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WHEELSPIN

CEG'er
Joined
Nov 5, 2007
Messages
421
Location
CHI-TOWN (St. Charles)
I tried searching for info on the whole fact about not taking right turns to hard because of some oil problem. Can someone fill me in on this or point me in the right direction. Thanks homies
 
I guess it hasn't actually been proven, but it's definately past a rumor. Somewhere in between I guess?

I don't really know anything about the oil pans, I don't have a Duratec.
 
PurpleMystique said:
Being repeated a lot doesn't negate its rumor status, it just makes it a popular rumor.
Click to expand...

A bunch of people were seizing their engines during the early days of the CSVT (when they were still under warranty) by going a little too fast on highway offramps. There was much research by CEGers into figuring out why.
 
Posted here, somewhere in CEG ancient history, was a report that Rouch discovered that due to poor drainback, our V6 only had less than a pint of oil in the sump when high rpm is maintained.

Couple this high rpm with a long sweeping right hand turn that move the oil pick up away from the small pool of oil remaining and problems could result.

Add to that the weakness of the rod bearings. The stock rod bearings don't seem to tolerate any lack of oil. The 99 model year for Taurus and Sable was plagued with oil pump problems blowing apart the filter. The shop I was in at the time had one that we changed the pump on and installed a new filter only to have it return about two weeks later with a rod knock. When we called the engine plant for advice, they shipped an engine, and told us that if we would have asked for an engine after it blew the filter they would have sent us one then, as it was a known problem. I asked why it didn't show up on a TSB or a broadcast message and didn't get an answer.

From what I have heard, Ford eventually fixed the drainback problems on the 2001 models with better head drains on the Cougar engines. Also I heard that the 3.0 engines never did have the drainback problem.

The Escape pan is the current factory replacement part. It tends to seal better. It is baffled a little, and I guess that every little bit helps. I personally don't think it is a complete answer.
 
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The escape pan works perfect on a 2.5 and I know a couple people running it. I think the major problem is the oil puddling in the head due to lack of enough drainbacks. I don't think the issue is as much the pan although I'd recommend it to anyone as I've installed it on all my 3L's I've had. And even with the oil drainback and pan issue, you'd be fine if you run 6.25 quarts. People don't watch their oil level which is the number 1 factor!!! So combine a oil level to low, a poor pan design and oil puddling up in the heads = the oil pickup sucking air = a rod bearing welding itself to the crank from heat and spin away pushing the other rod bearing right around with it.
 
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