Windage tray? Which to use...

[PiercedE30]

It would be inside the pan on the bottom.

[LINUS]

It would be inside the pan on the bottom.

Kinda what I thought. So hopefully it will be quite some time until I know when mine was made.

[Mr.SWISS]

Sorry man - I got a pan from that big wrecker in NorCal, didn't state what year it was off on my receipt, just that it was a 535i, and the car # in the wrecking lot, IIRC.

If they put that circular production code on the pan, someone tell me where it is and I'll look - pan's on the block already, so if it's inside I can't get at it.

Well no wonder. :p

[matt]

Mine was made in '04. :pimp:

[LINUS]

Well no wonder. :p

You got me.... My Bad. I meant 525i, and this wasn't the place to make a typo, so good catch.

I'll go back through my receipts in the next couple days. My pan came from Bav Auto, so they are pretty good about tracking what car a part came from.

[BigD]

Here's my thread on the exact same problem. You'll see in the first post, how the 2 different types of pans compare. Look closely at the depth of the cutouts, the non-grinder design doesn't even have the flap at the front due to the depth of the cutouts.

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=84768

FWIW, mine was from a 92 525i. I'd guess most people got theirs from a newer, Vanos car.

Also FWIW, it seems some people just cut the E34 windage tray out and leave the E36 one in.

[LINUS]

Also FWIW, it seems some people just cut the E34 windage tray out and leave the E36 one in.

I thought about that as a solution, but it just seemed like the windage tray is more than likely engineered to go with which direction the sump is (fore or aft), and the results might have little effect, but it just didn't seem right to hybridize the pan/tray combo.

It seemed to me like the e34 pan tray was 'steering' the oil to the sump, but the e36 one didn't look to me like it was trying to direct the oil in any direction, at least that's what I saw when I was sizing this all up.



Does anybody have good evidence that what I'm thinking doesn't hold true?

[BigD]

I thought about that as a solution, but it just seemed like the windage tray is more than likely engineered to go with which direction the sump is (fore or aft), and the results might have little effect, but it just didn't seem right to hybridize the pan/tray combo.

It seemed to me like the e34 pan tray was 'steering' the oil to the sump, but the e36 one didn't look to me like it was trying to direct the oil in any direction, at least that's what I saw when I was sizing this all up.



Does anybody have good evidence that what I'm thinking doesn't hold true?

That's what I thought as well... they made the E34 design at the same time as the E36, if one was better than the other for both applications, they would have been used - it's cheaper if nothing else.

[golde30]

Here's my thread on the exact same problem. You'll see in the first post, how the 2 different types of pans compare. Look closely at the depth of the cutouts, the non-grinder design doesn't even have the flap at the front due to the depth of the cutouts.

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=84768

FWIW, mine was from a 92 525i. I'd guess most people got theirs from a newer, Vanos car.

Also FWIW, it seems some people just cut the E34 windage tray out and leave the E36 one in.

yeah i remember this thread. i wasnt having the same problem as you, i just wanted to know which tray is better to use. and apparently, its the obvious one! hehe