Resolving the oil feed pipe problem

I've had a very busy week with some long days so I haven't had either the time or inclination to do much to the car. But the many hours I spent hacking up and down the motorways have given me time to think up a solution for my oil feed problem. Two possible solutions in fact.

Option 1. I've had Pace send me a couple of short lengths of bent tube, 2 weld on -10 male fittings and a steel mounting plate and O ring that matches the dry sump. My plan is to remove the bolted on aluminium -10 port on the sumps HP inlet, and replace it with a rigid tube which relocates the -10 fitting to a more accessible location. If I use pre bent tube, the bend radius is much tighter and I may be able to clear the chassis rail.

So tonight, I've spent a couple of hours measuring, cutting, fettling and welding this piece of tube.

It should move the HP input away from the chassis rail, and clear all the scavenge pipes too. Tomorrow I'll paint it up and fit it to the sump, unfortunately I may have to take the engine out to get it properly bolted in place. As you can see from the second picture the tube exits the flange at a angle which should hopefully lift it above the chassis tube.
I'll also thoroughly examine it for pin holes and other flaws, as I'm basically betting my engine on my ability to weld this tube together.

Option 2
If the tube fails to fit then I can remove the heat exchanger from the block and using a remote filter take off plate mount the heat exchanger & filter unit somewhere in the engine bay. I can the take the HP feed to the heat exchanger and filter in -10 hose and then feed the block at the filter union with another filter take off plate but this time with one of the bores blocked off.
The heat exchanger and filter is fitted with an M20x1.5 thread. Which coincidentally matches my MI16 engine's heat exchanger, so if I need filters or take off plates anything suitable for a Pug MI16\ 205 1.9GTI will fit.


Option 3
Is to use a remote air-air oil cooler and remove the heat exchanger completely, but this will likely cost 300+ GBP so this is definitely the option of last resort. However monster oil temps may force me down this way anyway, but I won't know that until testing starts.

Fitting The Engine... At Last

I've been very busy this week and so haven't had much of a chance to get anything done on the car. However I have been collecting the necessary bits and pieces to fit the engine to the car.
So today was the day ... it's time to get the engine in. Tim had kindly delivered his hoist last weekend so it's all systems go.
First job was to fit the exhaust mounting brackets to the headers. Tim Pell had previously fitted the headers to one of his racers, and when he had stripped the engine out he had robbed the headers from the downpipes. Martin at the Kitcar Workshop had sourced me some new flanges and I now had to fit them to the pipes.
The flanges are simply slipped over the piped and are a loose fit at the mating face. Unfortunately the joint between the headers and the rest of the exhaust is held together with springs, which hook onto nuts welded to the side of the primary. My new flanges wouldn't fit over the welded bosses on the pipes, so it was out with Mr Sparky angle grinder and the bosses were removed. The flanges were then slipped over the pipes and new nuts for the mounting springs welded on. I also filled a couple of pin holes in the pipes while doing this.
Just as I was finishing the welding Dave Hackett turned up. Dave is a Cam7 buddy who has built a Blackbird Westfield (his website is here). Dave had popped over for some advice on fitting some -10 hose Mocal fittings to his Blackbird's dry sump system . I also wanted to see the fittings so that I could start to visualise the pipe routing for my system.
So after having "ummed" and "aahd" over some shiny red and blue Mocal fittings for a while and solved Dave's problems he offered to help out fitting the engine to the EVO. This was despite the fact that he really wasn't dressed for garage work & he had stuff that he could be doing on his own car instead. What a top bloke!
Next on the agenda was to wrap the exhaust headers in heat retention tape. This is necessary because the orientation of the engine means the headers are quite close to the main cockpit bulkhead.



Any one who has ever done this will tell you two things.
You'll use waaaaay more heat wrap than you think you're going to need, and it's a nasty nasty job as the itchy fibres get stuck in your hands.

