Custom Oil Pan and Other Clearance Issues

[Jibs]

Has anyone ever thought of having a custom oil pan made so it sits higher up in the body? How would you figure how much oil the car would hold? (I'm no good at math.... at all.) I'd also think you'd have to move the oil sending unit as well, is this possible? I have also heard about people using lift blocks to get the engine back up to the original position in the car? Is it easy to do and does it affect anything? Was also looking into a custom radiator or a smaller one? Anybody try it? Thanks.

[TheSubaruJunkie]

If you lifted the engine higher, you would be lifting the tranny as well... the CV's wont like that for long.

 

If you went with a custom pan, just use the dipstick to measure when its full. The oil pickup tube requires a certrain level, so as long as its good ont he dipstick it should be fine.

 

-Brian

[Allied Armament]

Have you ever thought about a custom skidplate for a lifted rig? I think theres a company out there making them .

[Uberoo]

you?hehe not to be rude but I can make my own sideplate.BTW how did you guys (AA) fit that snorkel to the wagon?would the snorkel work on EA81 BRAT or should I make on out of PVC?

[scrap487]

Have you ever thought about a custom skidplate for a lifted rig? I think theres a company out there making them .

 

who are you? albie? I think what he is getting at, is he wants to fit a differantial under there so he can get divorced tcase

 

oh hey, not to high jack the thread, although it may be slightly relevant, I think another way to deal with bad camber may be lower the engine cradle slightly more than the amount you lifted the car, because it will flatten out the control arms pushing the bottom of the wheels out more, the more and more I think about this the more likely it is that I will try it. it will reduce ground clearance just a little bit, but if you get a custom y pipe made, and modify your oil pan and get a skid plate, not much is sacrificed for a much beefier rig :-)

[Jibs]

Thanks for the help guys.

[SubyNoobie]

I think it's a great idea assuming a few things..

A: You make sure that the new pan has similar or greater holding capacity for the oil. (So it can sit and de-foam a bit)

B: That would mean making the oil pan wider, since it isn't as deep. Because the oil pan would be wider, you would have to angle the oil pan as well.

 

All in all, I think it's fantastic. I've seen aftermarket oil pans for other vehicles that offer increased ground clearance or are simply lighter, etc... If you can manage to fabricate something like that, I say go for it! Your best bet, in my opinion, on getting the new thing to FIT is to go to the junkyard, buy an old oil pan, cut the old one just below where it seals to the engine, then weld your newer one to the bottom of that. It will be easier than trying to make something that mates to your engine perfectly, and if you screw up the one you picked up from the junkyard, you're not screwing up the one that came with your car. (And therefore making it undrivable.)

 

But then again, what do I know? I don't do this stuff for a living, and I've never done any custom fab work.

[WAWalker]

oh hey, not to high jack the thread, although it may be slightly relevant, I think another way to deal with bad camber may be lower the engine cradle slightly more than the amount you lifted the car, because it will flatten out the control arms pushing the bottom of the wheels out more, the more and more I think about this the more likely it is that I will try it. it will reduce ground clearance just a little bit, but if you get a custom y pipe made, and modify your oil pan and get a skid plate, not much is sacrificed for a much beefier rig :-)

 

Sounds like a very very good idea.

[idosubaru]

the oil sump hangs quite low into the oil pan. i would think for gains worth the effort you'd need to shorten the oil sump as well.

 

the baffles are quite low in the pan, so you could cut off a good deal "up top" relatively easily. what to do after that in terms of oil capacity i can't say.

[Zefy]

alright this would probably be getting a little to complex but what if you relocated the oil pan to somewhere else? i know they do it on motorcycles... relocated it to somewhere out of the way and just run the pickup tube to a where ever you run your new oil 'canister' and have some sort of pickup system to catch the oil and bring it to the canister... then i could see the clearance being increased by a huge amount...

 

that would solve the problem but i don't know how happy the oil pump would be with such a system...?

[Uberoo]

zefty are you talking about a dry-sump oiling system?if done right the only thing on the bottom of the engine would be a flat panel to seal in oil.I dont quite remember the specifics on dry sumps but google is your friend.

[sayn3ver]

dry sumps are exspensive and would require you to either have a container and pump somewhere else under the engine bay or somewhere in the car, which some people may not feel comfortable doing.

[WoodsWagon]

I've seen custom oil pans for ej22's on volkswagen conversions. the oil pan reduces the clearance by like 3", so they make ones that are shorter and wider to fit. It was like a + shape on the bottom.