Start-up Wear

In responding to another thread I mentioned 'start-up wear,' which got me a querie as to what I was talking about.

See that oil light? Notice that when starting your engine it stays ON until the oil pressure is high enough to turn it off? During that period it means your engine is operating WITHOUT PROPER LUBRICATION. And that means it is also wearing out.

Big engines -- those in ships and planes and powering generators and stuff like that -- come equipped with pre-lubers,, a special pump that pressurizes the lubrication system on start-up BEFORE the engine is allowed to rotate. Why? Because all of the major engine manufacturers have determined that up to NINETY PERCENT of an engine's wear occurs DURING the start-up cycle.

So... wanna make your engine last forever? (Or damn near.) Then install a pre-luber. You can make one or you can buy a kit, which is what lotsa fleet operators have done. Costs about $150 for a kit suitable for a big V8, smaller kit costs a bit less. No maintainence; hook it up and forget about it. (I wrote an article on how to make your own.. Dig around, someone probably has a copy.

See, the idea is that enough oil will cling to the bearing journals, rocker arms and cam-followers, to provide lubrication during the starting cycle. But it turns out, that assumption is only valid for certain oils... and only under certain conditions. Take your worse- case conditions and it turns out that YOU are the major cause for your engine's wear.

So do something about it. Pre-lubers are pretty basic -- just some means of pressurizing the main oil manifold BEFORE the starter is engaged. On some airplane engines the damn thing is operated MANUALLY, meaning you gotta hang your buns in the breeze while you give the green handle forty strokes... or until oil appears at the base of the pump, at which time you're supposed to lock the handle closed, start the engine and go fly. Volkswagen, you only need about a pint of oil to pre-lube -- and it only needs about 15psi to do a good job of it.

-Bob Hoover

Reply to
Bob Hoover
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Look up Accu-sump on google.

Jan

Reply to
Jan Andersson

I see one of the prelubers hooked up to a high-performance engine in a Thing. Looks like a simple setup that anyone can connect although I am not sure if there is enough room in the Beetle compartment. I like the idea!

Reply to
dave AKA vwdoc1

We sell 1qt Accusumps that are pefect for ACVW's. They are often used on FV race cars.

In regards to stasrt-up being 90% of an engines wear; Garbage. That came from an old STP? ad. THe FTC made them stop saying it. In a VERY worst case scenerio it MIGHT be true. All winter driving with LOTs of startups only after the car has set for several days. It certainly has some advantages, but not significant in the normal driven car.

Most systems like the Accusump can be configured in 3 Ways..

  1. It is only used when the engine is running and a low oil pressure condition occurs. The accusump simply supplies up to another quart of oil as needed. This can occur in high acceration starts/stops or in high G corners. (and ACVW engine stock sump system is terrible. And unless you overfill it you will experience oil drop-out in anything over 1 g. (Not many street bugs will see 1G in either lat or lon movement. (FV's pull over
1.6G's though) This configuration is the one most used in racing Formula Vees (and many other engines)

  1. It is only used at start-up as a pre-oiler. Not much used in racing, but often used in cars (etc.) that don't see use except weekly, or monthly etc. Typically it is wired to the ignition, so that when the key is turned on the stored pressure in the accusump is released into the bearing journals. A "pre-oiler." (The pressure supplied is the pressure from the oil system that was there when the engine last ran. So you need to rev the engine a bit when you shut it down to make sure the accusump fills to 15 or 20 lbs of pressure. (More than enough for the pre-oil.)

  2. With an extra valve it can be set up to do both items above. A few race cars use it.

Jim SR Racing ww.sracing.com

Reply to
jim

This will probably be on my shopping list in the future, since lowered vehicles and deep sumps don't go well together... :) And mine starves of oil during all-out straight acceleration, even when overfilled slightly. 26mm pump and engine has less than 1000 miles on it.

Reply to
Jan Andersson

So does the first configuration pump an extra quart into the system, and then suck it back into the Accusump? I'd be concerned about having the sump over-filled and blowing seals.

Reply to
John J

overfilling the sump will not "blow seals" (it's just icecream!), that is an often repeated urban myth... plain and simple.

Reply to
Joey Tribiani

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