diffs, anti-cavitation tanks and oil pressure

[charlie_pank]

I've had a quick look through the forum but I haven't found the answers to some relatively simple questions so here goes:

 

1. My diff tends to clunk as it takes up the "slack" is this ok?

2. Can someone please explain to me in words with few syllables what an anti cavitation tank does

3. As I have an anti-cav tank in a 1.6K what should I see the oil pressure doing? - It almost touches the red on idle but seems fine when revving/moving

 

Sorry for the simplicity of my questions, I have a reasonable knowledge of 4 wheeled things, but am new to the 3 topics above!

 

Thanks

 

Kermit the frog (when you see Y68 YBP you'll understand)

[murph7355]

1) Yes.

 

2) It takes air bubbles out of the oil by draining it through a tall tower with baffles in it. This helps prevent your bearings being lubricated by air, which is a good thing.

 

3) Good oil pressure is typically 4bar under load and 2bar-ish at idle, both hot (it'll be higher when cold in all likelihood). BUT gauges are notoriously inaccurate. Yours seems to be in the right sort of range, what you need to keep an eye on is whether it changes over time (i.e. suddenly gets a lot lower etc).

 

 

[charlie_pank]

Thanks very much Andy, these answers make me very happy, I though I'd bought a fantastic car - it certainly feels like one. You have told me the things I thought might need attention do not :)

 

Kermit the frog (when you see Y68 YBP you'll understand)

[Peter Carmichael]

Apollo tank doesn't have any baffles in it. Oil/air is swirled through it from top to bottom. Oil spins to outside, air floats to top and exits through a bleed to the cam cover. Even in surge conditions the engine sees a de-aerated supply of oil.

 

*thumbup*253 bhp, up and running *thumbup*New boingy bits

[scooby dooby doo]

On this topic then... how much oil should be in the apollo tank?

 

When mine was hot I stopped the engine and undid the top oil pipe (the 3/4" or so diameter one that plugs into the side of the tank near the top) and oil came out of it. I thought the tank was half to 3/4 full so that there was an air space in the top....

 

Would it have drained into the sump if left longer?

 

top tip: if you do undo the little breather on top (to see if it all drains into the sump) make sure you have a camera ready to take a picture of the 20ft high stream of oil that spurts out the tank.....

 

HOOPY

[MikeE]

Thats interesting because the official fitting instructions from Caterham suggest:

 

"run the car for 2 minute, switch off and leave for 30 seconds then check the oil level. Add more oil if necessary"

 

This implies the oil will have found it's own level within 30 seconds but I guess your experience contradicts this.

 

It also suggests that the air bleed back to the cam cover also bleeds excess oil back to the cam when the tank fills up?

 

Whatever they appear to work.

 

Mike.

[John Vine]

Re anti-cav tank, try searching on "Apollo". This topic has had a lot of coverage in recent months, and there's lots of good info there.

 

JV