stickmantijuana

iTrader: (1)

I have 20b assembled with 12A front housing which I'm using as an anchor point for engine mounting. I have a custom made flat oil pan with baffles that's giving me low oil pressure sporadically.

It looks like I will be redoing my alternator and a/c mounting. I am thinking of doing dry sump while I'm at it using one of these used "nascar" dry sump pumps on ebay. Has anyone done this with 20b? Mazdaspeed dry sump front housing isn't a good option for me because I'm using my 12A front housing to mount the engine.

Here's my plan... I would appreciate some guidance.
1. mount a small external reservoir BELOW the engine
2. connect oil line from the reservoir to the dry sump pump
3. sump pump will pump to the oil pedestal via filter
4. make a hole at the bottom of the oil pan and let oil drain by gravity into the external reservoir.

my questions are... do you think this will work reliably? do I need to remove the stock oil pump? and has this been done before?

stickmantijuana

iTrader: (1)

I understand this will make an "open loop" system using oil pan as a dumping ground. If possible, I would appreciate it if someone could tell me how I could make this into a closed loop system.

madbouncy

If you're still intending to keep the oil underneath the engine, why not just run a larger capacity oil pan with some baffling? I'm not really sure what you mean by a flat oil pan but you might as well run as much oil in the pan as space will allow.

Also, it be a lot easier to feed the oil into the same place the stock pickup uses instead of trying to reroute the path the oil takes and allow the stock pump to do the work. Otherwise if you're going to use an external pump in place of stock, you would probably want to tap just after the stock oil pump and then seal off the path from the stock pump.

Post a link up of the pump you're using as well, generally any nascar style pump should have quite a few inputs and just two outputs. If that's the case you should be using a reservoir anywhere you want and just modify your oil pan to accept the inputs, then one output to the reservoir. There should also be a seperate in and out on the pump that will draw from the reservoir and then that out will be the feed for your engine.

stickmantijuana

iTrader: (1)

It's installed in an RX8. Due to space restrictions, the oil pan is flat with baffles to keep the oil in the center of the pan where the pick-up is. I can't go larger because the pan is already almost flush with the subframe's bottom. I was hoping I can get this one just with the front housing off without rebuilding the engine. Oil pressure isn't too bad. It's 60psi at the minimum. But when I'm braking hard or accelerating out of a turn, when it should read >100psi, it occassionally dips to around 80-90psi.

stickmantijuana

iTrader: (1)

I see what you mean. You're saying to run the external pump as a sump pump for the stock oil pump to work in series? That sounds doable. My oil capacity is already pretty good--about 9qt's with my pan, I just think that my sump sucks or the baffles aren't too efficient.

madbouncy

You don't really want to run your two pumps in series unless you have a buffer between. Otherwise if you feed the high pressure side of the external pump to the low pressure side of the stock pump it'll really mess with your pressures. Generally the main part of the dry sump is to supply a permanent source of oil to your pickup for the engine. You can use an electric oil pump to supply your engine and replace your stock pump but it's not really needed in your case if your stock oil pump is keeping up with demands just fine. What you could do is remove the stock pickup tube and use an AN hose to run it outside the oil pan and then that will be the very bottom of your reservoir. The external pump would then just be used to move oil from the pan to your reservoir.

Any chance you want to post some pictures of your baffle? Also if you actually have more oil capacity than you need, you could make a small chamber at the bottom of the oil pan instead of a flat one. But you would have to raise the rest of the oil pan since you can't bring it down any further. Here's an example of the type of baffling I prefer opposed to a lot of people who consider baffling to be the final sheet he puts on top and that's all they do.

Triple-R: Engine Rebuild - GZ Aluminum Oil Pan

stickmantijuana

iTrader: (1)

It's a flap door baffle. It just doesn't keep the oil "centered" in between the flaps where the sump tube is. I think there's too much clearance between the flaps and the oil pan walls.

madbouncy

How much clearance is there between the floor and baffle? Are you running a top plate over the baffles?

stickmantijuana

iTrader: (1)

no top plate. Clearance from the floor to the baffle is about 3mm

stickmantijuana

iTrader: (1)

Should I weld up a wall and keep the flap doors very small (like 1" hole)? If you think this design would work with some modifications, I would give this another shot. The limitation I see is the pan depth, which is reason why I wanted to go with a separate sump pump to an external reservoir which would feed the stock oil pump.

madbouncy

3mm doesn't sound like much but since its so wide it might be. I would run a top plate to make sure oil doesn't slosh over your baffle as well. If your engine is okay on blowby you can put some more oil in as well. For motorcycle engines we were able to get away with just a top baffle plate and running another quart of oil.

Dry sump would definitely give you a better garuntee but I think if you're going to do it you should lower the engine as well to really take advantage of it.