Raceline Wet Sump

I have never been entirely happy with my sump installation.  In particular, the fact that there is no baffling, with the consequent risk of oil surge when driving hard.  When building the car I had changed the standard Zetec oil pressure switch for a lower (15psi) version.  This at least should give some advance warning of oil pressure problems, but by the time it illuminates permanent damage to the engine may already have occurred.

In 2012 I did have one trip to Brands Hatch and one to Curborough Sprint Circuit.  While I had no oil pressure issues on these two occasions I started to think that I'd be pushing my luck with the three track sessions that I have booked this Spring.

So I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade to the Raceline wet sump.  This is very highly rated by those that use it.  It is even used on many race cars.  Most racers considering it to be good enough that at upgrade to a full dry sump installation is not even necessary.

The old sump was removed without any major problems.  Then it was time to start preparing the Raceline sump ready for installation.

Here is the main pan.  It is a very nice piece of engineering and you can see where the effort has been spent on the design, the casting and the machining.

Here is the Ford windage tray, Raceline windage tray and oil pick up pipe, etc.

First the oil pick up pipe is installed, with two rubber o-rings to make a seal into the main pan.  A metal filter gauze is inserted into this pipe from the outside of the sump.  This can be removed and cleaned at oil changes, if required.

Next the Raceline windage tray is bolted into place.  This windage tray is one of the methods used to control oil surge.

After that the Ford windage tray is bolted to the Raceline windage tray.  The Ford windage tray is designed to 'scrape' oil of the crank and con-rods.  Helping the oil to fall to the bottom of the sump and not be whipped up into the main engine block.

Standard Zetec Silvertop sump gasket fitted along with oil drain plug and gauze filter plug.  There is a double top hat spacer with rubber o-rings fitted that makes the oil seal between the sump pan and the engine oil pump.

The sump itself fits very well.  The main issue, and one which consumed a lot of time, was getting access to all the sump bolts.  Many are hidden by things like the starter motor, engine mounts, etc.

The old Tiger ERA sump was higher than the gearbox bellhousing.  The Raceline sump is level with the bellhousing.  The previous sump had around 100mm of ground clearance, but unfortutately the Raceline sump only has about 65mm.  This is too little, especially as the car is used a lot on country lanes, where there is often a raised centre to the road.  So the springs on the front dampers were wound up by 20mm.  Due to the geometry of the wishbones this translates to an increase in ride height of about 35mm, i.e. back to around  100mm under the sump.  Result.  I will take a look at the rear ride height as soon as I can and get the car leveled again.

Before running the engine for the first time I removed the plugs and rotated the engine by hand (socket set on crankshaft pulley).  I wanted to make sure that the Ford windage tray was not fouling the crankshaft or con-rods.  Next, I took the spark plugs out and cranked over the engine until the oil pressure light went out.  Once this was done it was time to fire up the engine and go for a test drive.  I'm happy to report that so far all appears to be working fine and there are no leaks.  Roll on the good weather and some track time!

Engine Start

I finally ran out of excuses not to start the engine.  So with a full tank of fuel and a fire extinguisher ready it was time to turn the key.  Unfortunately the battery died before it properly fired.  There is not enough power in the small race battery for extended cranking, so an hour's top up battery charge was needed.

Attempt number two, and she started straight away!  Here is the video:

I had hoped for a longer recording, capturing me driving very slowly backwards and forwards, but the video camera battery died prematurely too!

You can see smoke coming off the exhaust headers.  This cleared after a minute or so.  The engine was run until the fan cut in, at about 84oC, on the lower setting.  I'll try it again later on the higher setting.

There a couple of issues to sort out:

1.  The alternator (new from Tiger) is not charging.  I'll need to investigate this one.
2.  The high temperature silicon sealant holding the silencer to the collector partly melted and exhaust gases were seen escaping.  Hopefully it is just settling into its rest position and a re-application should keep a good seal.

Overall though I am really pleased.  Now I can get on with finishing the bonnet fitment (joyless task) and then concentrate on fitting the interior trim and seats.

Raising the Height of the Engine

Tried to fit the air filters on to the throttle bodies.  The rear filter fits, but the front filter fouls on the upper chassis rail.

A 5mm space plate was inserted between the engine mount rubber and the chassis.  There is now 2 or 3mm clearance.  Should be enough as the engine shouldn't rock much with the firmer rubbers.

Engine and Gearbox Fitted

Engine and gearbox being fitted.  Wooden blocks used in place of the engine rubbers to find the right position for drilling the holes.  Despite checking and re-checking the engine and gearbox did end up a little further back than planned.  Possibly due to the fact that one of the Tiger engine mounts does not sit flat with the plate on the chassis.  When the engine rubber is in place this is squashed on one side to take up the difference.

Final result seems okay, there is some small amount of the propshaft splined tube showing outside of the rear of the gearbox, just not as much as expected.  In a way this might be helpful.  It will mean that the Rally Design gear lever remote ends up just that little bit futher towards the rear of the car - every bit counts here as the gear lever gets very close to the dashboard when this particular remote is used in the Avon.

Drilling the bolt holes for the gearbox mount was a bit of a challenge - getting the drill down inside the transmission tunnel, especially as I had already fixed one side to the chassis.  The solution was to use an oversize hole at the top and then drill a correct size hole at the bottom, by drilling down at an angle.

 Thanks to Pete for loan of the engine crane and Gary for help with the fitting, including use of his Avon as a reference for measurements.

Joining the Engine and Gearbox

New clutch release bearing fitted to the clutch fork.  Lubrication applied as instructed in the clutch kit.

Engine and gearbox fitted together.  New cap head bolts, thread locked and torqued up to the correct amount.

With the Tiger ERA sump fitted the gearbox mounting holes in the lower crank case are no longer present.  Only the upper five bolt holes can be used.  Two dowels are still available to ensure gearbox alignment.  Next job is to crane the engine into the rolling chassis and make good the engine mounts.