Dry Sumping... (I know its punny.. oh ha!)

[JohnK]

Don't know yet. ...Beags

 

A suggestion here, with 20/20 hindsight. I gathered info for years and even spent time working in two different shops to gain experience in se7ens and performance development. When I finally took the plunge I couldn't believe how many "Oh, S***" situations I ran into, in spite of all my planning and experience. What I thought would take me no more than a year is going on 6 years. Now I have had a great time, but had no idea how much work it would take to turn a "kit" into something I could have some faith in. A rational person looking over my shoulder could well have suggested that I just push the thing over a cliff and buy an ordinary Caterham - and such advice probably wouldn't have been bad.

[7evin]

(1) How much ground clearance did you gain?.

 

Here are a couple of pics to show the difference between wet sump and dry sump,

as far as ground clearance goes.

 

Keep in mind the engine has been lowered in the car a bit

Edited August 8, 2010 by 7evin

[7evin]

I have invited Gary from ARE to join our forum. He should be able to answer any and all

questions about dry sumps. He has a great deal of knowledge.

[snookwheel]

Here are a couple of pics to show the difference between wet sump and dry sump,

as far as ground clearance goes.

 

Keep in mind the engine has been lowered in the car a bit

 

Those pictures should sell the dry sump idea! What a difference. It looks like you went from having to be VERY careful on the street to no issue!

[JohnK]

I have invited Gary from ARE to join our forum. He should be able to answer any and all

questions about dry sumps. He has a great deal of knowledge.

 

OK, how about HEAT? I.e., getting rid of it. A wet sump gives you a big finned surface stuck in the air stream so it can shed heat under the car - unfortunately at the expense of ground clearance and power losses and ... When you put a dry sump in, you have all that hot oil now contained within chassis space, which there isn't a whole lot of in a Se7en. Standard equipment in a dry sump system is an oil cooler, which also has to be located somewhere, preferably not where it adds heat to something else like the engine's cooling system. Supercharging adds more power at the expense of more heat output, and thus more cooling problems. Little by little the guys who design successful race cars begin to appear pretty damn clever! My favorite is C. Chapman putting the radiators on either side of the chassis.

So... what are the different solutions for locating all the parts and keeping everything cool enough to work correctly?

[7evin]

OK, how about HEAT? I.e., getting rid of it. A wet sump gives you a big finned surface stuck in the air stream so it can shed heat under the car - unfortunately at the expense of ground clearance and power losses and ... When you put a dry sump in, you have all that hot oil now contained within chassis space, which there isn't a whole lot of in a Se7en. Standard equipment in a dry sump system is an oil cooler, which also has to be located somewhere, preferably not where it adds heat to something else like the engine's cooling system. Supercharging adds more power at the expense of more heat output, and thus more cooling problems. Little by little the guys who design successful race cars begin to appear pretty damn clever! My favorite is C. Chapman putting the radiators on either side of the chassis.

So... what are the different solutions for locating all the parts and keeping everything cool enough to work correctly?

 

You are very correct, We use a Mocal oil cooler that uses coolant from the radiator. Of course you can see the oil tank is mounted above the passenger compartment.... this keeps the driver cooler... For us, we are spraying loads of alcohol... Nice cooling effect.

Of course these are all considerations when building the car, We will not be able to tell

how these things work until we test it. Allot of it gets lizard skin, but that only goes so far...

We are trying to make it as fast as possible but still keep it street-able.

[7evin]

Those pictures should sell the dry sump idea! What a difference. It looks like you went from having to be VERY careful on the street to no issue!

 

Defiantly decreases the pucker factor wondering if it going to clear...