On Saturday I raised the car, took down the belly-pan, starter (after a struggle) & sump, filled the oil pump inlet & new pick up pipe with vaseline (after plugging the air holes in the pick-up pipe with sealant - see the blog as this won't let me upload pics)
I lifted the new sump into positi - clunk!
The horizontal baffle hit the pick up pipe to the sump can only be fitted to a bare engine! WHO DESIGNS THIS STUFF???!!!
It was time for a visit from Mr A Grinder.
With the front half of the horizontal baffle "removed" the sump went up nicely - in fact it only needed about 3/4" taken out of an existing slot, but you can't be sure of that until you've taken the whole damn thing out. I replaced it with an aluminium baffle I made for the old sump, suitably re-cut.
Now the sump fitted, I bolted it up with a little sealant, refitted the starter - much easier now there's space around it - re-fitted the belly-pan, took out the spark plugs & hit the button - the oil light refused to go dark. I went indoors
This evening I had planned to take down the belly pan, all but two of the sump bolts & drain the new oil into my wife's favourite roasting tin - then leave removing the oil pump & packing it with vaseline for tomorrow. I did, but while having my tea, I browsed the Haines-book-of-lies & was horrified to discover that the oil pump is behind the front timing cover, so not only had I been wasting my time, but the engine would have to come out to fill the pump
I resorted to the internet where as usual the good folk of LocostBuilders had had the same problem. One chap had cut a bean tin in half & held it (filled with oil) against the oil filter mount while turning the engine backwards (I assume he had more than the normal amount of hands) to suck oil into the pump from above. This had met with success, others had just filled an oil filter & screwed it on to achieve the same thing.
Having just taken a filter off, I punched a hole in the side (not drilled as any swarf would be pulled into the pump), screwed it on with the hole at the top & filled it with oil. As I turned the engine with the crank bolt the level dropped, so I took my makeshift reservoir off, filled a fresh filter & put that on, put the oil back in the sump, checked everything, held my breath, pushed the starter .......... & nothing happened.
I gave the starter a hard stare & went back to the driver's side & pushed the button again, this time the engine turned over & after perhaps five seconds the oil light went out
.Plugs & leads back in, fuel pump on, push the starter again & it fired
So far no nasty knocks, but I've not driven it.
But the important thing is that we now have another sump option, it's lighter that the cast alloy ones (though not what I'd call "light"), it's cheaper, it appears to seal to the engine (to be confirmed), gives more ground clearance (you'll need to look at the blog for photos) & should deform in a minor impact rather than crack. Obviously if something crops up I'll report back, but so far, I'm impressed - apart from having to re-cut the baffle to get the thing on.