Any way Dave and I set too and started wrapping the primaries It very quickly became apparent that I hadn't ordered enough heat wrap so we only wrapped the primaries for cylinders 2 & 3. I can reach the exhaust ports for numbers 1 & 4 quite easily with the engine in the car so I'll wrap and fit these later. God this is a nasty job, but so much easier when the pipe isn't on the car and you have a willing helper to hold the primary and keep the tension on the heat tape.
OK with two primaries wrapped it's time to start building the engine up. I fitted the primaries to exhaust ports two and three with new copper gaskets and did up the retaining nuts. Next I fitted the front engine mounting frame. This bolts to the cylinder head using 2x M10 (fine) bolts that go into the original mounting holes that held the engine to the bike frame. It then mounts to four brackets on the chassis via metalastic bushes. A bit of careful measuring indicated that the bolts wouldn't bottom out in the head if fitted with a spring washer.



The engine then looks like this.
Ok so it was now time to fit the beast to the car. It is mounted to the main bulkhead chassis rails at the front and onto the diff carrier at the rear. (And in this photo it's hanging the wrong way around on the hoist.)
So with Dave's stirling help we managed to get the engine in the engine bay. Now came the usual engine fitting woes. No matter how well prepared and practiced you are it always seems to take a good couple of hours of jiggling, positioning and repositioning the lump before it gets anywhere near the right place.


Here the main problem was aligning the rear diff carrier brackets, so that the drive wheel on the engine and the chain wheel on the diff are in alignment. While simultaneously lining the up mounting frame on the front of the engine with it's brackets. After much jiggling we got it somewhere close, although we had to remove the front frame in the process and the engine could be left resting in the engine bay. Dave had to shoot off having already stayed much later than he intended. Once again thanks for the help
But as is often the way with frustrating problems a short break from it, and a cup of tea is often the best troubleshooting approach.
Half an hour later I returned to the garage and the engine, moved sweetly into place with just a few nudges and a bit of gentle persuasion.








Refitting the front frame was a bit nerve racking as I had been warned by Tim Pell not to cross the fine threads.
I still have some work to do fitting spacers and sorting out final alignment but the major part of the engine fitting process is complete..
However, I did discover while fitting the drive chain that the nut on the main sprocket needs tightening.... it came off in my hands!





Here's a picture of the Pace dry sump in situ.
At first sight everything looks fine, but if you look closely you can see a red oil way dust cap below the pump, which is perilously close to a chassis rail.









This is the main high pressure input from the the pump to the sump and engine. there is no way that I am going to be able to fit a -10 fitting and hose on this. :-(



Here's another picture (although not massively clear) of the clearance between the rail and the dust cap. Pace specifically say "put no sharp bends in the oil pipes" so it would appear that I can't use this HP input. However all is not lost. An alternative method of feeding the engine is through the filter port on the back of the block. However this means that I need an external\remote filter mount and I will probably need to use a separate air-oil cooler. Also this picture shows that I may need to do some rethinking about the gear change linkage, as my intended route under the engine is pretty congested
As for oil cooling ... I had intended to use the existing oil\water cooler unit that is fitted as standard at the base of the filter mount. Pace have said that this works fine, but if the oil is fed directly into the main gallery via the filter input then the oil\water cooler is not in the circuit hence the need for an external oil cooler. Still two steps forward only 1 step back, and it will make the coolant plumbing simpler. Lots more cash though :-(

Dry Sump - Part 3 - Startup Procedure

I've noted the start up procedure that Pace gave me over the phone here as at least this way I'll be able to find it when the time comes.

1. Check all hoses, bolts and unions for tightness.
2. Clean dry sump tank to ensure no manufacturing debris will be introduced into the oil.
3. Fill dry sump tank until level with top baffle
4. Wind out oil pressure adjuster on the Pace pump until the spring tension is released. Do not completely remove.
5. Wind the pressure adjuster back in 5-6 complete turns from the point when the spring pressure is felt.
6. Turn over engine with starter motor ensuring that plugs are out or that ignition is disconnected so that the engine cannot fire.
7. Oil pressure should be seen immediately, if not check instrumentation
   Check oil level in dry sump tank and refill to top baffle if necessary
8. Wind engine on starter with plugs out for a further 10-15 secs to distribute oil.
9. Recheck, & refill tank to just below top baffle.
10. Check all hoses and joints for leaks.
11. Refit plugs enable ignition and start engine.
12. Run for 30 secs, stop immediately if oil pressure fails or warning lights come on. Note oil pressure at idle.
13. Stop and check oil level (1 inch below baffle), hoses and unions adjust oil pressure if necessary
14. Run engine and allow to run up to normal temperature, if necessary adjust oil pressure so that hot idle runs at 22-28 PSI.
15. When happy with oil pressure use locknut to lock pressure control valve in place.
16. When running the oil level in the tank should be approximately 1 inch below the top baffle.

