Evening all,

I picked my sump up today from the welders, after I had them shorten and add wings to my standard Xflow oil pan.

As I forgot to give them my pickup pipe, I will need to sort this myself

Question is...

What clearance is required between the lower edge of the pickup to bottom of the sump.?

The obvious answer would be just remove the same amount from the pipe as the sump had removed, slight issue there - I have no clue how much they cut off the sump.

Cheers

Rich

I have always done it at 5mm less than the sump, some people recomend more but with cars like ours that can lead to oil starvation on hard cornering. HTH Ray

That does not sound a lot as you say, but can see your point regarding surge issues, before I attack it with a hacksaw, any advances on 5mm folks?

From memory I think the original pipe almost was as close as you mention, maybe someone with a standard one could confirm, the metal gauze almost sat on the sump I think. I will be removing this gauze , not to worried as I had then welder fit me a magnet type plug, also I do change the filter probably more often than is needed.

Been on google and found a document from Caterham, I know this refers to their own baffled sump fitment, but the same issues arise.

quote:

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Fitting instructions / Guidelines for Caterham wet sump baffle. These instructions are to ensure the unit functions correctly, due to the nature of the Caterham manufactured fabricated oil pickup pipe and wet sump pan combination (production tolerances). The oil pickup pipe is very close or in some cases touching the inside of the sump pan. This clearance must be set to 3 mm ( + - . 5 mm ) There are various ways of achieving this including :- 1) The end of the pickup can be filed / ground down. (take suitable precautions to prevent swarf entering pickup pipe etc, i.e. stuff with tissue or rag. 2) The sump pan can be machined internally (60mm square pocket) (To measure the clearance use plasticene etc.)

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To close and you will oil starve, hold the pickup 3mm from a flat serface and see how little there is for the oil to move past
I run 5 to 8mm
Don't remove the gauze, it caught the cork bits that fell off my gasket, no gauze and it ends up in the pump.
If your conserved about surge, add a windage plate and or some simple baffles.

I have sorted it now, the trouble is with all these figures is that no one has mentioned the distance from gauze to the bottom of the pipe inside it, so when folks say ' I run 5mm, 8mm, 10mm, etc, is that from the bottom of the gauze or bottom of the pipe itself?

Got it all sorted now, just awaiting the gaskets to arrive.

Rich.

I would suggest that at an absolute mininum you want the clearance to be such that the area of the gap is no less than the area of the oil pickup pipe bore.

Cheers

Fred W B

[Edited on 23/5/12 by Fred W B]

Odd you should say that, that is what I have done.

Some folks will not agree with that figure, but you cant fool fluid dynamics.