[Fot] Oil pan baffle design - help me think this through...

[Mark Eginton]

Steve's idea is an absolutely great idea.

I mocked up a few designs and if you forget the neighbors eyeballing you 
as you spin in the front yard with an oil pan spilling water everywhere, 
you immediately see what is going on. Its amazing, how quickly the pan 
evacuates in "left turns" with a static baffles I tried so far. I was 
able to see why an extra quart works in Tony's design.

Use a cardboard template covered with packing tape to keep the water out 
for a little while. Then use duct tape to hold it to the pan - works 
very well. A mapp gas torch drys the pan quickly between design changes.

Thanks to those that sent pics - I'll mock them up today.

Thanks again,

M

Gt6steve at aol.com wrote:
> My baffling did use trap doors to keep oil around the pickup.  Fill 
> your pan to a couple inches below static level with water and walk 
> around with it for a bit.  Run it low because you'll not have normal 
> level when running, a lot of it will be up in the engine.
>  
> Rolling the pan around will give you some idea what the oil is doing 
> on track.
>  
> In a message dated 3/28/2009 12:00:47 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, 
> markconsultation at twcny.rr.com writes:
>
>     Tony Drews wrote:
>     > Mark, I've run this design for a few years  (probably at least 5
>     if I
>     > think about it) and don't have starvation issues due to the
>     baffle.  I
>     > do still see oil pressure drop in the left hand corners if the
>     > engine's oil level is too low.  Adding a quart fixes that for a
>     while.
>     >
>     > It's possible that a more elaborate design would let me run a bit
>     > lower oil level.
>     >
>     > I don't remember the exact gap, but 1/2" sounds about right.  It
>     ended
>     > up this way because the car already had a portion of the baffle in
>     > there - we just added the piece that takes it full length of the
>     pan
>     > (and has the gap to the bottom).  That's the 2nd piece you mention.
>     >
>     > - Tony
>     >
>     >
>     So I'm out there playing with cardboard and my oil pan and I says to
>     myself - If I put this baffle at an angle following the line of
>     the hole
>     in the top of the oil plan like Tony and the TR Comp manual did;
>     wouldn't it want to funnel the oil "down hill" (assuming hard left
>     turn
>     side forces) backwards away from the pickup to the 1/2" relief on
>     a hard
>     left corner? Thats a good ramp and with a 1/2 to 1g force its easy to
>     picture oil moving very quickly.
>
>     So - would it be better to run the baffle parallel to the oil pan
>     instead of parallel to the pickup? I considered doing it in one or
>     two
>     steps to keep it close to the pickup.
>
>     The second idea would be to construct it the way Tony did but put a
>     couple of 1/4 to 1/2 inch vertical baffles on the face to inhibit the
>     "down hill" flow back where the screen necks down a bit and at the
>     bottom just before the 1/" relief.
>
>     At the end of the baffle where the welded on tab floats above the
>     bottom
>     1/2", do you think oil is moving toward the pickup due to
>     consumption or
>     away from it due to side forces assuming you are past the apex and
>     on it
>     hard?
>
>     Am I overthinking this???
>
>     M
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