Dry Sump -Part 2 - Fitting the 3 Stage Dry Sump Oil Pump

OK with the sump pan fitted it's time to fit the external combined scavenge and high pressure pump. There are two separate scavenge pumps (these have cranked steel pipes sealed with masking tape) and a single high pressure stage whose input is sealed with a red cap. All the inputs are on the bottom of the pump and the two out puts are on the top. To the far right of the pump is the pressure control and adjusting valve
All three pumps are driven from a single shaft using the original oil pump drive in the block. Fitting this pump requires the original oil and water pumps to be discarded although some of the components need to be reclaimed from the old kit.
First I cleaned all around the water pump housing, when the water and oil pumps are removed the main oil galleries are exposed and I didn't want any grot falling in there! Next I removed the hose from the water pump's outlet and undid and removed the green hose union from the water pump's inlet.

This gave me access to the three mounting bolts that hold the pump to the block.




These undid easily using an 8mm socket and the water pump cover and it's sealing gasket could be removed, exposing the vanes of the impellor.
The impeller bolts onto a shaft which runs right through the water an oil pumps and connects with the oil pump drive deep in the block. In order to remove the shaft and split the oil and water pumps I had to undo the bolt in the centre of the impeller.






I think you could lock the gearbox in gear, which in turn would lock the pump shaft in place, but a much easier way is to jam the blades of the impeller with a screw driver and undo the bolt. It's not very tight as like just about everything else on this engine it's only done up to weedy torque settings. However I didn't want the shaft falling out as I removed the water pump so I only loosened the bolt. I wasn't too worried about damage to the impeller as I'll be using a separate water pump, but in the end it wasn't even marked.
Now it was time to remove the water pump, the oil transfer barrel and the oil pump rotor. All three bits come out as a single unit held together via the pump drive shaft. And all I did was pull it gently upwards and the whole unit emerged smoothly from the block.


Below you can see the complete unit as it was removed. In my hand is the water pump housing, and around it's perimeter you can see an O ring that I need later.

The long cylindrical component is the oil transfer barrel which forms the top face of the oil pump and also routes the high pressure output from the OEM pump to the oil filter. In the bottom face of the transfer barrel is a round hole which must be fitted over a pin in the block to ensure that the barrel is in the correct orientation. Below that is the lobed centre section of the OEM oil pump. Just visible in the bottom of the rotor is a groove where a pin sits that both retains the oil pump rotor on the shaft and drives it round. And at the bottom of the shaft is the notch which engages with the drive shaft in the block.



In this picture you can see the other half of the oil pump, and at approximately the 7 o'clock position you can also see the orientation pin for the transfer barrel.
In the centre hole you can just see the flat blade of the oil pump drive flange.




In accordance with the Pace instructions I removed the the oil outer rotor, it has a hole in the centre shaped like a 5 pointed star. It's a tight but sliding fit in the housing and lifted out easily.

Now I needed to split the oil pump rotor, the oil transfer barrel and the drive shaft from the water pump housing. This was why I had loosened the bolt earlier! I wound the nut out of the end of the shaft and then wound it back in again about three turns. A good tap on the bolt with a soft faced hammer forced the shaft out of the back of the water pump housing. I could then remove the bolt and water impeller from the front of the water pump, and the oil transfer barrel, oil pump rotor and retaining pin slid of the shaft after it had been removed from the rear. Above you can clearly see the hole for the orientation pin, and in the background the disassembled shaft and rotor assembly.

Of all these components only the oil transfer barrel is used by the Pace Kit and this needs to be reinserted into the block.

