Move the oil pump pick up point?

Is there any reason why I can't reverse the deep end of the pan on my V8, from the back to the front, and move the oil pick up tube with it, so that in a boat application I can get the back end of the motor lower in the hull?

As long as the pick up point is at the lowest point, it will suck, right?

(this should be fun.......)

james

 

I don't see why not, chevy, ford, mopar and others have put the sump where it needs to be to fit the application over the years.

what kind of engine is it? there may already be the pan you need on some oddball vehicle

 

The main reason you want a rear sump pan in a boat is that when its planing off its nose high and all the oil drains to the back of the pan.....also, once on plane, the boat typically runs slightly nose high. The motor is usually humping its ass when its planing off - that sends lots of oil to the top of the motor. If you run the pan dry (which you will do with a front sump pan in a boat) you'll kill the motor (obviously).

You'll notice that most marine based intakes have carb mounting pads that are angled (sometimes severely) to compensate for "normal" engine inclination in the boat. Most, if not all, marine oil pans are rear sump when the motor is mounted in the conventional direction in the boat to avoid oil starvation.

If you want to drop the motor down lower in the hull you'll need to make (or buy) a pan that has a shallow sump and kicked out/back sump and a custom pick-up for the pan. Many hydroplane classes are not allowed to run dry-sump systems and have to depend on conventional pans. These are not cheap to buy (most are custom made for the engine/hull combo) and manytimes require intricate pick-ups and trap door designs.

We do a lot of vintage hydroplane motors and oiling system design is very important.

Another VERY important issue with moving the motor is the alignment of the engine with the bellhousing/drive (as with an I/O) or with the driveshaft (inboard). If your thinking about moving the drive and or driveshafts location to compensate for the engine relocation your also moving what is known as the boats "X" dimension. Doing so should not be done without considerable knowledge of boat/hull design and extensive knowledge of your particular hull.

-Bigchief.

 

V-drive boats have the engines mounted backwards, and they usually move the pickup point to the opposite side of the pan. No rerason at all why you can't do that. You just need a different pan and pickup configuration, that's all. No different than moving your siphoning hose to a different point when you are siphoning something off.

 

What kind of budget, how's about a dry sump?

 

Its a really big "it depends". He didn't mention that the boat was a V-drive ....just a V8.

Not all engines mounted in front of V-drives are mounted backwards....some drive off the front crank snout still leaving the motor facing forward in the boat......to add some fun and confusion to the mix I've seen some boats run straight and Z drives off the crank snout too......putting the motor in a conventional location but mounted backwards....these are ususally reverse rotation motors as well.

Ahhhh, the joy of boats.

-Bigchief.