968 Oil Pickup Failure

[Vfourfast]

Has anyone had an oil pickup tube crack or fail on them on a 968 engine.

I have a 968 that I race with solid engine mounts. In 2005 I was running without balance shafts and had the oil pickup tube completely sever just below the bracket that bolts into the cradle.

I thought the failure was because of vibration from not running balance shafts until last night.

This season I noticed my engine would not build oil more than 1 bar of oil pressure using the starter with the spark plugs out. Even getting to 1 bar took a long time. Normally it would build about 3 bar within 30 seconds. I checked the oil RV and it was fine. When I got 1 bar of oil pressure I started the engine and it was very slow to build oil pressure up to the normal 5 bar cold.

When I pulled the pan off last night the oil pick up tube was cracked about 75% of the way around allowing air to bleed into the suction of the oil pump. This engine has a balanced crank, pistons and rods and was running balance shafts. I am running a Porsche motorsports flywheel in place of the dual mass unit.

I'm just wondering how common this is. I need to find the cause as an oil pick up failure can ruin my day/year.

www.myersmotorsport.com

[flash968]

it does happen, and all too often - call pete at rs barn - i think he has a fix for that