oil starvation

Someone brought a good point to my attention today. "Sitting up on those steep hills like that is gonna starve your motor for oil!" I never thought of it and wanted to see everyone input on this. Are these 4.0's known for this? Has anyone ever heard such a thing? I'm no expert on engine design by any means, but it does kind of make sense if all the oil is on one side of the pan. I know I've sat on some steep angles at an idle for a few minuets at a time, but never thought about it causing oil starvation? Is it possible? :scared:

only if your on your roof. The sump of the pan is at the rear and the design is that even if your nose down and have some traction you should be ok. Not like my old sport bike where you pull up the front wheel and you blow the motor. Just saying.

its possible but if you have a full crankcase there should always be enough in there to cover the pickup.. the only real exception would be if you were pointed down a steep angle and stayed there for a long time.. the pan isnt wide enough to starve on a sidehill and if you point ur nose up in the air the worst might be your #6 cylinder sucks a little oil and puffs smoke for a few minutes.

It's possible, but not common. If you have an oil pressure gauge you'll know if you're starving for oil, though because the gauge is a bit slow to react you may hear it at about the same time. If you keep your oil level up, it shouldn't starve. If you let the oil go more than two quarts low you can get momentary starvation on hard corners.

Remember that this is a fully pressure lubricated engine. It does not depend on crank splash, so as long as the oil pump picks up enough oil to maintain pressure, it's good. Once upon a time, when many engines were splash lubricated, or partially splash (e.g the old Chevy six that had a pump but still scooped oil for the con rods), this was more of a worry.

thanks for all the info! i was thinking along the lines of what willy said. did you happen to have a gixxer by chance? they are known for that.

jerseyjeep01 said:

thanks for all the info! i was thinking along the lines of what willy said. did you happen to have a gixxer by chance? they are known for that.

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When I was about 9 I had saved up a few years' worth of allowance, so I went halfsies with my parents and bought a 41 Chevy Special Deluxe for 12 bucks from some neighbors. It made its last groaning clutch-slipping journey into the woods behind the garage, and for the next few years I enjoyed taking it apart and scattering greasy bits around. That was long enough ago that a running 41 Chevy in need of a clutch was actually not worth more than 12 bucks! I've never actually had a Chevy six in the usual sense, though some years later I did have another (a 51) that I pulled the head off of and used as an anvil.