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With owning various sports cars I would rather have the frame rails hitting speed bumps or objects in the road then the oil pan. There is nothing you can do once the black stuff is all over the pavement except get out the cell phone. Just my opinion.

I agree. It's kind of like the smoke in an electric motor. Once you let it out, you're done! Bump in hood is better than hole in pan!

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Dismantalus, Fabricatus, Assemblus.....
Certified Welder, Certified Welding Inspector, Full Time Car Freak...In New Jersey no less!

Hi Marcel,

The locost I purchased off Mark Tsui was set-up similar to your car. It used a Toyota 3TC engine. The 3TC engine was placed quite far forward. 2 differences though. The 3TC is an OHV engine, so it's not as tall. The lowest part of the oil pan was at the front of the motor, so it was very close to the front wheels. It hung at least 2"s below the chassis from memory, and I never had any issues.

2 stories of caution though. A fellow Islander did puncture his oil pan between Port Renfrew and Cowichan in his 7.....long walk. Another fellow I know cut and welded his sump to be much shallower and promptly seized the engine...

You can kinda see the sump hanging down in this picture....

Lots more photos in Mark's build log here: https://picasaweb.google.com/1039735894 ... arkSLocost

Funny, I'm dealing with the "low sump" ground clearance issue in my build, as we speak.

I'm using a Zetec & T-5, and both hang far too low, on one side only. I'm shooting for 4"-5" ground clearance, and I'm only at a hair more than 3" right now. Unfortunately, raising the engine (or the whole car) isn't practical, for a bunch of reasons, so I'm going to go the shortened-sump routine.

The Zetec has a wedge-shaped 2-piece pan (the upper portion is aluminum, the lower part steel) which is fine on the left side of the engine, but extremely low on the right. Thankfully, shortening the pan is reasonably well-documented and, in a fore/aft use like the Locost, there is plenty of room to restore the original oil capacity by adding a steel box to the front or rear of the oil pan.

The trickiest bit is the oil pickup pipe - the majority of North American-sourced Zetec engines have a plastic, one-piece pipe that, in all probability, can't be safely shortened (it looks kind of like a flattened saxophone). There is a metal alternative but, as I don't have one to compare, I'm not certain if it can be made to work.

There's also a section of the alloy upper pan that needs to be cut off, but it's non-functional so it's not a problem. Likewise, there's a "wing" on the bellhousing to match it, but it can be cut off too, sacrificing only one block-to-bellhousing bolt in the process (there are plenty already - I don't see this as a problem).

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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/

here is my solution to the oilpan and gearbox, done a couple of years ago

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"Make it a GREAT day"
Tony Chiles

there are more photos of a book build with a Miata drive train here
http://s91.photobucket.com/user/hpbugey ... t=3&page=1

the finished car

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"Make it a GREAT day"
Tony Chiles

Omg. So many options. I think you all identified all my fears about the setup I have. I totally agree that not having the pan below the rails makes the most sense. My original plan was based on the build "John's SV Clone" and I have attached two pics that guided my work. You will see that his pan sits the same height below the rails as mine. Looks to be about 3 inches base on the 2x4s under the frame. The fact that John was meticulous in every detail I am assuming this was not an oversight on his part either. I will contact him about this as well though to see f there have been any issues.

I think my next move will be to get some softer springs so that I get a more real life compression and then can see the clearance I will have. After that, raise the motor as much as a I can even if it means a small bulge/scoop of some sort. Moving the engine rearward is not practical I realized. The trans tunnel is too narrow and would require too much refabricating at this point. Sturdy skid plate with a few F1 sparks may be the way I have to go.

I have to admit though, I love this process. Makes it so much more worthwhile. As well, I am so thankful for this kind of support and advice.

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Marcel Q
Victoria BC Canada

Thats a nice looking frame so far.

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Trochu Motor League

Thanks Trochu. I hope you mine and not the photos I referenced of John's though. His work is more than exceptional.

So, I decided to get plan B or C ready. The ad went in locally today looking for a used NA oil pan that I can modify as hpbugeye did. It looks to gain about 1.5 inches so if all my other schemes do not work then I will have it ready to go. Plus it gives me reason to buy the gas needed to weld the aluminum.

Next on the list is getting the floor in place and finishing the scuttle and finishing off all the frame reinforcement. Any thoughts on floor thickness or weld vs rivet. I was thinking I would go with 16 gauge steel welded. I know its a bit heavy but will definitely keep things on the outside and not on my a*^.

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Marcel Q
Victoria BC Canada

Just a heads up, if you do the oil pan mod, you will need to shorten the pickup also.

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"Make it a GREAT day"
Tony Chiles

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:







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/

Love the steering wheel! Can you please post link to where you bought it from?

This is looking very nice. Keep up the good work!!

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Steve

My build : http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtop ... 35&t=17160

MGB/GT V8 5.0L. viewtopic.php?f=36&t=20782