New oil pan (sump)

Two weeks ago I have killed the oil pan hitting a man hole cover at around 100 km /h an hour. The original oil pan sticks out approximately 3/4 of an inch under the frame making it an easy kill. It took me several days to source an oil pan locally for a Pinto 2.0 L engine, got it delivered for 100$. Taking the old oil pan out was not a trivial thing than most cars. I had to actually lift the engines 4 inches to get it out. The following things where done:

0)Lift car up on jack stand and drain oil. This was my first time lifting the car up had to be creative because of the height. Used a low profile cheap jack stand out of my Ford escape to lift it up a couple inches than my hydraulic jack.
1)Remove engine mounts bolts
2)Remove transmission mount
3)Remove turbo exhaust flange
4)Remove starter to get access to bolt of the sump
5)Move out of the way wiring between transmission tunnel a bell crank cover (in the way of the lift)
6)Take oil pan off by removing the 10000 10 mm bolts. (For my engine had to remove turbo oil return)
7)Jack the engine/transmission using a 2X4 a floor jack.*
*Caution the gaz line a brake lines can hit the transmission make sure it does not happen by limiting lift height .
8)Remove oil pan by jiggling it out of the way of the sump pick (rotation was required)
9)Reinstall pan in reverse order and than find out the pan shipped was from a 2.3 liter see picture bellow!

After finding out the oil pan that was delivered was not the correct one and making a few phone calls to find out it would take weeks to get another one I decided to modify/repair the old one by shortening it by 3/4 of an inch to make it dwell under the frame rail.

To do this it was simple and I was inspired by http://www.dwjenkins.plus.com/short-sump.htm except I felt I did not need the extra oil capacity tank since when doing the math I was losing only 1/4 of a liter or (1/2 us pint) all I have to do is to watch for oil level more often. Instead of re brazing the oil pick up I cut and rewelded (MIG) the oil pipe since I did not have access to brazing equipement.

Pictures:

Damaged oil pan out of the car. You can actually see the shape of the sump pick at the bottom of the pan, the pan took a real beating!







Lifting the engine up a couple inches. Distributing the load between the bell crank cover and the transmission using a 2x4. I don't think this is the propoer way to do it because you can damge the bell housing but I was too lazy to lift the engine using shop crane (I did not have one in my garage)




New oil pan from 2.3 liter engine and the old one. Difference is noticeable after trying to fit new one in ! I was very happy:).







New oil pan with flat bottom shortened by 3/4 of an inch. I repainted it to hide the excellent welding job.







Shortened oil sump pickup. Removing the top bolt actually takes a very short 10 mm wrench and I actually grinded off one of the wrench end to fit in the tight space.






New oil pan in the car barely clearing the frame cross member. The oil on the floor is not from the oil pan but from the valve cover breather which seems to spit out a lot of oil when I use turbo extensively. I am going to have to install a catch can!

Phil's Specification

It seems the previous owner had limited knowledge about the technical specifications for the car here is what I know so far and this information will certainly change has I tinker with the car:

• Engine is a Ford 2.0 L EAO Pinto engine which has been modified with a custom turbo. According to the previous owner(s) this engine would develop approximately 265 bhp. I personally think with the current tune state of the engine that 200 bhp is more a conservative figure, but I. After breaking open the oil pan (more to come) I did find that the crank shaft was balanced so hope of a high reving engine is possible.

• The Bantam's powertrain and frontend was borrowed by the 70'S Pinto and Mustang II. My car runs an 8 inch differential with very high ratio what seems to be above 4.11:1 and some type of LSD mated to 4 speed manual transmission. According to a pinto site the ratios are 1st = 3.65, 2nd = 1.97, 3rd = 1.37, 4th = 1.00, Reverse = 3.66 (Do we need the reverseratio?, this car is made to go forward).
• Ignition seems to be a Ford Dura Spark with a mechanical and vacumm advance distributor. A Carter knock control sensor was fitted to the car but removed by the previous owner for an unknown reason. I am still investigating if I need this back on the car with the boost pressure I am running (a very low 8 PSIG).
• More to come
  

FIrst Post Introduction

This is the first post for the Blakely Bantam car blog. Hopefully this blog will grow with content , information and user comments on their experience of owning this incredible American made Super Seven replica.

Carey and myself Philippe will try to add as much information possible about this car, the modifications we have made, the problems we've had... Carey has been a 30 year lover of this car and has collected considerable amount of information on the car. Myself have been an onwer of a Bantam since July 2007 and have already felt in love with it.