K Series Dry Sump

[Skorn]

I am looking for a bit of advice.  I want to dry sump my 1.8 K Series SV, and have been weighing up my options.  Availability on the official caterham parts seems a bit patchy, but Pace have said the can provide a kit no problem.  They do not provide a tank with their kit, but recommend purchasing one of their easy clean tanks as well.

 

I guess my questions are three fold.

 

Do people who own a pace dry sump system like it?

Is it particularly hard to install (I'm relatively handy, but don't work with engines much)

Will the easy clean tank fit in my SV (and if so, which size)

 

There are quite a few threads about this on the forum, but most are quite old now, and given that the official parts are getting harder to come by I was wondering if people's opinions on the system have changed.

[revilla]

I recently purchased a Pace system (from the new owners, Neil Brown Engineering). We had a few issues.

The first is that there was a backlog on getting the sump pan themselves produced. I think there was an issue over locating the CAD files! They did eventually supply the sump, but there was a problem with it. The rear edge of the sump was machined something 1.5mm too long and so the sump would not fit the engine with the bell housing in place. Luckily the guy who it was going to had his own CNC mill and was able to machine the required amount off. I think this problem has been fed back to NBE so hopefully they are now able to supply them corectly machined.

The second was that older Pace pumps had a large rectangular section through which the engine mount bolts passed, and integral to that was a flange that sat against the block and supported the pump, preventing it flexing and bending the engine mount bolts. On some later Pace pumps I've seen this as a separate plate that provided a flat face to mount the pump. On the one we got, it was missing entirely and when we spoke to NBE they initially denied that it ever existed. However, without it a) the pump was not adequately supported and b) the pump sat something like 7mm closer to block, the engine mount design was not changed and so the engine mounting did not attend far enough to reach the mounting rubber. Oddly they supplied the correct belt for the new pump position. To fix this required a plate making up and a longer belt. We measured up the plate and the guy taking the engine was going to get one fabricated. I'm not sure where he's got to with that yet.

Hopefully all of this has been taken on board by NBE but if you do buy a new Pace system you need to check carefully. If you want I can probably give you the contact details of the chap but I'd need to check with him first.

[oilyhands]

I have installed half a dozen Pace systems, technically it is an excellent system with dual scavenge pumps and external pressure pump. In the detail there are a number of shortcomings with the fit and dimensions, these have been reported back to NBE a number of times by me as long as 5 years ago but it seems that not too many have been addressed.

I have a copy of the list of snags somewhere that I can forward, the most a significant being alignment of the sump and it's rear overhang together with fouling of the internal form on the oil rail, particularly when the uprated rail is used.

If you are retro fitting then its worth noting that the oil pump needs to be removed, decomissioned (by taking out the inner rotor) and refitted as part of the install.

Oily

[revilla]

Dave, your comments remind me there was one other issue. Although we didn't find the sump fouling the oil rail itself, it did foul the ends of the head bolts. We had to grind the protruding conical tips off some of the bolts in situ to get the sump to sit flat to the block.

Mankee (former member) has a Pace sump and on his engine we had to do exactly the same.

The Caterham dry sump actually has some drillings in the bottom, aligned with the head bolts to give clearance. The Pace sump really needs these as it stands but doesn't have them.

[Skorn]

Thanks for all the pointers chaps. I will probably have to get the kit professionally installed as I don't have the experience or equipment to be doing any fabricating. Here was me hoping that as the provide a "kit" that it would all bolt on without too much hassle...

[7 wonders of the world]

I ran Pace back in 2006, fitted no problem at all, clearly some of the intellectual property went with some people when it was sold.... I used the uprated rail on my engine