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low oil pressure


Wally

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23 hours ago, Zed Head said:

On the dipstick, if you put a larger oil pan on your engine do you change the dipstick?  No.  The dipstick is there to verify the proper "level" of the oil, not the quantity.  For some of the very reasons that you described, windage and the pickup tube entrance.  Both of those are determined by level, not quantity.  Your logic went awry, you made the points against your own "no".

 

For a stock wet sump engine, the dipstick is for checking the static oil level in the pan, relative to the oil pickup, and isn’t checked with the engine running. The oil level needs to be adequate so when the engine is running the level stays above the pickup, even while the vehicle is in motion.

The design needs to allow that the oil level doesn’t interfere significantly with the rotating mass.

The size and capacity of the sump need to allow for enough oil so the supply of oil is sufficient for proper lubrication during engine operation.

Keep in mind the oil also acts as a coolant, absorbing heat as it passes through the engine, and dissipating some of that heat through the water jacket, and some to the atmosphere through the oil pan and exterior of the engine block and cylinder head. Some cars even have an oil cooler in addition to a radiator.

When using a larger sump, the other items, baffles, trap doors, windage tray are part of the package. A larger oil capacity is added for extra absorption of excess waste heat generated when the engine is built and tuned to make more power than originally configured. Again, as in the stock setup, the oil level must be sufficient to keep the pickup submerged in a readily available supply of oil.

A dry sump lubrication system doesn’t have a dipstick on the cylinder block, as the oil isn’t stored in the oil pan, but in a tank, separate from the engine. Usually the oil level is checked by opening the tank fill cap and looking inside.

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