years old until I had leaking lines and decided to make new AN10 lines. I've confirmed proper routing, several times, since that was my initial thought.

Stock oil pump, no shims. Used 5W40 Mobil 1. Car was warmed up for 15 minuted before hitting the track then took a few warm up laps. I do not have oil temp gauge.

I did recently have the valve cover off to redo the gasket. I stuffed the valve train with paper towels so the RTV scrapings didn't fall in. Some did fall in, but I'm now wondering if I didn't get them all out.

It's not possible to clean the galleys with the engine in, is it?

 

Since you mentioned the high oil pressure gauge, and the oil filter seal popped, that really implies your oil pressure went higher than intended. My money is on your oil pump relief sticking shut, so that it couldn't open during an over-pressure event. Since the oil pump is only protected by the relatively coarse suction screen, it's possible some gunk got in the poppet and locked it, or wore clearances down enough for the poppet to rock in its bore.

Have you run the car since this happened? I don't know if the relief would reset after a lack of flow and cooling down, but I don't know if I would keep running after knowing this was a potential problem.

 

35 years ago, I had a Honda Civic engine job that had an OP relief valve stuck closed.
That puppy would hit 325 psi on cold start up just before it blew the oil filter OFF the engine.
Made a God-awful mess.
And yes, I bought a high pressure (Tranny) oil pressure gauge and did this twice.
Second time I was prepared for the oil volcano...

Further rebuilds included new oil pumps from then on and I check the plunger and bore before I run it now, even on new stuff.
That hasn't happened again for me...
This did not hurt the crank or the bearings on this engine and I'm not convinced the oil pressure issue damaged your engine.

The new crank wobble will be something else...

 

Aftermarket or stock oil pressure gauge?

I'm also believing the relief valve in the oil pump is stuck. This is a common enough problem. Sometimes it sticks open and destroys the engine. You got "lucky" it stuck closed. You still have to pull the engine to fix it but you haven't lunched the bearings and crankshaft.

Look at the Boundary Engineering pumps.

 

It's a '95, I think the stock OPGs effectively became dummy lights in '95. It would only read either "zero" or "middle of the gauge". I'd wager it's aftermarket.