Thread: Oil Pans

yeah sorry Ive been very busy. Ihavent even opened the box yet. Ill do that today and get you paid for shipping.

Uhhh, can we not clutter this guy's R&D thread?

bluebomber, I would take zer099's advice and talk to Kevin of Ishihara-Johnson about the oil pan design. Right now the community seems to want a solution to an apparent problem but no one seems to really have a good answer to the problem.
If it were me and I didn't want oil issues on an older DE I'd think about crank scrapers, oil pan baffles, a VE oil pump, an oil cooler, getting rid of the hump in the upper oil pan, etc.
As for the lower oil pan design (or maybe upper and lower?) I'm not exactly sure what would help and what wouldn't. I don't think many of us know what to recommend as a solution.

Kevin is apparently the guy I'd go to for advice. He seems to know what's going on better than us here. Be warned he's in the same business you are, so he might not be forthcoming with info. From the looks of his website though he doesn't seem to be against sharing good info.

Do all of the upper pans have the same mounting holes? As far as I know, all the FWD engines are the same. This is a question for Kevin though.
What capacity should we build them to? You have a lot of space constraints. There's hardly anywhere you can go without running into the front pulley on the left, the engine support in the middle, the passenger's side halfshaft in the back, the A/C components - fans - charge pipes up front and the ground/speed bumps below. You might be able to eek an extra quart of capacity out though, and I can't see that as a bad thing. Or you could do cooling fins, but again, there's not much space. Most of our cars are lowered an inch at least.
Placement for drain plugs? Stock placement or similar seems fine. At the back.
Turbo line taps? Unless people are too lazy or what ever to tap the block for a proper oil drain, I don't see this as a popular option.

Well if he is re-designing the whole pan from the upper flange on down, then he could incorporate it right below the quarter looking location that the factory uses. The problem comes into play when people are trying to drain the turbo into the lower oil pan. There's nothing wrong with the upper though.

I think I said this in a PM to you bluebomber, but if you can take the hinge/baffle idea from the RWD greddy style oil pans that would be a great way to keep the oil from draining out under high-g cornering loads.

Who knows how to get the pickup tube compatable so you can use the vvl oil pump on the DET?

email sent to Ishihara-Johnson

I would suggest adding magnectic oil drain plugs as an option. If you saw mine after the track day then you would understand. I am very intrested in a newer design oil pan.

hows the prototype coming?

In communication with kevin

I'm pretty sure you just need the VE pick-up tube to go with the VE oil pump. That's what Greg V. told me about the DE, and I assume it works just as well for the DETs.

getting closer ...