N52 oil pan design for Z4 engine arm based swap

[hoveringuy]

when will these be available?

The main pan is done. I can send you the .DXF whenever, or I don't know if I can share my SendCutSend project which already has the thickness and bends specified. I've made two small changes to the pan for extra bolt clearance at the corners but those are basic metalworking that don't require CAD changes. I made one adjustment to the flange by adding support braces across the middle; welding shrinkage likes to pull the flanges together and hopefully these cutaways will help it hold position during fabrication. I had to ream-out the holes on mine a few mm.

The baffle is also done, just need to validate the few changes I made when the stainless version arrives in two days. Those .DXF files are also available if you want to see them.

[hoveringuy]

Complete. Final capacity is 5 3/4 Qts.
E36 dipstick.

[hoveringuy]

As a sanity check, I submitted an oil sample to Blackstone last month and also pulled my big end bearings while I'm swapping the pan to the new design. Mind you, the old pan wasn't optimized for track use but it has done its job well! -Zero- corrosion in the pan itself and the Cosworth oil flaps are still perfect.

The motor has probably 2000 track miles now and 90,000 overall. The bearings were beginning to show some wear but probably typical for a motor with 90,000 miles. The oil report was clean.

Carry on!

[hoveringuy]

Pan, version 2.0, complete! I ran it last night and warmed up the motor, let it sit overnight and no leaks anywhere. I'm happy with the fit, it has slightly more clearance to the rack, has more capacity at 5 3/4 Qts and has a perfect dip stick. Still-awesome ground clearance.

[darvo]

Group Buy?

[hoveringuy]

Group Buy?

I mean, the pan is about $220 from SendCutSend. Anyone thats a decent fabricator could do a run and make a few bucks. Would be way more efficient to do more than 1 at a time!

The baffle just snaps together.

[wazzu70]

Thanks for making this! Really opens up the options for E30 motor swaps.

[Striker01]

Hey guys. I'm going to document my assembly of hoveringuy's oil pan design. Big thanks to him for sending me the files and a whole bunch of assembly tips. If I document something wrong or there is a better way to do it hopefully he can chime in and correct me.

I am by no means a good welder or fabricator, just find it rewarding to work on my own projects and learn new skills as I go.

I ordered a pack of 100 4 or 6mm magnets from amazon for $9 to help with the mock up.

Here is my pan order from SendCutSend, I did order one piece in the wrong gauge steel but it shouldn't make a difference except for a few bucks more expensive. If a couple of you order this at a time it will be significantly cheaper, about half if 10 of you could get together and order at once.



This is the order as it arrived from SCS.


Here is the mockup using a bunch of those little magnets, they are strong and very handy to have. (another idea stolen from hoveringuy but why re-invent the wheel). Amazing how well this thing fits together right out of the package!

I didn't get a picture of the rear-section before cutting it but you just cut along the perforations laser cut into it. The pieces cut off will be used for the two corners that will have to be fabricated.

Notice the large gap between the two left holes on the back of the flange(bottom of first pic), That gap should be on the passenger side of the pan, make sure the flange is oriented correctly before tacking it together.





Please bear with me for all the reserved replies. I want to keep the entire assembly together.

[Striker01]

The first pieces I tacked were the very-rear to rear-section. I didn't get a pic of that before tacking it to the flange, I just used the magnets to hold it and aligned it with the edges of the rear-section, while both were on a flat table. Then I tacked the entire section to the flange with the flange clamped flat to the table, it had a slight bow on arrival.



I tried to get the inside edge of the very-rear piece flush with the inside of the flange and the rear-section centered so the overhang on each side was even. I attempted to bend the rear-section a little more, to get the overhang on the sides a little less, but this thick metal wasn't having it with my basic tools. It's a tiny bit wider than the main-pan piece so I notched it a little (pic later). There still should be plenty of room to weld it and get the bolts in. Here is a pic looking down into the pan.



If you align the outside of the pan pieces (from the other side) with the burn line left from laser cutting, it will be very close to flush on the inside. Here's a pic of the burn line I'm referencing, it goes all the way around the flange.




Here is where I notched the rear-section where the main-pan overlaps it. I did this after the rear-section was tacked it would've been easier if I'd realized it needed it before tacking the rear-section to the flange. I notched it so the wing-top-cap and oppisite-side-of-wing pieces could sit flush against the main-pan. The main-pan piece is designed to overlap the rear-section. It took just a tiny bit of grinding the angled edges of the main-pan piece to get it to sit on the rear-section nicely



The notch pictured here, on the flange, is the alignment mark for the rear portion of the main-pan section. Pic looking inside the pan.

