Oil surge and Tranny leaks - Need help pls

[Bodhiseven]

Hi guys,

 

More newb growing pains for me I'm afraid. After purchasing my 1994 HPC with a C20Xe, I had a freind (who has the same model, extremely rare in Toronto or in Canada for that matter) test the car and give it a once over. He mentioned that he noticed the engine was suffering from oil surge under braking etc. I pulled the sump pan today only to find the baffle in great shape so I simply re-installed the pan. Now I have three areas of concern that I could use some help with.

1. How can I address the oil surge issue as I do wish to track the car at some point.

2.   I noticed a tranny leak at the input AND output of the tranny. How can these be fixed and what parts would I need? Do the engine need to be pulled for this work? The leaks aren't too terrible but they do bother me and my clean garage floor I'm afraid.

 

Thanks a bunch gents,

 

 

[Paul McKenzie]

If you're going to track the car often, then you need to go dry sump. I ran my HPC a few times on track without, but the fall in the (well-damped) oil gauge was alarming.

I eventually managed to get hold of the integral bell tank second hand, but I doubt you'd find one of those nowadays so you would need to go with an external' easy clean' type tank which might mean bye-bye to the passenger footwell. Plus of course you need the scavenge pump, sump pan and plumbing.  Not cheap but well worth it.

Tranny leaks you can take a look at when you pull the engine and gearbox for the dry sump work.

 

 

 

[Paul Deslandes]

I see that you weren't convinced by our replies to your earlier post!

Whilst agreeing that dry sump is the only long term solution to oil starvation in a 20XE engine, there are a number of relatively simple and low cost modifications that can be done to help.

You mention that you dropped the sump and the foam baffle was in great shape, but are you sure?  The problem with this baffle, and don't be tempted to ditch it, is that with modern fully synthetic oil, it clogs very quickly and then eventually breaks up.  I would strongly suggest that you order a couple from Caterham Cars and replace it when you next have the sump off.

In terms of modifications, there are numerous old threads in the archive but you may struggle to find them since the new site was created, so a quick summary as follows:

1.  modify the cam cover baffle to help revent oil being reatained in the cam cover rather than being returned to the sump.

SBD instructions.

2.  as described by ECR, modify the oil pick up pipe at the pick up end to prevent the gap between the end of the pipe and the sump bottom being reduced and preventing proper flow of oil to the pump.  This involves filing a slot in the end of the pipe so that, if the pipe is sucked down to the sump casting, there is always a path for the oil to pass through.

3.  You can slightly increase the amount of oil in the tank by over filling it but I wouldn't recommend it as, if overdone, it can lead to crank oil thrash which losses power and over heats the oil very quickly.  A better way of increasing the oil in circulation is either to add an Apollo tank or, although not required for its primary purpose, an oil cooler.

Re the transmission leaks, there are three oil seals, any one of which can cause oil leaks, plus the interface ot the front on the box where it mates with the bellhousing.  The selector shaft protrudes from the front of the box and enters a blind hole in the back of the beelhousing.  If the area around this hole isn't smeared with sealant, it leaks.  The three standard seals are at the rear extension casting and seals the prop shaft to the box, the speedo drive and the nose piece/clutch sleeve which seals the input shaft.

Paul

[Ray Pearce]

p.s. Over this side of the pond - if your tranny leaks (from either input or output ) then they probably need to go back to see their surgeon.

[Bodhiseven]

Thanks for the responses guys,

 

What I noticed when the pan was off was that the pick up pipe did have the groove (looked like an iverted v)  in it so I assume it was modified slightly. The rim seemed that it did have a file taken in one area of the perimeter at the opening.

 

Is there a way to fix the oil seals in the transmission without removing the engine? Might anyone know the parts for the transmission oil gaskets and perhaps where I might find them?

 

I'll have to find a competent shop here in Toronto that can do this work which is a tall order for these types of cars. Most shops have already claime they don't want to tackle it.

 

 

 

Thanks again gents, 

[Paul Deslandes]

Yes that sounds like the pickup pipe mod has been done.  Quite likely therefore that the cam cover mod has been done too but no way of knowing without taking it off as far as I know.

Engine and gearbox have to come out to change the seals unless there's a way of removing the propshaft without taking the gearbox out.  You might be able to remove the diff and slide back the propshaft but probably easier to remove the engine, and you can do a proper job on all three seals whilst you're at it.

You can get the seal kit from lots of UK suppliers.  Just Google 'Ford Type 9 gearbox seal kit'.  I would have thought a small independant mechanic would love to do the job.  I've emailed Jon Hill who had a Caterham Vx in Saskatoon before he came back here as he may know someone who knows someone out there.  He's away at the moment but he'll no doubt come back to me on his return.  If you blatmail me with your email address I can put you in touch

Paul

[Bodhiseven]

Thanks for the advice and responses gents. Very much appreciated.

 

Paul, I'll pm you my email add.

 

Cheers gents,