oil pressure dropping to 0psi

[ford396]

Dyno:

You bring up some very valid points. I am wondering if my fill level is too low. Should I attempt to check it while running?

The pump is on the left side of the bell housing w/a an16 line.

Unfortunately, while on the chassis dyno, we only performed power pulls. No on track simulation.

I talked with Moroso again today. They are reworking the pickup in the pan. I will then try again. It may be a simple issue of not enough oil in the pan as you mention. If so, I will feel the fool.

[ford396]

Just an update. I installed the revamped pan from Moroso and no more oil pressure problems. The pan is the only thing that I changed, so I guess I know where the problem lied. No for some chassis tuning

[dynoman14]

Make sure you make about 10 consecutive acceeration pulls from about 3500-7500 and watch the oil pressure during those runs. Even though the car is not sitting on an angle like banking it will give you some real good information on how the drain back effects are working.

What did they do to the pick-up and location in the pan?

[ford396]

They took the 1'' pipe and reduced it to 3/4", then installed it through the side of a 1 1/2" x 2" box. The pipe no longer terminates at the side of the box, but rather has the end cut at an angle and protrudes to3/8" from the floor of the pan and forms the pickup. The box is suspended from the top and is open all the way around to allow oil entry. It is aprox. 1/4" from the floor of the pan and serves more as a baffle than a pickup now. It seems to be working fine and holding solid pressure on the track.

[Egoracing]

Even though the car is not sitting on an angle like banking it will give you some real good information on how the drain back effects are working.

If you ever studied oil flow in an engine you would know that the oil would only notice the banking of a track under idle, NEVER under power. The G forces of the cornering keep it in the right side of the pan, NOT even to mention that an engine in a DLM or Mod even on a banked track is almost level for most of the corner with the left side lift and right side compression that cars are running.

[dynoman14]

Thank you so much for that insight I would have never figured that out on my own...

What do you suppose happens when the car is rolling around the track at 20mph for the 5 pace laps before a race or the slow laps that occur under caution.

What do you think happens to the oil when the car decelerates under 2-3g load in a straight line before it goes into the corner???

On a late model with debris screens in all the drain backs it takes almost 2-3 extra quarts to compensate for the additional time it takes for drainback as I did that test about 15 years ago with a home made lexan oil pan.

Just trying to help a fellow racer out with a couple things that worked for me thru the years.

[ford396]

I mean no disrespect to either one of you as I have never met you guys. But, why does everything have to turn into a pissing match between you?

For what it is worth; the car is an asphalt limited late model that does have some hard G-forces in the corner. It does not roll much though due to big bar soft spring setup.

[dynoman14]

Ford,
No dis-respect taken, I don't think I said anything in my posts to you to generate a negative reply from anybody on here.

I was trying to relate to you a similar problem I saw with a couple Ford pavement engines that I was looking after for Jack Cornett. Curtis Gattis out of Arkansas and Tom Hardy from Jefferson, GA.

One was a dry sump and one was a wet sump and they both had similar problems.

The dry sump issue was resolved by sealing the lifter valley and vacuuming out the oil with a pick-up stage.

The wet-sump problem was solved by constructing conical screens with the points upward for drain back. With 1 1/2" of vertical cone base about the diameter of a 50c piece there was no back up of oil flow.

Happy to hear you resolved the problem with the pick-up and pan fix.