Novice Advice on Superlight R please

[Mark P.]

I am currently "trying" to buy a Superlight R and have narrowed down my search to one or two. However the spec varies a little between them. The cars are general 1999 models.

 

1. Do all Superlight R's come with a Watts Linkage ? Is it that important and would I notice the difference based upon 85% road and 15% track use.

 

2. Base dupon this level of track/road use, is a dry sump necessary or essential, and what does an anti cavitation tank do ? Again is it essential or recommended. Any idea the cost of a retro fit ?

 

Thanks for your help .....

[murph7355]

1) No. Only after a certain age do they come with this mod (2000 I think, maybe later) but it can be added later (at a cost that I don't know).

 

AFAIK it won't make a huge difference with your intended usage. In fact it might not regardless, unless you're very good.

 

2) Dry sump isn't essential but is advisable. Cost afterwards is circa 2k fitted or you could get an aftermarket one for about 700 less (or more, assuming it works! Watch this space).

 

An anti-cav tank is the minimum you should fit. Helps take the air out of the oil (a natural K phenomenon) and hence preserve engine life. Finger in the air estimate - anti-cav 40% better than nothing. Dry sump 200% better than an anti-cav.

 

Anti-cav is about 200 quid fitted afterwards.

[jonhill]

AFAIK SLRs have always had Watts Linkages. Simple solution - phone Caterham and ask them.

[V7 SLR]

All SLRs had Watts linkage, although owners of other types of Se7ens without the Watts don't notice.

 

Dry sump's essential. Watch Andy as he's pioneering a cheaper-than-Caterham's system which could be potentially better than Caterham's. I don't subscribe to the belief that an anti-cav tank is a suitable solution in place of a dry sump. It addresses a completely different issue, one that's not quite so immediately disatrous for your engine as oil surge.

[Slipper man]

I agree on both counts. I certainly thought that the Watts linkage was standard on all SLR's. No matter, though, because you won't notice the difference anyway (and even if you did, some racers remove the Watts linkage because they prefer the handling that way)

 

As far as dry sump is concerned, if the car is EVER to go on track, it MUST be dry sumped. You may learn an expensive lesson otherwise....

[Julian Thompson]

How can a dry sump be 40% better than no dry sump?

 

Either it blows up through lack of lubrication or it doesn't - there is no intermediatory position, surely?

 

Buy a dry sump and save yourself a possible £4000.......

 

Which is 100% a good idea!

 

 

 

 

 

(sorry - couldn't resist!)

[murph7355]

First up I was drunk when I wrote the original reply. So sorry about the Watts linkage piece. Genuine mistake. I'll now spend the rest of my days looking for that SLR sans WL! Still makes no odds.

 

Second up I never said 40% for the dry sump, that was the Apollo.

 

At the end of the day there are plenty of high powered Ks only running Apollos. And they're OK. It all depends on mode of use and how fast you drive it, so to say a DS is essential is not exactly true.

 

It is, however, definitely advisable if you're going to use the car to close to its potential.

[Morls]

What about the things for which I cannot recall a name.

 

They pump in stored oil from a pressurised resevoir when a pressure drop is detected.

 

Accusump?

 

An option?

 

Mark

[murph7355]

No they aren't.

 

If you're going to spend more money than an Apollo, then buy a dry sump.

 

There is a chap who has had a serious engine failure who had an Accusump. I don't believe he'll be using it again in preference to a dry sump.

 

If you search for "accusump" you'll find techie reasons for not using one.

[Peter Carmichael]

The Apollo air/oil separator (commonly described as an anti-cavitation tank) has been underrated in this thread.

 

The earliest SLR dry sumps used a purple pump and didn't have the characteristic conning tower - these caused a lot of blow ups with the first SLR race cars within three minutes of track running. None of the teams running Apollo tanks had failures.

 

The Apollo tank is much better than a poor dry sump system and has fewer points of failure.

 

The gold pump and conning tower eliminated this problem.

[dino ferrana]

SLR's all have the Anti-Cav. as standard I believe.

 

Dry sumping has more benefits than just protecting the engine it also release a couple of BHP I believe.

 

I agree with Peter Anti-cav. is good and does help to prevent damage from oil surge as the oil is taken from the anti-cav. tank all the time. when the pump is starved the tank ampties slightly (it holds two litres of oil). As soon as the oil is being picked up again the tank goes back to full.

 

Just having an extra two litres of oil in what is a relatively small oil system is of definate benefit in terms of oil temp as more oil means lower temps.

[Peter Carmichael]

More oil does not necessarily mean lower temps. The greater windage with an overfilled Apollo wet sump can give dangerously high temperatures. There is no significant extra surface area in the system to dissipate heat. The extra bulk means that the bulk temp buids up slower, but on track it is quite possible to get hugely elevated temperatures in a 20 minute session.

[dino ferrana]

I would have though the large aluminium tower would have dissipated some heat? Surely aluminium is know for its ability to dissipate heat hence ali rads? I know the effect would not be that huge but it would be there all the same. Surely having more oil mean that it would spend less time inside the engines and therefore get less hot?

[murph7355]

I don't think the oil stays in the tower that long. Isn't it a swirl tower so the oil spinds in it for a bit then drops into the tank.

 

The oil coming out of the engine will ultimately be the same temperature as the oil cooling system isn't much changed. In fact I wonder how much heat is generated around the bellhousing tank?

 

It might take longer to heat all the oil up, but eventually you'll just have more hot oil.