Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications General Mods OIL PICKUP TUBE (lil long, for all duratec owners)

Increased capacity is nice... However not a significant bonus since we hold nearly 6qts to begin with and SVT's have an oil cooler to boot.
Plus widening the pan would acutally be worse for long extended turns (oil moves farther away from pickup and the trap door still has to pass oil so it's not 100%) and a deeper pan would be unsafe for ground clearance reasons.

It's this starvation threat that is major!

my dad and i are going to get a flop tube and see if we cant work something out...
right now its just an idea but what would really help is does anyone have pictures of the pan/bottom end of the duratec this would let us see the motor and were the pickup is. the one bonus to this is that when the pan is down to install the flop tube you can incorperate the new windage design that way were taking out two problems at one time and cost should really be minimal sonsidering...around 100 dollars (and a few hours of your time) all in all we will see what we can come up with

also i dont know how well it will do with the 0 degree wheather but the flop tube will be of the same size (probable larger) then the standard pickup tube plus 0w-30 stays pretty thin even at lower temps

also if oil airation is the problem a larger pan might be worse in the long run (more oil means more movement in the pan into the moving components even worse airation then already present)

I have a new Duratec pick up assembly in my garage. I bought it to see how the stock system could be improved. I also HAD a Y2K pan. I returned it as it was near identical to my 95. Post your email address and I'll do what I can to help out. How are you going to attach the flop tube to the existing hard tube? Any failure at this point will lead to immediate engine failure. This set up would work great with my modified upper baffle.

I would worry about a flop tube colapsing in cold conditions. Heck, depending on how it was built, it could colapse in warm conditions.

What would keep a flop tube from colapsing?

Cheers,

TB

try a rigid Swivel oil pickup ala Lotus.

"The major cause of the Duratec oiling problems is the stock windage tray (upper baffle in Ford-speak)."

Bradness, how do you know this, what is the explaination. Not doubting you or anything and GLAD to have people trying to figure this out - but all the people Ive talked to - Chris Reinke @ Team Contour, A guy with Roush who designed the Bondurant SVT, and Al Mirko all added baffels, increased capacity, and 2 or 3 also added screens to break up areation, ALONG with I think other windage tray mods. How do you know that moding the windage tray alone will be as effective?

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Dan
99SVT - Tropic Green
#554/2760
Stock - except minor intake, exhaust, & motor mount enhancements

I am curious if a crank scraper would work on the Duratec. That might help with the frothing, also pick up a HP or two at higher revs. Maybe that only works with thicker weight oil.

just to keep every one informed i got a chance to see the flop tube today what it basically is, a braided line similar that can be found for brakes or oil lines for coolers. this line is used (assuming) both because its very felxable, long lasting and can with stand oils corrosive properties (also would not collapse as easily). at the end of the line there is a large brass nut. that weighs it down (again assuming)that brass is used because it softer less likely to damage anything (aka scrape). plus if needed we could probably round the corners for even more protection

still looking into if this would work for our cars hope this helps

ps if you got pics or anything else send it to relentless1214@hotmail.com

Dan-I did an exhaustive literature search through approx. one dozen books. I'm an open wheel racer/crew chief/engineer/mechanic, and utilized a bunch of references which I've acquired over the past 10 years. Normally racers use dry sump systems, but certain classes (showroom stock) must utilize the existing wet sump systems. Then I bought the following new stock Ford parts to examine them-Y2K pan; oil pick up assembly; upper baffle (windage tray). All reference material pointed me to 1 glaring problem-the windage tray. Ford designed this piece to do 3 jobs-scraper, girdle and windage tray. Unfortunately, it should have been 2 or 3 seperate parts. As I mentioned earlier, I'll have a fix for this problem shortly. I must get the pan off and examine the existing set up to be 100% sure of my design. Can you direct me to your database of problems? I'd like to know if these failures occur on Y2K models. I have a hunch that Ford changed the head gasket to limit top end oiling and keep more oil in the lower crankcase.