This is a picture of the transfer barrel after I had correctly inserted it. It sits flush with the face of the block, but it will also sit flush if the orientation pin is sitting in one of the large holes in the base of the transfer barrel but this is wrong. Basically if it will rotate at all it's incorrectly fitted.







The only other thing I needed to retrieve from the old water pump was it's sealing O ring. This I transferred to a similar groovein the mating face of the pace pump.




So I was now ready to begin fitting the pace pump. It also has a slot in the end of the drive shaft which must engage with the drive flange deep in the block. Basically I found it easiest to roughly orientate the shaft to the correct position, then slide the Pace drive shaft down the hole in the centre of the oil transfer barrel until it touched the drive dog. I then gently rotated the complete pump until the two shafts engaged and the it dropped into place.

I then had to remove the pump when I realised I'd forgotten to fit the O ring from the water pump into the groove in the mating face of the pace pump. Then I fitted it again m I'm Olympic Standard inept!

I got it lined up first time and the pump fitted perfectly, but as it dropped into place I noticed that in two of the bolt holes the threads do not come all the way to the end of the hole, (you can see this in the picture above) and also that two of the mounting holes in the Pace pump were much bigger than the third even though they all take the same M6 bolt. After a bit of puzzling it became obvious that two of the holes needed the locating dowels transferred from the water pump housing although this wasn't stated in the instructions.


So I removed the pump (again) in order to transfer the dowels over.

It was about now that I had a near disaster! As I removed the pump it dragged the oil transfer tube out of the block with it, and there was a clearly audible "TINKLE" as a metal part fell down somewhere. I gingerly looked in the oil pump housing to see that the locating pin that orientates the transfer barrel had been lifted up by the barrel when it was pulled out by the pump. The oil film holding the pin to the barrel had given up it's grip after the pin was clear of it's mounting hole and the pin had fallen back down inside the oil pump housing. Fortunately it had lodged on a machined shelf at the base of the pump housing, but it could easily have been lost into the main oil ways. I was so relieved that I could retrieve it that I forgot to take a photo. But from then on I took care to lift the pump out carefully and ensure that it didn't drag the transfer barrel with it. I also took care to replace the pin carefully in the correct position.


Then I removed the two dowels from the water pump and fitted them to the block, I then tried fitting the pump again. This time lining up the pump with both the drive flange and the locating dowels while simultaneously trying not to pinch the O ring was quite a challenge. It took several efforts, each time I partially removed the pump, twisted the drive shaft a small amount and retried fitting it. I was only successful after some therapeutic swearing was applied, when it finally connected correctly with the drive flange and dropped neatly into place. It took no force but just simply slid home, so if you are forcing it something is not lined up or worse still the pumps drive shaft has a slight bend which would mean Pace need to replace it

Here's a picture of the pump in place awaiting bolting up. What's not readily apparent is how limited access is to the bolt holes, and I found that I actually had to remove both the cover plate (on top) and the feed tube (on bottom) on the scavenge pump nearest the block in order to get the bolts to fit into the holes.

By the way the red covers are available from Think Automotive and are worth keeping in your spares box incase you ever need to disconnect the system in the paddock


As with the sump Pace hadn't supplied suitable bolts (although they will do now) and the originals cannot be re used. So I had to source 2xM6 30-35mm un plated cap bolts for the two holes fitted with the locating dowels and 1x 25mm M6 un plated cap bolt for the hole that is visible in the picture above right. After much faffing around because access is really quite limited I managed to torque the pump to block mounting bolts up to the 15nm specified in my workshop manual. Incidentally Pace again recommended using un plated bolts because they are stronger.



All that was left was to fit the rubber hoses between the scavenge pipe inlets on the pump and the scavenge pipe outlet on the sump. These hoses are under sustained vacuum when the pump is running and are therefore very thick walled and inflexible. As I already had one of the scavenge tubes off the pump I fitted the hose to it while it was on the bench. As you can see the scavenge tubes are also fitted with sealing O rings that I took care not to lose.




I then oiled it's mating partner on the sump and slid the hose onto that too. Oiling both hoses allowed me then to slip and slide the tube fitting about until I could re bolt the scavenge inlet to the pump. This proved so successful that I unbolted the other scavenge inlet pipe and repeated the process. The Pace notes warned me to be very careful not to strip the threads in either the Aluminium sump or the pump when refitting the bolts, so I only just "nipped" them up far enough to compress the spring washers. Later checking with a torque wrench showed them to be at about 8nm.


