I just bought a 2002 chevy impala with a seized motor for $600. We un-seized the motor got it started up saw that it leaked oil. We got it up in the air noticed that the oil filter was swelled. So we drained the oil put new oil in it and put a new oil filter on it. We started it up and it took that filter out swelled up and leaked oil. Didn’t notice a 2nd gasket or anything. Any ideas on what could cause this
I assume the oil pressure light is going out on the dash. It appears that the oil relief valve is stuck so you might put a mechanical gauge on the oil pressure galley where the sender is tapped in to verify the pressure. If the relief valve is stuck, will have to access it; extract the spool; clean up the spool and bore; and reassemble.
You might have to drop the oil pan to see what debris is there. At the same time you can assess the condition of the main and rod bearings to see how much damage has been done.
Good luck on this. Keep us appraised of your progress. TNX
Inside the oil pump or oil filter adapter is an oil pressure relief spring / valve. Sounds like it’s jammed closed somehow…It’s designed to limit oil pressure to 80psi or so…
First, I would install a direct reading oil pressure gauge and SEE what the oil pressure is. It is also possible that junk from a defective filter was pushed into the main oil gallery, plugging it, and starving the engine for oil while causing extreme pressure to build up…But the relief spring should have STILL opened and prevented the filter from swelling up and leaking.
Be careful about reving the engine…You could twist off the oil pump drive if pressure is not controlled…
If the oil presure relife spring/vavle is in the oil filter adapter it seems like it is free. There was a little circular thing with a spring on it in the oil filter adapter that we could see by removeing the filter
That might be parts from a defective filter…Remove the adapter and examine it closely…
That should only be the filter bypass. It should have no effect on system pressure. It will only limit the PSID across the filter element. The SBC guys, for some oddball reason, often defeat this mechanism. I imagine it’s one thing that the MOPAR and Ford guys cannot do since their filters come with a bypass built into it. I don’t see Ford or MOPAR engines suffering due to this lack of trickness, but I do know of one guy who grenaded his BBC by using a common filter and not the cheese cloth sieve racing filters because of it.
This is a rare event, but it has happened a few times. An early evolution of the Ford modular engines had defective relief valves from the factory.
I agree the filter bypass should have no effect on the system pressure, I do not know the psi of the fuel pump but the swelling filter to me indicates a blockage. What is an SBC Guy? The blockage is after the oil filter, check the stud the oil filter screws onto for blockage.
it looks like the oil presure relese vavle is in the oil pump not in the oil filter asmbly we’re going to drop the pan and check all the stuff we can from there and see how everything looks and if everything looks ok we’re going to put a pump in it and go from there.
You have something nasty blocking the oil gallery between the filter and the return to the pan. When you drained the oil, what kind of chaff, crud, and meltal flake did you find in it? The engine siezed up for a reason, and this condition sounds like a result of the cause not the cause itself. but what do I know? I’m only an ignroamus.
we didn’t see anything in the oil when we drained it. we’re going to look around when we drop the pan and all to see if theres anything in the bottom of the pan we’re going to check some other things also.
Question: Why was the motor seized, and how did you ‘un-seize’ it?
it seized due to the oil filter geting too much presure and swelling up and comeing lose and loseing oil there. We un-seized it by dumping trans fluid down the cylnders and they did seem to get oil to the cylnders without the plugs in
When you drop the pan, take apart the oil pump and look at the relief valve assembly. It should be free to move without foreign particles restricting it.
update we just got done puting a new oil pump in the thing. It fixed the issue now heres to hopeing they didn’t do too much damage to the engine
You will know within 100 miles…Few engines suffer seizure and then recover…Good Luck…