. Did he tell you what kind of foam it is? It would have to be very coarse to let cold oil flow freely. Does it
need changing from time to time as it will probably clog like a filter.
Many of you probably already know this lot, but I am trying to find a really good way of avoiding oil surge without the bother of dry sumping
(Vauxhall 16v XE in ST Loco chassis)
I have very little room for the sump and so it will need to be very shallow. I had a look at a Caterham Vauxhall today at Curborough sprint and this
was wet sumped. Asked the owner and he said it has a foam filled sump with no other baffling. Checked on the web and this is correct.
My question is, has anybody done this and is normal MIL spec fuel tank foam ok for the job? Problems I can see are that is breaks down at high temp or
that the oil does not flow freely enough through it when it is cold.
The Vauxhall engine uses a crank scraper/windage tray as standard so this will stop the foam hitting the crank. Basically the foam will pack between
the windage tray and the sump base.
Any ideas?
A use for old 3 piece suites at last. Did he tell you what kind of foam it is? It would have to be very coarse to let cold oil flow freely. Does it
need changing from time to time as it will probably clog like a filter.
Caterham fit a foam baffle in the sump of some of their cars. Perhaps you could buy one and cut it to fit your sump?????
Caterham use foam baffles in their sumps, I recently replaced mine. however, their have been several horror stories of these things disintegrating and blocking the oil pick up. Peter Carmichael, K-series guru and builder of 250bhp 1.8, suggests that he never fits one and has no problems. It may be a better idea if using for the track, to fit an Anti-cavitation tank (approx £200) rather than rely on a fairly open piece of sponge. TBH on the road, under normal conditions I would be suprised if any kit car of any description pull enough lateral G to cause a problem with oil pick up, but obviously this will depend on the depth of sump used. Caterham sell these baffles for about £15 but it's a bloody expensive bit of foam IMO. I wont bother again!
NS Dev,
Incase you're putting ARP bolts in your vx (which most people do) the windage tray won't fit as the heads of the bolts are bigger than the
standard vx ones and foul it. From first hand experience, we didn't notice til the engine was fully assembled, then tried to figure out why the
crank didn't turn all the way round and went clunk at the bottom..
Ned.
Ahh, thanks for all the help. I did wonder about the foam, certainly from looking around on the web it seems that Caterham owners change it pretty
often. I was going to use fuel tank foam which should be resistant to the oil and has big open cell structure. It is also available pretty cheaply
from Rally Design.
Having said all that, having read the above concerns, adn considered my own concerns, I am thinking about just copying the Westy sump baffles (thanks
for the pics Ned)
Only other thing Ned, I use a Vauxhall XE 16v in my grasser (as you have probably seen in my photo archive) and on this I use ARP bolts with the
windage tray and had no problems? Did you use a sump gasket above and below it? If so then maybe there are different trays because I had no problem
there at all (although as you say the ARP bolts are a bit bigger at the head end.)
quote:
Only other thing Ned, I use a Vauxhall XE 16v in my grasser (as you have probably seen in my photo archive) and on this I use ARP bolts with the windage tray and had no problems? Did you use a sump gasket above and below it? If so then maybe there are different trays because I had no problem there at all (although as you say the ARP bolts are a bit bigger at the head end.)