So the installation is complete. I went around and checked all the bolts for tightness on both the sump and the pump, I double checked the scavenge pipes and blanking plate on the pump and did up the Jubilee clips on the scavenge hoses. Job done! Now I can start thinking about installing the engine in the chassis.
Here's a couple of pictures of the completed installation








Just one last thing as you may recall I removed the original oil pump's components. Well here they are! I always find it entertaining that my intuition clearly tells me that the middle rotor cannot rotate within the outer shell, and yet plainly it does. I'm also mightily impressed by such accurate machining.

Visual inspection of the pump shows that there is minimal wear on the lobes ... another good sign regarding the health of this engine.

And I now have a very finely machined and strangely tactile paperweight!

Dry Sump- Part 1 - Fitting the Sump

Step one, first remove the bike engine from the the car and place on sturdy clean bench. My ZX12R was nestling in the engine bay of the EVO, and unfortunately I didn't have a hoist to hand. So after a Worlds Strongest Man moment when I hefted the engine out of the car and onto the bench I was ready to start work. Do Not do this! These engines weigh 80+ Kilos and lifting them single handed is not to be recommended .




With the engine on the bench it was time to first remove the existing sump pan, this was retained by 15 M6 bolts with 8mm hex heads. Two of the bolts are slightly shorter than the others and the position of these is marked on the sump by a small arrow. On the right hand side of the sump in my photo is the oil level sight glass. This is simply pushed into a hole in the block where it is sealed with an O ring and retained in place with two bolts that go into the side of the sump pan. So I removed the sight glass bolts and pulled it sideways out of the block, hmmm that was easy. I then removed the remaining sump pan bolts. and the sump pan itself whereupon the ZX12R promptly spat half a litre of engine oil all over my nice clean bench... sheesh well I suppose it will waterproof it.

So this was my first view of the inside of a ZX12R. The first thing I did was to check the sump for any metal flakes or debris in the oil film. Mercifully there were none at all so hopefully this engine is a perfectly good runner. I've labelled up all the bits that I needed to remove or alter.


First I removed the original oil pickup (it simply pulls off), and I then removed the rubber sealing ring from the where the pickup moulding connects with the main oil way in the block, again it just pulls out.








Next it was on to the oil transfer pipes. The oil transfer pipes are very important things to get right. These distribute high pressure oil from the main oil galleries to big end bearings and other important bits that tend to go bang in expensive ways if not lubricated.

However the oil transfer pipes are simply pushed into the oil ways and sealed with and O ring. They are not bolted on in any way, but are retained by bosses moulded into the original sump pan. In the Pace sump the support bosses are replaced by 4 adjustable grub screws which allow for the fact that different engines have differing diameters of oil transfer pipe. The 4 grub screws need to be adjusted to the correct height and "loctited" in place. Pace told me to allow a small clearance between the grub screw and the transfer pipe to ensure that it wouldn't be pinched or stressed but that the pipe couldn't be blown out by the oil pressure. Around 0.5mm should be fine

I decided to measure the gap using some callipers and then transfer this gap to the grub screw exactly. When I fit the sump to the engine with a new gasket the width of the gasket should ensure that a small clearance is maintained.

These pictures aren't very clear I'm afraid but basically I placed a straight edge across the machined mating face of the original sump and measured from the support boss to the straight edged using sliding callipers. Then without moving the callipers I adjusted the grubs screws so that the callipers would just fit between the screw and a straight edge placed across the mating face of the Pace sump.

The grub screws were already "Loctited" in place but the compound was still liquid and hadn't yet "gone off" so I could easily make the adjustments. I performed this process 4 time, once for each support boss but I think the measurements were largely identical.

Lastly I checked the clearance using a dodge my dear old dad taught me. I placed a small blob of Blue Tack on each grub screw and then bolted the Pace sump to the engine with a new gasket. I then removed the sump and the Blue Tack blobs had been squeezed between the grub screws and the oil pipes. The depth of the Blue Tack left in the squeezed section shows the clearance. My test shows that the gasket was a little thicker than I thought so I wound the grubs screws out 1\8th of a turn. Incidentally the grub screws are quite a coarse thread, a finer thread would allow more accurate adjustment.

