Vauxhall Oil Sump Foam Baffle

[CWilson184]

I have just removed the oil sump from my 1.8 Vauxhall Engine and noticed that there was a foam baffle in the bottom of it, do I need it?

I mainly use the car for road use with the occasional trackday. I have removed the oil sump as I have been seeing quite low oil pressures so thought I would give the sump a clean, which was when I noticed the foam baffle.

[Paul McKenzie]

Box of worms...breaks up and blocks oil pickup for certain modern oil types. If you've got someone in the car for trackdays and you're using sticky tyres, you will see a dramatic fall in oil pressure as you're cornering (or at least you do in the 2L XE)-this is the warning to go to dry sump.

[Paul Deslandes]

Whatever you do don't put the old one back.  As Paul says, with modern oils they either break up or go into a gooey mess and stop the oil from getting to the pick up pipe.  Unfortunately you can't run without it or the oil will slosh to one side of the sump or the other when cornering and you'll have oil starvation.  Hopefully Caterham have them in stock as I don't know of any other source. 

If you search the archive you'll find a number of threads on oil system mods, most of which relate to the C20XE 2 litre engine but some will apply to the 1800.  If you don't want to go to the expense and complication of a dry sump, have a look at fitting an Apollo tank.  Again, lots in the archives.

Paul