The engine is using about 10% less fuel.  I've filled up 4 times now, and each time, it takes about 10% less gas than expected.  And that is city, hwy might be a little better.  That's a plus.


Lawrenceville, GA

It looks like the inlet tube seal was the problem.  It looks like there is a manufacturing defect in the metal bushings of the Fel Pro seal because both halves have identical problems in the exact same position.  It's hard to notice unless you look close and hold it at the right angle.  I replaced it with an all rubber Best Gasket seal.  The Best Gasket seal has a smaller inner diameter than the Fel Pro seal, about 1/32" smaller so it also fits the tubing better right from the start.  I have another Fel Pro seal from a gasket set I bought about 15 years ago, to verify that this aspect is not just another defect.  The Best seal is actually a little smaller than the tubing and the Fel Pro seal is about the same amount larger.

The engine is ready to get back to the track to see if the high rpm part is fixed and hopefully get my best time slip, yet.
The engine seems less cold-natured, though it wasn't too bad before, and the mid range does feel more responsive.  It'll be nice if those aren't my imagination.  Won't really have a way to tell, though.





Lawrenceville, GA

Pickup clearance is good. I was very careful about that, checking with all of the actual parts being used when tacking together and once more after welding was completed.

I used Permatex Hylomar HPF on the grommet. It's a very tacky, non drying sealant. It is the Fel-Pro grommet, which I know you are not fond of. Trying a different bushing will be far easier than removing the pan. So I can do that. The grommet I was using is Melling, which is very much like Best Gasket so that is something else that has changed since the tear down.


Lawrenceville, GA

Charlie.  Two things come to mind regarding the lower cold oil pressure.  Your windage tray design is neither of these.
 
First is insure you have at least a ¼” clearance between the oil pickup and the bottom of the pan. Based on your pictures, the target clearance was good.  Whether that happened on the final version is something you’ll have to determine.
 
Second is the rubber grommet at the inlet of the oil pump.  Any air sucking in right there will have an adverse effect on both the cold and hot oil pressure.  Packing the outside of the rubber seal with white grease (my cure for almost everything) during the inlet tube installation helps with the seal at that junction.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

I can move the tray about 1/8" farther from where it is.  I can try that to see what happens.  I can't tilt it much since I did not design it for that.

The scraper you describe sounds like a down-stroke scraper.  It would go on the opposite side.  I wanted to try that but I don't have any good way to bend the 11 gauge steel (.105")


Lawrenceville, GA

Charlie,
You may need to increase the gap between the windage tray and the scrapper.  I can't tell from the pictures if you can tilt the windage tray or not to provide mor room for the oil from the scrapper to retun.  You may need to cut the windage tray back some.  The scrapers I have designed in the past mounted on a window frame (like the one you had water jet cut) on the side of the facing the cylinder bores and angled up away from the windage tray towards the crank centerline. I had series of slots cut in the window frame to allow the oil from scrappers to flow directly back to the pan.  So my windage tray design was mounted short of these openings. Also mine were done for a dry sump system and the pan was only about 3 1/2" tall.
Bob

Well, it looks like I am on the right track.  Hot pressure seems to be about 5psi better throughout the range, with no strange behavior for street use.  Cold pressure, on the other hand has gotten worse.  Max is about 40psi and it gets worse as the ambient temperature drops.  This is a new issue as there was never any problem with cold pressure before and it would always reach the bypass pressure of about 80psi.  I can see bubbles in the oil on the dipstick when this occurs.  Once the coolant temperature gauge starts to register a temperature, pressure looks great.  When I say "starts to register a temperature," the gauge starts at 100 degrees so right about when the gauge moves off the 100 mark is what I mean.  I've checked the easy stuff, inlet tube nut, pump bolts, oil level and those seem good.
Even though the pressure is good hot, there is evidence of aeration even then, but it is much less severe.  Unfortunately, I never had a proper dipstick and tube for the rear sump before, so I can't know if that is any different.

I think the problem has to do with the windage tray and the way I designed it for use with the scraper.  They sort of overlap on the business side of the scraper, with only about 3/8" of clearance between the tray and scraper.  So oil that the scraper has removed does not really have an effective way to drain and the problem is compounded by the cooler, thicker oil.  The tray is more or less U shaped and I think a more J shaped tray with a little more room between the pan wall might be better.  I think I'll remove the tray all together to see if it improves.  If it does, then it is back to the drawing board with that.



Lawrenceville, GA

I made the new pickup, to get around the windage tray stud and finally got it all installed this past weekend.

It's looking promising.  The flutter around 2300 rpm seems to be gone.  The slight increase of pressure when letting off the throttle is still there.  I'll switch back to 20w50 and see if that takes care of that but I'll need to find out what is going on there.  I bought all of the proper measuring devices, so no more plastigauge for me.  I won't find out about the high rpm aspect until I can get back to the track but I'm optimistic.
I'm going to put my action cam in the truck, focused on the gauges, to record a drive to work, so I can focus on the road and watch later, in order to give full attention to what is happening with the pressure and verify that things are good, at least for street use.  If that remains good, then I will be ready to get back to the track.

The Moroso oil pan fell through, so no aftermarket oil pans at this time.









A 5/16" bolt (1/2" head) for scale.
The factory rear positioned pickup has about 1/2" to 1" of clearance between the pan.  The reason has to do with the shape of the pan floor and the large pickup diameter.  So while the positioning is better with the rear positioned pickup, clearance will never be ideal.  It can be made better, but not ideal.



This is in about the same position as the rear-positioned factory pickup.  That was just by chance, really.  I followed the instructions for the positioning of the pickup box and that's where it ended up.





Lawrenceville, GA

Definitely not for one off items.  The windage tray took 18 hours from cutting out templates to the final product.  That's not including the time getting measurements and making the CAD drawings.
The scraper was cut by water jet so not much labor.  Much cost for only 1, though.  A small run of scrapers might be reasonably affordable.



Lawrenceville, GA

Lucky these things are a labour of love because you wouldn't want to be making money from them.