I then very carefully collected all the 4 blobs of Blue Tack out of the engine and carefully removed all traces of them.

The next thing to change was the pressure relief valve. The Pace system has an adjustable pressure control valve integrated into the pump, therefore the PRV in the engine is unnecessary and needs to be removed. The PRV is a large hexagon that fits a 19mm socket and can just be unwound from it's fitting on the main oil gallery. However it had been thread locked in place with a compound that produced several hard fragments, which I had to take care to remove completely.





The Pace sump comes completes with a blanking plug for blocking off the PRV's hole in the main oil gallery. In accordance with their instructions I fitted it with a thread lock and sealing compound and tightened it to the torque specified in my dealer's manual (15nm)


Next on the agenda was to transfer to locating dowels from the old sump or engine block to corresponding holes in the Pace sump.



The dowels are a push fit into the block and sump and so may pull out when the original sump is removed. I transferred the dowels to the Pace sump as I find it easier to have them in the part I'm fitting, and they help to line it up and retain the gasket during the fitting process.
There are two dowels to transfer, and the locating holes in the Pace sump are located near the main oil inlet and on the opposite side of the sump from the inlet




Next I moved on to the hole left in the side of the block, where the oil level sight glass was removed. The Pace kit includes a short cap bolt, an O ring, 2 washers and a nyloc nut for plugging this hole. The Pace instructions suggest that an alternative would be to tap a thread into the hole and insert a NPTF plug, but life is too short for such unnecessary work! Besides tapping the hole would possibly introduced metal swarf into the sump.





So I elected to go for the simple bolt and O ring approach. A quick inspection of the hole in the block showed that it was machined on the outside to accept the O ring, obvious really as the sight glass assembly is inserted from the outside of the engine.
The Pace instructions suggest using an additional sealant to prevent leaks, so I gave the washer and O ring a generous smearing of Tiger Seal (much more generous than in the photos) and bolted the assembly into the block. You can see from the photo that I omitted the interior washer so that sufficient bolt thread protruded beyond to Nyloc to ensure that the nut didn't vibrate loose and fall off into the sump.


Next it was on to the oil return tube and bracket. My engine has a flexible tube that runs from a connection high up in the block, to the deepest part of the original sump pan.
It's loosely retained in place by a small folded metal bracket and two gold colour bolts on either side of the tube. The bracket does not pinch the tube but simply appears to be a retainer to prevent the tube from getting tangled into the gearbox. The tube has a notch in the bottom end
The tube is obviously too long for the pace sump which is only about 1 inch deep, and the heads of the bracket's retaining bolts fouled on bosses in the sump so something had to be done with it.

The Pace instructions, and my workshop manual didn't mention the tube at all so I rang Pace. Unfortunately they had never heard of the tube either, as it doesn't appear to be present on any of the engines that they had seen, so it may be unique to the A1 engine. Pace while unable to offer any advice said that they would however be very interested in what I decided to do. Great it looks like I'm on my own :-( So it's back to first principles.




The tube can only perform one of three functions, it's either a suction tube for lifting oil to the top end of the engine, an oil drain tube or a breather to equalise pressure in the crankcase.

Option 1 seems unlikely as the tube is flexible and would collapse under any sort of suction, also the notch in the end would appear to be an anti siphon device. Option 3 acting as a breather is plausible, but the tube terminates in the deepest part of the sump and so should be well below the normal surface of the oil reservoir.

My guess is that it's an oil return tube, placed so that oil returning from the top end of the engine is directed straight into the deepest part of the sump, where it can be easily picked up by the oil pump intake. This has the obvious advantage that it helps prevent oil starvation, but also the oil is quickly returned to the sump without running down the inside of the crank case were it would be heated. Thus maybe this arrangement helps keep oil temperatures down too!


