E34 M50 oil pan baffle info

[ian e30 318is]

Good info! I'll be going with Achilles as well.

[BMW_TUNER]

I went with the Achilles too. It is being welded into the pan right now pang with my turbo drain.

[Wizard13]

Hey guys,
I'm one to bash on other peoples products or anything like that, but this is just something that you guys should check and/or be aware of if your using an aftermarket oil pan baffle with a trap door.
So a little back story here, this is a customers car not mine, and he wants an S54 swapped into his car. He also specifically stated he wanted an oil pan baffle installed because he is fully intending on tracking the car. So to make things move along quicker for me here in the Northeast coast of the country i figured I'd order one in from VAC motorsports, i've seen a few other people use them with what i thought was no issues but i was wrong. After welding this baffle i tried to dry fit the pan onto the motor and found out i couldn't get an oil pan bolt in without wrenching the pan over. After reaching in the oil level sensor hole i was able to touch the flap in the baffle through one of the holes and COULD NOT open the flap at all. It was sitting hard against the oil sump pick up, which is very no bueno. After comparing the VAC baffle to the stock one i realized that oem one had a notch out on the bottom to clear the casting for the oil level sensor.


Pay no attention to the weld marks, just dialing in my welder.





So because of the lack of that notch the VAC baffle sits much closer to the sump pick up, or in this case, hard against it. I drew a line to show where the VAC baffle sits versus the oem baffle.







And here is the Achilles motor sports baffle sitting perfectly where it's supposed to. Keeping in mind of the line showing where the VAC baffle sits VS OEM and the Achilles baffle. A good 1/2" difference.





After talking to VAC they were told by their manufacturer/supplier (Moroso) that having 1/8" of swing space for the baffle to open is ok, but i don't buy it considering that I can't even get that. After installing and dealing with many other trap and baffled oil pans, this much of a lack in clearance is clearly a design problem with poor planning.
Dealing with VAC right now is quite the struggle because they don't want to admit to a design problem so trying to get a return on this is quite the problem right now. We'll see what happens.
In the meantime, here are some more pics of the Achilles baffle.













-Oz