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Accusump Alternative?

K

KyleQ

Hard-core CEG'er
Joined
Oct 14, 2006
Messages
2,116
Location
Chisago City, MN
Looking through my 4WD sites I came across this new product - CLICK

F-O-A makes high quality coilover shocks and they also make an oil accumulator. This product is high quality and inexpensive compared to the Accusump by Canton Racing.

This is an oil accumulator...sometimes refered to as a "Poor man's dry sump". Designed to provide instant oil pressure to your motor. No more dry starts. There is an internal piston so that you can mount the cylinder in any direction you want. The internal piston separates the oil from the air pressure so you can mount it upside down if needed.

Once you install it, your motor will never NOT see oil pressure again. As soon as you turn on the key you will see pressure.
Just wire the 12 Volt solenoid to your ignition and then to ground and pipe the 3/8" NPT to your oil system and your done.
It comes with Buna-N "O" rings that are good to 230 F. I run about a 2 foot 3/8" line to my accumulator and it never seems to get very hot. So, Buna-N O rings are going to be fine for about 95% of all applications. We also offer a Viton "O" ring option. The Viton seals are good to 400 plus degrees.
The standard size is 18" long and it holds about 3/4 of a quart of oil, depending on the pressure you are running. You can adjust the amount of oil to about a quart by reducing the pressure on the accumulator with the Schrader valve. But since the piston will push all of the oil out of the cylinder the volume is equivalent to a 2 or 3 quart system.
The cylinder is 2.5" OD and is extruded Aluminum and is clear anodized.
The Solenoid is from Parker and the valve body is 6061 T6.
The piston and the end cap are A 380 Diecast Aluminum. When your ignition is turned off the solenoid closes capturing the oil pressure that your engine had before you shut it down. Then when you turn the key on you have that oil pressure to feed your engine before turning it over to start.



Pricing:
$125.00
- High Temp (+$20.00) (Viton seals and high temp wear band)
- Mounting hardware (+$12.00)

Not knowing much about the assusump systems - could this be adopted to a 2.5 Duratec to prevent the oiling problems?
 
The smallest Accusump is 1 quart oil storage capacity, they go up to 3 quarts. http://www.accusump.com/acc_products/acc_units.html More oil storage capacity = more safety factor = bigger unit= more cost. 3/4 of a quart might be enough to save a small displacement engine for a short time, perhaps 5 to 7 seconds. Most wet sump crank-driven geroter oil pumps are moving 5 to 6 or more quarts per minute at full song, so 3/4 of a quart represents less then 10 seconds of protection.

The Carousel (Turn 9-10) at Road America is a long right-hand sweeper; isn't that worst case for a V6 Contour? You spend 11 or 12 seconds in this corner if you're driving a fast sedan-based car with no downforce.

Is 3/4's of a quart better than nothing? Undoubtedly yes. Is it better than 2 or 3 quarts in an Accusump? Nope.

Relating either of these products to a "dry sump" oiling system, poor man's or not, is a bit of a stretch. Dry sump oiling systems, if properly designed and implemented, will certainly guarantee continuous oil pressure to the engine under most all conditions, but one of their major advantages is the dry sump itself - there is virtually no pooled oil under the crankshaft, so very little possibility of crankshaft windage and the bad effects that go along with it - such as HP loss, foaming the oil, and even damage to rotating components. The shallow dry sump oil pan also allows mounting the engine lower in the chassis, improving vehicle CG.

Looks like a nice product, probably is worth the $, but I'd wonder if it could save anything much bigger then about 2.0L.

Gary M.
 
It says equivlant to a 2 or 3 quart system - is that misleading? Are they including the oil in the lines or what?
 
KyleQ said:
It says equivlant to a 2 or 3 quart system - is that misleading? Are they including the oil in the lines or what?
Click to expand...
From the F-O-A site:
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=-1]The standard size is 18" long and it holds about 3/4 of a quart of oil, depending on the pressure you are running. You can adjust the amount of oil to about a quart by reducing the pressure on the accumulator with the Schrader valve. But since the piston will push all of the oil out of the cylinder the volume is equivalent to a 2 or 3 quart system.[/SIZE][/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=-1]The cylinder is 2.5" OD and is extruded Aluminum and is clear anodized.[/SIZE][/FONT]
Click to expand...
O.K., let's do some math. The cylinder is 2.5" OD, we'll assume it's 1/8" wall tubing, so the ID is 2.25". Half the ID squared, times pi, times the 18" length, we get 71.5 cubic inches. Let's be generous and assume that the whole cylinder can be filled with oil. Onlineconversion.com says 71.5 cubic inches is equivalent to 1.24 quarts (US, liquid).

So, even under the best of conditions, assuming no piston and no air behind the piston to reduce the cylinder volume, we get 1.24 quarts of oil.

But let's take their word for it and assume the ultimate capacity is 1 quart. But, "...since the piston will push all of the oil out of the cylinder, the volume is equivalent to a 2 or 3 quart system." Wow, 1 quart magically becomes 2 or 3 because a piston is pushing on it - I want one of these suckers on my gas tank! Hell, maybe two!

As for the oil in the lines, once the piston has pushed out all the oil and has bottomed at the end of the cylinder, it doesn't matter if there's 10 gallons of oil in the lines, there's no force available to push it into the engine.

Misleading? Perhaps... Bah!

Gary M.
 
Last edited:
Hehe - I wasn't sure what the deal with this product was, I've never even looked into an accusump before... Thought it may be a cheaper alternative for you guys - guess not. Who the fawk would be able to use an additional 1qt of fluid? Pointless...
 
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