So if it's an oil return tube I can simply shorten it and it will continue to return oil to the sump. I shortened it so that it protrudes about 18-20mm beyond the end of the block\sump mating face. The Pace sump is deeper than this so the tube shouldn't have any problems with the exit being pushed up against the bottom of the sump and becoming blocked. I also duplicated the notch that was present in the original tube.
This then left me with the problem that I had to remove the retaining bracket to fit the Pace sump pan. I hoped that the much reduced length of the pipe would prevent itfrom moving but was a bit worried. However a trial fitting of the sump revealed two fortuitous side effects of shortening the pipe.

The protruding section of pipe neatly fitted into an area of the PACE sump between the external wall of the sump and one of the scavenge pump pick up tubes which will promote scavenging.
The pick up tube would therefore retain the pipe in position, but also the pipe would be discharging it's oil flow close to the scavenge pump's inlet, thus neatly mirroring the original function of the pipe. Problem solved (I hope!)






The last job and possibly the most important is to fit the transfer fitting that connects the oil inlet in the Pace sump to the main oil inlet in the block. The fitting is a short length of aluminium tube with two O rings.
The fitting is simply pushed into either the port in the centre of the Pace sump, or into the main oil inlet in the block.






After a bit of experimentation and a trial fitting I decided to fit it to the block and offer the sump up to it as part of the final fitting process. So I oiled the receiving port in the block and pushed the fitting in, it need to be positioned in the hole and pushed in as far as the O ring. I then gave it a firm biff with the heel of my hand and the O ring compressed and it slid fully home. You can see that only the outer O ring is visible.
So with the grub screws adjusted, the sight glass hole filled, the dowels transferred, the oil drain pipe sorted, the PRV replaced with a plug and the high pressure oil port connection in place it was time to complete the installation of the sump pan.
This was very tricky, I had to line up the dowels, guide the oil transfer pipe in the area by the scavenge pump input and guide the port in the pace sump onto the high pressure transfer fitting. Eventually I got to a position where it was all lined up but the sump wouldn't slide home, this was because the outer O ring on the oil transfer fitting was in the port on the sump but had not yet been "Popped" home. So I wound a couple of mounting bolts into each side of the sump pan and placed it under some gentle compression. Then after checking that the dowels were engaged and everything was correctly positioned and nicely lined up I gave the centre of the sump pan a smart biff with the heel of my hand.

A click, a nice movement and the fact that the sump now sat naturally at the correct mating position indicated that the fitting had been driven home and the sump can be bolted up.


It was now that I discovered that you can't reuse the original sump mounting bolts to fit the Pace Sump. Pace hadn't supplied any mounting bolts (although I think they will do from now on) so I had to source 15 x M6 40mm un plated cap bolts. When I fitted these I discovered the the holes where the locating dowels are fitted are actually deeper and require 50mm bolts. So actually I needed 13 M6 x40mm and 2 M6 50mm cap bolts. I didn't have any un plated M6x50mm caps so I've fitted plated ones, but un plated are better because they are stronger. The two longer bolts are the only ones inserted in the position above. BTW I loctited the bolts in place to prevent them from vibrating loose. I tightened the bolts up evenly to the torque specified in my workshop manual (15nm)

Who Hoo that's the sump fitted. I always like it when I can close up an engine after having worked on the internals, it just feels safer when everything is bolted together and covered up again.

With the engine on the bench I needed also needed to complete one other job.
The Digidash instructions state the the oil pressure sensor should be attached to the engine by a short section of high pressure hose to ensure that it is not damaged by the high frequency vibrations created by a bike engine.
So I needed to fit a -6\NPTF fitting into the port occupied by the existing low pressure warning switch. The warning switch is actually fitted into a thread adapter boss which is in turn threaded into the main oil gallery. I thoroughly cleaned around the area to prevent any grot falling into the main oil ways and removed the boss and switch.

I found that the NPTF thread in the boss was too small for my -6\NPTF fitting so I tapped it out a bit. NPTF Threads are tapered so if you tap them out you actually make the hole a big bigger, but you have to be careful not to go too far, or the fitting will never tighten up and seal correctly. I then, carefully cleaned, refitted and torqued up the boss and adapter to the engine
Again I used threadlock and again it needed to be torqued to 15nm.