[ctrlz]

meangreen, can you put a micrometer on that where the "hotspots" are and then check it 90 degrees to that, which looks clean. Or just check further up the cylinder.

[MeanGreen1LE]

Yes; I'll put a Mic to it soon, honestly I don' know why I didn't think to do that already. I will say there was no discernable difference with my fingernail and it is not an obvious "rise" The marks in question also did not come off with carb cleaner either however.

If these plunger cylinders prove to be out of round it could be the failure point for these solenoid assemblies, and maybe even what expediated the early breakage on some of the pumps. I.E. if the solenoid sticks in high pressure mode it would definitely stress the pump more. (not that they would not have failed eventually anyways)

could also be differences in the brass sleeve as well.

If one of these proves true and a common occurrence I think there is potential for a marketable upgrade to the blueprinted pumps or maybe even a stand alone change to the solenoid that could be sold.

[MeanGreen1LE]

Results using vernier micrometer.
Firstly the discolored spots were not as close to 180 apart as I initially thought which was obvious when I lined up the anvil across the diameter of the shaft. Plus there are actually 3 “hot spots”.
Hot spot one -.3067”
Hot spot two -.3067”
Random spot-.3070”
So these are not the results I was hypothesizing and perhaps I jumped to conclusions on my last post?

I also measured the plunger from the original pump in three random places.
1st- .3064
2nd- .3066
3rd- .3065

So to make it easier to keep straight I’ll say the setup with normal pressures has a very slightly smaller plunger. Are those few 10 thousandths significanrt? Doubtful. . .

I wish I had a bore gauge small enough to measure inside the brass bushing but I do not. But I did measure the outside diameter of each one.

Low pressure setup
Average of four- .3638

Normal pressure setup
Average of four- ..3647

So .0009” difference. Again this is the outside diameter not inside. But this almost .001” combined with a slightly larger plunger might matter. ?

[No boost]

MeanGreen1LE have you installed new solenoid yet with any results? I am having the same problem and going to attempt to install mine tonight.

[MeanGreen1LE]

Originally Posted by No boost

MeanGreen1LE have you installed new solenoid yet with any results? I am having the same problem and going to attempt to install mine tonight.

You have katech pump and low pressure? Curious as I’ve not seen anyone else yet?
I have installed solenoid but my car is sitting unassembled in my shop again. As seen above I’ve been trying to diagnose the possibility of it being the solenoid that is bad. I think there is enough evidence to put it back together and try.
I’m baling hay this weekend so I may not get it together for another week yet.
Please let me know your results if you beat me to it.

[No boost]

Yes I have low pressure at idle, ok pressure under normal driving but drops pressure at higher rpm's.

[Choda]

I also have the katech truck pump in my car. It doesn't have the high psi like I thought it would but I'm not sure if my tuner changed anything in the tune to take advantage of it.

Does anyone know what exactly needs to be changed in our tunes?

I would have changed anything in question while you had the motor out. If your worried about the pump, send it to katech for inspection. They seem like a great company.


If the pump wasnt the only change then I think you are cutting yourself short on what else you could be looking at. pull the motor and replace all the bearings. bearings and oil are cheap, motors are not.

[ctrlz]

Have you looked at dipstick immediately after the low pressure situation? Specifically to check for frothing? Could oil pump be pulling air?
Oil pickup tube leak?
Increased crankcase pressure at higher rpms pushing blowby into pickup?

[MeanGreen1LE]

I checked the rod bearings last time I had it out and they were well within clearance using plastigauge. It’s in this thread I think. I did not check mains but regret not doing it while it was out. I’m nervous about checking them overhead and getting bolts torqued back correctly since they are TAY fasteners.
I just can’t see how I would have wiped the mains out enough to wear them to where the pressure is this low. First time before starting I used a drill pump till oil came out the back rockers and used an actual primer the second time and had good flow from every rocker. I did it at filter housing so there should be plenty of oil in pump as well. I mean it is possible. I was careful with cam installs so I’m not that worried about killing cam bearings either.

I think I checked oil after first start and it looked perfect no frothing. I wiped screen off with a long swab to make sure there were no debris on pickup so tube was not disturbed. Put new orings where pump sits and oil filter each time I reinstalled oil pan.

[ctrlz]

Originally Posted by MeanGreen1LE

I think I checked oil after first start and it looked perfect no frothing.

My theory is you are getting frothing or poor drainback at higher rpm, leading to pump starvation.
So checking oil after it's been running at lower rpm may not show this.
I think are doing a fine investigation. Just seems the pump failure theory is looking less likely.

[No boost]

Originally Posted by MeanGreen1LE

You have katech pump and low pressure? Curious as I’ve not seen anyone else yet?
I have installed solenoid but my car is sitting unassembled in my shop again. As seen above I’ve been trying to diagnose the possibility of it being the solenoid that is bad. I think there is enough evidence to put it back together and try.
I’m baling hay this weekend so I may not get it together for another week yet.
Please let me know your results if you beat me to it.

Got mine finished up this morning (Changing pump solenoid) this did not solve my problem. I guess I'm going to have to dig deeper.

[MeanGreen1LE]

Well like I’ve said, I’m so deep I decided to go ahead and check the oil pump. Emailed Dan and got torque specs for the torx bolts so I could put it back with the correct amount of pressure. (89-106 inch/lbs).
Took the plate off and Reassembled a spare pump to refresh my memory on how they go together.

Put the alignment tools back on the engine and took the Katech pump off. Cleaned the oil off the front and out of the fasteners to reduce the chance of rounding the torx heads. Made new assembly marks with a paint pen to be able to get them buttoned down as close to the same as possible.

Fortunately, (who else has anxiety with torx and even more so Allen headed fasteners ugh). They all came loose with zero fuss. Backed them all out a couple turns in a star pattern.

Switched to my cordless ratchet. About 3 screws in as I was backing it out full on it felt like there was a quick movement inside the pump and made a muffled thunk like sound. It also squirted oil out enough to lightly pelt my forehead a time or two and cover the Face Of the pump with like 10 or so tiny droplets of oil. Hmmm curiouser and curiouser.

If this has happened while I was initially releasing the stretch of the bolt I would have probably just assumed I’d jerked a little when it let go. However I was using the cordless ratchet and easily backing out a loosened fastener.

So now I strongly feel like the pump itself was getting stuck in low pressure mode. First few times it was just getting stuck after the engine was warm but at some point got stuck for good.

Inside pics to follow.

[MeanGreen1LE]

Guide pic for reference.
A and C are rough edges of pivot collar, (not sure what it’s really called)
B is another rough place with what I refer to the green and black snubber these seal and reduces friction.

See pictures if underside of cover, (remember it will be mirror image) where the rough places are rubbing.

Close ups of rough places.

Cover from factory cover comparing difference to Katech cover. See how the wear is quite different. Factory cover with 1400 miles is much more symmetrical than the Katech cover and does not have the wear marks from the pivot collar at all really.

[ctrlz]

It would be nice to have a diagram showing how this works. Also, an index so we know what your A, B, and C marks are pointing to. But it looks to me like the the cage which hold the vane rotor got pinched and could not shift from a low output to high output mode. Is that what the solenoid does? I also see the burrs on some of the edges. Not sure what is considered passable for normal operation.