Dry Sump Oil Tank

[FormulaDIT]

I am more than likely going to be manufacturing an oil tank in house and I was hoping to get some feed back from people that have done it before. The pitfalls, what I should try and avoid etc... Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[FormulaDIT]

I am more than likely going to be manufacturing an oil tank in house and I was hoping to get some feed back from people that have done it before. The pitfalls, what I should try and avoid etc... Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[Dash]

I think holes should be avoided. Just an idea. Also, maybe make it fit in the car.

[Marschine]

Must not be square...

[Ben K]

Can hold oil for greater than 151.5 seconds.

[Dash]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Ben Kolodner:
Can hold oil for greater than 151.5 seconds. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>


Correction. about 2000 seconds. Can't forget about endurance!

[Wesley]

Considerations -

Volume. Will you have enough oil for your main bearings?

Aeration. Are you going to be pumping 5w-50 frappe into your main bearings?

Slosh. Are you going to be pumping nothing into your main bearings?

Packaging. Are you going to have room for your main bearings?

Accessories. Do you need bungs to figure out if you are coking your oil going to your main bearings? Do you need a bracket to keep the oil tank from flopping around like a crank with no main bearings? Can you fill the tank up or are you going to weld the top on after you fill it with oil? Main bearings?

[Drew Price]

Height of the tank installed in the car may or may not be important depending on your pump(s) configuration & location.

[FormulaDIT]

Thanks for the replys. I have a basic understanding of what is required. I am more interested about the interior of the tank. For example what type of air/oil serparators have people used and how have they implemented them.

[Rex Chan]

I'll start with the biggest issue we had with our dry sump oil tank: we made the sight tube too narrow, so it would sometimes fill with air pockets - not confidence building when checking to see if there is still oil in the tank to feed your pump. I noticed at the FSAE-A 2010 comp that Sophia Uni had a very large ID tube (about 8mm) as their sight tube.

We went with a very simple cylindrical tank, holding 1.5L of oil. We followed the Carroll Smith recommendations: lower solid conical baffle, and high perforated baffle, just below inlet from scavenge pump. We run a Dailey Engineering 2-stage pump, but with no oil-air separator (no space). The inlet is curved and enters at a tangent to the cylinder wall.

We have 2 holes at the top, for venting and filling. The oil looks fine, and our engine still works after 1 month pre-comp testing (13 actual track days), all events at comp, and several track days post-comp, including 2 hill climbs so far.

My advice for separating air from the oil would be to get a mechanical oil-air seperator from Dailey Engineering or similar, as they claim pure oil from the outlet above 3000RPM pump speed.

Pitfalls: the 2009 tank had issues with oil being forced out the vent hose, so we made the ID of the vent/breather very large (-10 hose). Remember that air AND oil comes out of the scavenge pump, and that air needs to vent to atmo, and will thus push out any oil in the breater line that can't fall back into the tank. The 09 breather had a small, upward facing hole, but as oil splashed into it, could NOT return into the tank, so was forced out into the catchcans. Our solution (not the best or correct) was to use a large hose stragight into the tank, where any oil splash can fall directly back down. Moral of the story: think very hard about where stuff goes.

Last small thing: don't use tiny nuts to secure the oil tank to your chassis, as 6mm and 7mm spanners are less common than 8mm spanners