Hey r3v,
I've been working on a low profile oil pan based on the e34 525i pan for the last few weeks and thought I'd share my project with you guys. I, like many people out there with a 24v swap, ding my oil pan here and there while driving in town since it hangs a bit lower than the OEM M20 pan.
It was tolerable for a while where I have lived in the past, but since I arrived here in VA, I know it's only a matter of time before by pan gets ruptured on a railroad/road dip somewhere. I've had a few close calls, but nothing catastrophic...I still wanted to do something about it. I searched around and found a few guys on here who simply cut the bottom inch off their pans and lost a little volume and one other guy who has done something very similar to what I set out to do. This thread is just to document more ideas for others! Thanks to !kid and ZekeTheSneak for helping with a few PMs since they have done something similar.
My overall goal: Reduce pan height by 1.25-1.5 inches and retain stock volume. Lofty right? We'll see if it can be done...
So I started out with an E34 M50 pan I got from the local yard. This is the pan after I got it hot tanked...cleaned up pretty nice:
I then checked out it's internal volume with water before I got started...roughly 6 qts. I then made my proposed incision marks:
To get an idea of that volume lost below the cut mark, I drilled a hole on the cut-line and refilled the pan with water. Once water spilled out, I knew the approximate volume of liquid capacity being lost by the pan; The cut I made lost me about a quart and a half. You can see the drilled hole below:
After I felt comfortable with the amount of capacity being lost, I cut the pan up and then started the crappiest part of the project...test fitment and pickup tube modification. I felt uncomfortable with just a simple equal reduction in pickup tube length and really wanted to see this work with my own eyes, so I took my pan off my car and sized up the project pan on my car to ensure fitment. This is an expensive motor after all...whats a few hours of work.
I swapped pans and got the pickup tube fitting similarly to the factory one...without doing this, I was unsure of how the factory tube sit inside the factory pan, etc....I tried to mimic dimensions closely. In this picture, the modded tube is being help up my tape and is a little droppy/angled. Forgive me!
Here is a comparison of the two tubes:
So I put my car back together, since I daily it; fully knowing I would be doing yet another pan swap in the coming weeks...haha! Next, I took the pan to my make-shift shop an began final fabrication. I hatched a plan to replace the lost volume and also add a turbo drain for when I go turbo in the future. This is a -10AN return:
I did some basic calculations and eye-balling to come up with this planform for the oil pan:
Expanding the volume on both side, although unequal, should help keep oil on the pickup and retain enough volume. I got inspired by my old Greddy SR20 oil pan I used to have...sorta the same idea. I also sourced a convenient drain plug since I couldn't find/easily make a metric aluminum bung. I got a -4AN bung and bought some bolts that fit the bung as plugs; they are 7/16-20x3/4 fine pitch bolts:
Fast forward a few hours of grinding/cutting/fitting and anticipation, I finished the fabrication efforts and dropped the pan off with a local welder since I don't have a tig...the guy did an awesome job. Here is the final product:
View of the modded baffle:
Completed pickup tube:
View from the back:
Bung and return + hot welds!
I'll be sure to update with a few pictures when I install this week or next. As insurance, I'm going to run an oil pressure gauge so I can see how she does...I'm a little worried about oil slosh in the shallower pan, but not so much that I am afraid to try it! I will report back!
-Gavin
I've been working on a low profile oil pan based on the e34 525i pan for the last few weeks and thought I'd share my project with you guys. I, like many people out there with a 24v swap, ding my oil pan here and there while driving in town since it hangs a bit lower than the OEM M20 pan.
It was tolerable for a while where I have lived in the past, but since I arrived here in VA, I know it's only a matter of time before by pan gets ruptured on a railroad/road dip somewhere. I've had a few close calls, but nothing catastrophic...I still wanted to do something about it. I searched around and found a few guys on here who simply cut the bottom inch off their pans and lost a little volume and one other guy who has done something very similar to what I set out to do. This thread is just to document more ideas for others! Thanks to !kid and ZekeTheSneak for helping with a few PMs since they have done something similar.
My overall goal: Reduce pan height by 1.25-1.5 inches and retain stock volume. Lofty right? We'll see if it can be done...
So I started out with an E34 M50 pan I got from the local yard. This is the pan after I got it hot tanked...cleaned up pretty nice:
I then checked out it's internal volume with water before I got started...roughly 6 qts. I then made my proposed incision marks:
To get an idea of that volume lost below the cut mark, I drilled a hole on the cut-line and refilled the pan with water. Once water spilled out, I knew the approximate volume of liquid capacity being lost by the pan; The cut I made lost me about a quart and a half. You can see the drilled hole below:
After I felt comfortable with the amount of capacity being lost, I cut the pan up and then started the crappiest part of the project...test fitment and pickup tube modification. I felt uncomfortable with just a simple equal reduction in pickup tube length and really wanted to see this work with my own eyes, so I took my pan off my car and sized up the project pan on my car to ensure fitment. This is an expensive motor after all...whats a few hours of work.
I swapped pans and got the pickup tube fitting similarly to the factory one...without doing this, I was unsure of how the factory tube sit inside the factory pan, etc....I tried to mimic dimensions closely. In this picture, the modded tube is being help up my tape and is a little droppy/angled. Forgive me!
Here is a comparison of the two tubes:
So I put my car back together, since I daily it; fully knowing I would be doing yet another pan swap in the coming weeks...haha! Next, I took the pan to my make-shift shop an began final fabrication. I hatched a plan to replace the lost volume and also add a turbo drain for when I go turbo in the future. This is a -10AN return:
I did some basic calculations and eye-balling to come up with this planform for the oil pan:
Expanding the volume on both side, although unequal, should help keep oil on the pickup and retain enough volume. I got inspired by my old Greddy SR20 oil pan I used to have...sorta the same idea. I also sourced a convenient drain plug since I couldn't find/easily make a metric aluminum bung. I got a -4AN bung and bought some bolts that fit the bung as plugs; they are 7/16-20x3/4 fine pitch bolts:
Fast forward a few hours of grinding/cutting/fitting and anticipation, I finished the fabrication efforts and dropped the pan off with a local welder since I don't have a tig...the guy did an awesome job. Here is the final product:
View of the modded baffle:
Completed pickup tube:
View from the back:
Bung and return + hot welds!
I'll be sure to update with a few pictures when I install this week or next. As insurance, I'm going to run an oil pressure gauge so I can see how she does...I'm a little worried about oil slosh in the shallower pan, but not so much that I am afraid to try it! I will report back!
-Gavin
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