Paul Bowden Posted February 6, 2002 Share Posted February 6, 2002 Second question of the day. Apart from the cost and more capacity when changing oil, is there a downside to Dry sump. I fancy this option on my soon to be ordered SL, but not if there is a problem or as the title says a downside. Any comment please plus or minus would be welcome. Cheers Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Carmichael Posted February 6, 2002 Share Posted February 6, 2002 The capacity is much the same, if not less. The extra complexity of a belt driven scavenge pump gives a possible mode of failure. It is easy to add an early warning sender to spot the belt falling off and you still have a few seconds from this point until catastrophe when the tank runs dry. It weighs a few kilos more than not having it. If you don't check the oil level and you let the oil level get low (and I mean really negligently low), the tank will run completely dry - a wet sump will give you some soft warning of impending emptiness with oil surge and intermittent oil pressure; the dry sump will just run dry - BANG. But that won't happen, will it. Extra plumbing to fit a catch tank and it will need to be sealed and vented to ground otherwise you will get condensed oil vapour all over everything. That's about it really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simos Posted February 6, 2002 Share Posted February 6, 2002 Some dry sump installations put the sump where the end of the passenger footwell is (like mine) losing about 3". Alex's Vx(and the Capt ?) have a tank amidships where the heater would be thus keeping a long footwell. As you're a K I believe you also have the option of the tank in the bellhousing but I will leave other to confirm this. Basically worth checking as losing some footwell is a definate downside if it can be avoided. That said a big tall catch tank gives you a nice feeling that you'll always have de-aerated oil no matter how fast or on what track you're driving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Bowden Posted February 6, 2002 Author Share Posted February 6, 2002 Thanks, Peter, are you saying I need to fit extra components over and above those Caterham will supply should I go for this option. I know a catch tank isn't much but , if it is extra what is caterhams view, do they believe one is not needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miraz Posted February 6, 2002 Share Posted February 6, 2002 Caterham do supply a catch tank, although it is not the most elegant thing. I fitted a Moroso tank with a filtered breather and drain tap for about £40 - it's a lot cheaper to get the dry sump with the car, than retrofit it later. Miraz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Carmichael Posted February 6, 2002 Share Posted February 6, 2002 Simos has described something as a catch tank that isn't a catch tank. The top of any dry sump tank has to deaerate the scavenged oil. The Caterham setup does this with the conning tower. Other tanks have baffle plates. The Caterham arrangement is not the best for deaeration and oil capacity but it is a neat installation as Simos mentions. Keeping the footwell is one of my non-negotiable requirements. The extra components for the belt sensor are... - a £1.40 door courtesy light switch - a bit of wiring - a bracket made from a bit of ally Total cost of about 4 quid for peace of mind. Most owners don't bother and I have only really heard of a small number of R500s (ie. 9000 rpm) that have had belts fall off. Caterham supply a catch tank but it isn't very good. Miraz's suggestion sounds good. I have gone with Rally Design which is probably similar, but I had to custom mount it because it was too tall for the scuttle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miraz Posted February 6, 2002 Share Posted February 6, 2002 Mine's too big for the scuttle too - so I bolted it onto the end of the driver's footwell. I've rigged up an early warning system with some bits from an old deep fryer unit - there is a float on a pole connected to a switch inside the tank - if the oil level drops for any reason, then the float sinks and the warning light comes on. The other thing that you might want to do is fit a drain plug to the bottom of the sump tank as the standard bottom plate does not have one fitted to it. All these things are very entertaining, but not really necessary - and besides they will give you things to fiddle with when the weather is crap. Miraz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted February 6, 2002 Share Posted February 6, 2002 Demon Tweeks are selling a nice made alloy catch-tank in various sizes and colours, made by mocal. Dave Kimberly sent me one (thanks for that again) and I´m really happy with it. Looks neat, works well and can be equipped with aeroquip-fasteners. Marius Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Green Posted February 6, 2002 Share Posted February 6, 2002 Peter, What triggers the switch ? Do you have a piccy anywhere ? Let me re-phrase that: Presumably this is on the self-tensioning pulley. Therefore it would be on part of the pulley mechanism that would cause the switch to close if the belt breaks. Perhaps I'll just run off and have a look now... Cheers, Nick. Edited by - nick green on 6 Feb 2002 17:40:39 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simos Posted February 7, 2002 Share Posted February 7, 2002 Peter, you're right I mixed words all over the place - in too much of a hurry. You explained better the point I was trying to make about the different available drysump system all having different trade offs. Now Paul is aware he can decide what he wants or at least ask the right questions of Caterham etc. Knowing what to ask is half the battle. Cheers, Simon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Animal Posted February 13, 2002 Share Posted February 13, 2002 the only down side i've found is not being able to keep the oil hot enough. I'm about to make the tank a body warmer. hopefully that'll help keep the temperature up. Spec Sheet for the Shed http://64.119.165.47/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4473 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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