I have been following your article on the forum on converting the 131TC sump and am applying the same principles to the sump on my FIRE engine.
The reasons for the conversion are two fold:
The first is that I plan to do some track days this year and want to make sure that the small fortune I have just spent re-boring, balancing and re-building my engine is not wasted by oil surge/starvation in the standard – designed for transverse application – un-baffled sump.
The second is that as the engine is mounted in the rear of the car, the deepest part of the sump is the furthest back (see pic) and well away from the axle which makes it very venerable to speed humps and ramps.
So in short I am trying to gain some control over the oil flow in the sump and in the process hope to gain some extra ground clearance .
I have cut up an old sump (have yet to set everything up at the correct angle) and am mocking-up the size and shape and depth of the wings and windage tray in cardboard before I cut any metal (4mm base 1.5 for the rest) but I have a I have a couple of questions that if answered will help me to progress the project. The existing alloy oil pick-up extends into the center of the sump, if I shorten it, it will result in the head of the pick-up being positioned in the far corner of the sump rather than central, is this OK or, do you think it would be better to fabricate a new one in steel (find a steel gauzed head from another car) with a swan necked pipe that brings the head closer to the center again. I have tried to do a quick sketch over a photo to illustrate.
In the pictures of your 131TC sump the windage tray has sides that extend down almost to the base, what sort of gap should be left between the bottom of the sides and the base of the sump? Do you weld these to the base at any point or just to the top plate of the tray? I have only seen these without sides before.
Should the sump be fitted with a breather (if so where is the best place and should it go into the catch tank or have its own breather filter), there was an article in Retro Cars a few years ago on tuning the FIRE engine that suggested that it helps to reduce pressure and limit the amount of oil being blown past the rings in a high revving engine, I don't know the specialist that gave the advice so thought I would solicit your opinion.
I know you have recently done a FIRE sump for Huw for his 750mc racer, are there any peculiarities you came across when working on this one?
Any help would be much appreciated
I hope you are keeping well
Nigel
![Image](http://www.retro500.com/random/rear.jpg)
![Image](http://www.retro500.com/random/pick-up.jpg)