Ali sumps

[Ivangardiner]

The American Bantam sump, although still pressed steel, is made so that, instead of the bottom being parallel with the ground, is parallel with the bottom face of the crankcase. This has 3 advantages as I see it...
1. It holds more oil.
2. It gets better cooling from the flow of air.
3. Any rubbish (pieces of piston ring, dead insects etc) gravitate to the low end at the rear, and are thus more readily flushed out when you drain the oil.

The attachment shows a Bantam sump in a partly rebuilt state. Someone had fitted water cooling pipes for use in a boat - it was quite a mess.
I sold my Bantam recently but I have a feeling that there will be another A7 in my life. Perhaps I may then fabricate a mirror image of the Bantam sump for it.

Has anyone made a cast sump featuring a sloping bottom like Bantam used?

Ivan
Wellington NZ

[Chris KC]

That's interesting Ivan, haven't seen one of those before.
I'm totally in favour of holding more oil, but I think one of the main arguments against using a deeper sump is that it doesn't get warm enough.
I read a technical paper once that showed the contribution of increased sump area / addition of fins was not much to write home about (about 4%). I think it's the additional mass of oil that prevents it heating up properly.

[Ivangardiner]

Thanks for the reply Chris.  I also made a new oil pickup unit as shown, reasoning that the oil should be collected fairly low down, in order to feed cooler oil into the engine.  However, on some engines (my Armstrong Siddeley for example) the oil is collected by a pivoted floating thing, so the oil always comes off the top surface.  Conversely, on a Ford Anglia 105E the oil is collected from almost the bottom of the sump.  A7 in standard form does the same. I do think it is better to collect the cooler oil from lower down, otherwise the cooler, and heavier oil at the bottom has a tendency to stay put.
Just my musings...

Ivan