Hi Jerry,
Paul Lamar tells me you might be able to build an aluminum oil pan
for a 20B engine. Mine is going into a Velocity SE RG. I am planning
on locating the radiator under the engine oil pan. If you would be
interested in building the pan, would you please give me a holler?
Thanks much,
John Bell

> Hi Jerry-
> Thanks for the info. Yes I do have the stock pickup. If you can mod it
> to fit the new pan, I'll send it to you when I order the pan. How many
> quarts does your pan hold? I will let you know about the shape as soon
> as I can, but right now I am not sure since I dont have my first pass
> at installation tried yet. My plan is to mount the radiator under  the
> engine but havent gotten far enough to know any dimensions yet. I have
> a mount plate that offsets the starter toward the side to facilitate
> the radiator mounting. I will check your website and be in contact
> with you as soon as I can. Thanks much!
> John

John,  that is fine.  The reason the oil pans are wedge shaped is to
facilitate mounting the radiator under the engine.  Paul can provide you
with a 3D drawing showing how the pan, plenum and radiator work together
and how they will fit in your specific application. His 3D drawings are
definitely the place to start.    Pan capacity will vary with the final
dimensions but it can easily be as much as 12 Qt or more for the 20-B.
 Basically the more oil the better for heat dissipation but oil has
weight so once you have enough for good cooling there is no need for
more.    Jerry
--

Hi Jerry,

I am now weighing (literally) the benefits of making an aluminum oil pan.
 One point concerns me though.  How to get the flange to be perfectly
flat?  I assume you use a thicker piece of alumunium on the flange and
clamp it to a thick flat steel plate when welding.  Still I am wondering
if if needs to be milled flat after the welding is finished.

Thanks


Doug in Japan

John, for your info,
Our radiator installation on the test stand configured for an RV-8. Every
thing fits under cowl except for the exhaust. Note the aft end of the
radiator is hinged so that the radiator intake opening may be varied, just
something to think about. In final form it should look like a Stuka inlet.
Just thought this may be of interest to you. Milo

You might think about doing away with that stock too shallow RX8 oil pan
Milo. I spoke to Tracy about it at OSH and as I recall he changed his. He
had a lot of trouble with the oil breather.


Paul Lamar

No flex/strain relief on the muffler?  I like the basic idea and it
appears to be well made, but I'm pretty sure it won't live very long
without some flex joints between the can and the mounting flanges.
The length of the can will change at a different rate with temperature
than the distance between each pipe at the mounting flange.  The can
will tend to run much hotter and grow more than the rigid mounting
flange which will stay close to the coolant temperature.  As the can
gets hotter than the flange, it will cause the pipes to flex.  The
material will work harden due to this flexing and then fail the pipe
at the flange.  At least, that's my assessment.

I think that design will require a flexible joint at both the flange
end and the can end of two out of three of the pipes.  Or, the can
needs some kind of slip fit section that allows the can to expend and
contract without flexing the pipes.

Exhaust failures are dangerous...


Regards,

Matt-