For those of us working with Zetec engines, I just shortened my pan today. I got 1.5" out of it, which takes me from a paltry 3" of ground clearance to a respectable (well, usable) 4 1/2". Thankfully, I have a spare engine, mounted inverted on my engine stand, which makes working on the pan a breeze. Once I've finished the pan, I'll install it on the engine in my Locost when I pull the engine in preparation for frame painting.
Interestingly, I was able to still use the original plastic oil pickup tube! As it happens, the Zetec pickup tube has a screen (of course), plus a kind of flattened conical "snorkel" below that. The snorkel can be shortened over 1.5", while still maintaining the integrity of the pickup, screen, screen holder, etc. In my case, I've left clearance of about 2 mm. between the bottom of the pickup and the bottom of the pan itself, so even very low oil volume in the pan (say, during hard cornering or braking) should still keep the snout of the pickup submerged in oil.
The bottom of the pan (not yet welded closed) is now parallel with the ground when the engine is level in the frame (the pan used to hang down 1 1/2" lower on the right side than the left - presumably, the engine was tilted in the Focus...? Setting up a jig to accurately mark the cut line was a fun task, as the pan had to be mounted on a 13.8 degree angle so I could mark around the perimeter (I screwed it down onto a piece of plywood, then used wedges to prop the plywood up at the correct angle), then made a jig to hold a silver Sharpie, that I could use to circumnavigate the pan. Worked great! I cut the pan with my 4 1/2" angle grinder & .5 mm cutting disc, which made short work of it. I used the grinder to cut the snout on the pickup tube, too.
I calculated that shortening the pan removed a tad under .5 liters from the pan's total volume. To be safe, I've fabricated a steel "box" that extends the deepest portion of the pan rearward, increasing its total volume by over 1 liter. So, in total, I'm up .5 liters over stock. While I haven't checked the dipstick for clearance yet (my spare engine doesn't have one), I don't think it will be a problem, as it goes into the left side of the pan, where it was only shortened by maybe 1 mm.
I'll be making a single-piece bottom for the pan, covering the cut area + the extension area. I'll be drilling several holes to allow the oil to flow to & from the extension, and provide some baffling as a bonus (it didn't have any originally).
To be on the safe side, I'm going to have a local specialty welder TIG weld it for me, after I tack it all together with my MIG. It's not that I don't trust my welds, but rather that I believe there will be less chance of a leak with TIG, and besides...TIG welds is purty!!
Here's a couple of pics of it in-progress:
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I suppose I should post this in the Zetec Engine How-to section as well...
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Scratch building, at continental-drift speed, a custom McSoreley-design framed, dual-Weber 45DCOE carburated, Zetec-engined, ridiculously fast money pit.
http://zetec7.webs.com/