[Striker01]

The main-pan was pretty simple. Flush with the inside of the front of the flange and centered on the rear-section. It was already tacked in the previous 2 pictures, here is a pic where I got it flush with the inside of the front part of the flange.



The oppsoite-side-of-wing went right on. Here you can see why I notched the rear-section, perfect fit against the main-pan except for ordering it in the wrong gauge, mine is thicker than designed.



The corner between the main-pan and opposite-side-of-wing piece will have to be made from the metal cut off the rear-section. I used masking tape on the outside and traced the shape from the inside to make a template. Leave a little extra for shaping, better to grind it a little than have to cut a new piece.



Here is the corner is piece, it took a little hammering to get it to fit nicely. I wouldn't suggest hammering on it with it in place, I broke a few of the main-pan tacks that way.


This corner won't work, ends up I don't have clearance for that corner bolt!! . Please see post #43.

[Striker01]

Here is another of the corner piece, opposite-side-of-wing and main-pan from inside.



I may not be able to get a torque wrench on the corner bolt but it will go in no problem. Steel pan bolt is just for reference.



The oil bung is is M18 x 1.5, thanks again to hoveringuy!! Here is the drain plug I ordered. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XC1YMLR...roduct_details

My plan here was to get the drain hole as close to the bottom of the pan as possible. I held it in place and traced it on the opposite-side-of-wing piece. Then I drilled it out with a step bit and finished sizing it with a dremel and routing bit, a little at a time. The corner required a little hammering to get rid of a small gap. It sits flush against the main-pan piece.




I won't tack it until the drain plug arrives and I'm sure it will clear the main-pan bottom.



That's as far as I've gotten, more to come.

[Striker01]

No big update yet. Waiting on an N52 bedplate to use a welding jig for the flange, another hoveringuy idea. It should be here Saturday and hopefully my brother will be able to TIG it up Sunday.

Here are a couple pics of the wing-cap mocked up and. I had to grind maybe 1/8" off on the edge that sits on the flange, not much at all. It will get welded last, after the oil pickup is set. and the baffle is installed.

The first picture has the second corner that will have to be fabricated. More than enough metal from the wings that got cut off the rear-main piece do to both corners.




Here is the bottom piece of the baffle with flaps installed.

Flap part#


Baffle inserted. I'll trim the rear pan overhang just a little, so it doesn't overhang the baffle.

[Striker01]

My plan for the opposite-side-of-wing corner didn't work out. Hoveryinguy suggested I use a bed plate as a welding jig. Found one on ebay cheap. I'm glad I ordered it because I found a problem when I test fit the pan. The corner bolt needs more clearance to work correctly. Hammering that corner probably would be fine but I ordered that piece in metal too thick and like doing things the hard way I guess!

Time to butcher work I've already done.



I had a piece of a floor pan that looked like it will work and the thinner gauge will bend easier if I need to persuade it later.



A bit of work and 3 pieces where I had one, hopefully I'm good now. Still needs a little finagling but I'll do that as we do the final weld, tough to get enough heat for the tacks to stick well to the flange.





Good news it the bung will work, drain bolt doesn't interfere with anything.

[Striker01]

Still waiting on my brother's help to get the pan fully welded. I wanted to try my hand at CAD so I came up with a studded mount for the original M20 oil level sender. Happy it came out right because I had to order 7 to avoid paying the minimum order fee with sendcutsend. If any of you guys order this pan I will have extra I can send you.

Wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, the mounting holes are about 3mm north of centered on the actual sender body. The studs are M6 x 1.0.

[Striker01]

Finally made some more progress on the pan. Got a bottle of Argon that we think had some CO2 mixed in, that set back progress significantly; made the torch spit and spark and left a bunch of pin holes I had to grind back out. My brother did a great job welding the pan and fixing the mess ups from the bad gas and where I thought I could do it. lol.

The N52 bedpan worked great as a welding fixture, he went around removing one or 2 bolts at a time and replacing them as soon as he finished a section. I ordered some M8 x25mm flange stainless bolts to use for welding. It was about $20 for 30 of them on amazon.


Once the main flange was welded he hit the rest of the seams. Outside perimeter is welded except for the wing piece that will get done after the pickup tube is completed. Waiting on a guy with a lathe to help before we can fab that up.





Off topic but I messed up a couple spots trying to weld part of it myself, fortunately my brother was able to get them fixed. After watching him weld for a couple evenings I wanted to try it out again. He had some really thick stuff he is using to make some legs for his tool box. He turned me loose while coaching over my shoulder, TIGing is awesome I'd love to get good at it. Here is my attempt. I won't show what I did to the thinner metal on the pan, it wasn't pretty.