Lude Generation

hi me and my friend have an eg track car with h22 in it.
done trackday yesterday and was going really well near end of day started to lose vtec so packed up and went.
when got back to shed looked at vtec soilniod was full of metal filings.
pulled sump and boom yet again bearing filings everywere.

this is the 3rd engine in it first one put down to crap engine. second run to low on oil
but this one has baffle and over filled it nearly a litre and keept good eye on it through the day.
yet it still does the bearings in. we have an oil presure gauge and was reading steady all day around 60 psi on the gas and maybe 10/15 idle.

the track we go to has 2 hi speed strights and only reven to 7.8/7.9
anyone any idea why they keep going lol. running outa h22s to put in now lol

thanks in advance

Do you have an oil temp gauge? Might be getting a bit hot in the civic shell - if i recall they tend to only have half size rads? Have you got the oil cooler assembly from the h22 (the one which is cooled by coolant, where the oil filter bolts on).

I've never had any h22 blow up after the track. High quality 5w/40 oil and a recent filter change doesn't hurt.

If you've been sealing anything with silicon or too much instant gasket, it always ends up getting stuck in the oil pickup.

If you've got the baffled sump, overfilling by a litre is overkill. Without a baffled sump, im only overfilling less than 5mm on the dipstick, that keeps me in vtec in the chicanes.

HAve seen a honda oil pump pressure release valve get stuck in the open position, that certainly didnt help. Next time you have an engine, be sure to check the oil pickup and undo the pressure release cap on the bottom of the pump, check the piston moves freely.

Im sure more experiences engine builders / track goers will comment more.

Yea we have a oil temp gauge and water temp plus oil cooler. Temps are allways good no over heating on either. are oil would be around 90 and water temp the same. We have full size rad from lude in it.
We acculy have to cover half the oil cooler as was getting to cool lol. We did notice one or 2 same bits of sealer in pick-up be wasnt much at all. Also use 5/40 fully synthetic oil.

We dont have a balance shaft delete kit on it we just run it without the belt on. Were maybe thinking it needs the shafts working as its up at high rmp on strights a while

ive done 10+ track days when my h22 was pretty much stock and never had any issues.

if you've been through 3x engines now i'd say it's something your re-using or doing. how your driving it doesnt sound like any issue, i wouldnt bother covering the oil cololer though. i know another member here who im sure has done track days but i now he cut his BS belt many years ago and has never had an issue - 106pete i think it was. next time your putting an engine in, strip everything down, clean it out throughly and then put it back together while checking for any issues/wear etc.

Merlin & Dino have doen more track days then me i think and are more experienced, they may be able to put in their 10p on this

Over filling it by a litre won't have helped.

Put the baleancer shaft belt back on. Only way to remove it to fully open the engine up and remove it properly.

Mainly I rekon it's just bad luck.

Yea were thinking put it back on. Maybe needs balanced at long high rpm pulls. Though theres boys that delete it alltogether and seem to be ok. Though the extra iol pressure they gain might help.
On the 2 strights on are track your doing in more than 100mph. What are you track fellas reven yours to?

on every track day, rev all the way! limiter in lower gears on occasion , very high revs on some downshifts (heel and toe all the time). Pulling 110+ on some tracks.

I did over 40 laps at bedford (and that's a long lap!).

Full cool down lap, lot of heat gets stored in the exhaust so nice high speed / low power cool down lap. Leave engine running for a bit when off the track, bonnet up of course.

Sounds like you might just be unlucky with the engines your getting. If its a pure track car, perhaps there isn't enough road driving to work out any niggles or issues?

Id reconnect the balance belt. Without the delete kit, it wont be spinning if you just removed the belt - i don't like the thought of that.

I'm using motul 5w/40 sport oil and genuine blue filters (and was in the last lude).

We did over 20,000 miles with an H22a7 that had no balancer belt but was still carrying the extra weight of a non-rotating mass. No problems. I believe the balancer kit really only makes an appreciable difference at low revs, so I can't see that that's the problem.

If you're not getting oil to the bearings, the issue is likely to be at the bottom end. Surge, oil pick up or oil pump problems are all candidates. Is there any way you can identify where the metal filings actually come from?

Just bad luck - track days on a tight budget are always going to be a roll of the dice on anything stock(ish)
renewing bearings and polishing and balancing the crank -all that stuff is expensive to get done but would help with reliability and performance
I think 4th gen bottom end is generally thought to be most reliable and if you can get one from a well maintained auto thats even better
Still part of the enjoyment of the H22 is you can pick them up for pennies compared to other engines