My Diss Project - VR6 dry sump system

[boost monkey 0]

So, to anyone who remembers me harping on about dry sumps et al, well I finally finished my design of the pump (including centrifuge) the sump pan and the oil tank. All that's "needed" are the lines inbetween, and some mounting brackets for tank and pump....oh and the bolt holes in the sump pan :lol:

 

I'm happy to explain how the system works to anyone who doesn't want to read through my 100 page project! No plans to develop it really, I don't think I could make the pump for less than you could buy one from PACE or another dealer. It's more the concept of it, how it's been made from scratch and been tested (all theoretically).

 

The pump has a HUGE gear on it so that it will only spin at ~1900rpm at the VR6 redline. Combined with my choice of bearing use and no contacting parts it should last a very long time in the field. Pan is divided so that it will create vacuum under each pair of "opposing" cylinders (I know i know 15deg only!) and that is where the good stuff happens. In short, creating vacuum below the pistons and around the crank reduces friction between rings and cylinder and can increase power by up to 10% as proven in Formula 1 and BTCC from a very very reliable source (Mr. Geoff Goddard)

 

The tank has a swirl pot which feeds back into the tank and a filler on top, oil return halfway down the body and oil out at the bottom of course.

 

Here are some pretty renders!

 

 

 

 

 

 

mmm carboney....

 

 

 

 

 

Happy to answer any questions. It's purely a design project, but welcome any criticism etc etc!

 

Jon.

Edited October 14, 2011 by boost monkey
Added oil tank carbon fibre render

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Good work Cadburys Boostun Monkey!

 

I'll check out the pics later on when I can access a PC that allows image hosting sites through the keep net!!

 

Pan is divided so that it will create vacuum under each pair of "opposing" cylinders (I know i know 15deg only!) and that is where the good stuff happens. In short, creating vacuum below the pistons and around the crank reduces friction between rings and cylinder and can increase power by up to 10% as proven in Formula 1 and BTCC from a very very reliable source (Mr. Geoff Goddard)

 

This is true! Although some say a vacuum under the cylinders also helps to pull the rings tighter onto the bores for a better seal. My only regret with the turbo engine was venting the PCV gases to atmosphere. I never got round to plumbing it into the intake with a catch tank. I bet it would have made more power!

 

For your finals, do you have to demonstrate your project actually working in a vehicle or is just the concept / mock ups enough?

[boost monkey 0]

I know hooking the PCV back through the intake deffo improves emissions, possibly power too? HC blowby is one of the main contributors to acidic contaminants in engine oil which then attacks the bearings that the oil is supposed to protect :-(

 

Well it was a "design and optimisation" project title so the design was enough, and although we have rapid prototyping at Oxford Brookes I just completely ran out of time. Mainly through lack of motivation and also changing designs!

Edited October 14, 2011 by boost monkey

[Swompy 0]

For lack of better knowledge how does the sump work and how is it better than the standard one? ;)

[boost monkey 0]

well the dry sump primarily removes the need of the "wet sump" or the nice sloshy bowl of oil most people have bolted to the bottom of their engine.

 

This in turn means that the clearance below the engine itself is increased and therefore the engine can be lowered in the chassis (lowering vehicle centre of gravity which can improve handling) because the dry sump pan can be a lot shallower than the original item. My design is about 50mm deep at the lowest section. You then use pickup points (the 3 holes) to pump the oil back out, through the centrifuge to separate bearing damaging air from the oil and then back into the oil tank to be drawn through the main pump again.

 

My pump therefore has a main pump section (line in from oil tank, line out into main oil gallery behind standard VR heat exchanger plate which can be retained if required), 3 scavenge pumps (line in from each of the 3 pan sections, then all 3 feed out into the top channels on the pump) and the scavenge channels (3 ins from scavenge pumps, and feeds into top of centrifuge). The centrifuge then spins the air-oil mix; the air is pumped out to the swirl pot where the last few drops of oil are recycled into the oil tank, and the main oil is drained out of the bottom of the centrifuge section and returned to the tank on the side connector.

 

by using pumps under the crank and pistons, the "rotating assembly" or "crankcase" is kept in vacuum which is what leads to better performance as there's no air/oil friction to overcome, and also the rings seal better against the bores which leads to less blowby which also increases performance and emissions.

 

Hope that helps?

[Swompy 0]

Thanks mate, kind of makes more sense now.

 

Im guessing this design would work on all vr6 engine? (4motion and r32)

 

and no plans of getting it made then?

[boost monkey 0]

Yeah, the only thing that is engine specific is the sump pan, which would fit the 12v and 24v engines, including R36 IIRC.

 

I'm playing with getting a prototype done, just so that I can see it in the flesh! The pump and tank would be applicable to any engine, it's just the pan design that has to change. The pump has so many moving parts and a custom gear tooth profile also so not an off the shelf job which means ££££.

 

It would be awesome to fit it to my C though :D

[borachris 0]

Very interesting project there, always wondered how a dry sump worked, good explanation!

 

Just to go off on a bit of a tangent as you seem quite knowledgeable, with regards to the PCV gases, do you think hooking it up to the downpipe would be beneficial, disregarding the emissions obviously?

 

I'm putting a tdi in my corrado and don't want to vent it back into the intake.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

So long as it's post cat / particulate filter, then yep, exhaust flow can be used to draw PCV gases out of the engine. That method has been popular in America for a long time on their big V8s.

[borachris 0]

Cool, thanks ;)

[Peebee 0]

Pardon my rude crude language, but that is ****ing amazing!! Well done that man! :D

[boost monkey 0]

I actually really want to get it made now! I could throw the models at the local rapid prototyping company - at least for the pan.

 

The pump has about 50 different parts!

[Swompy 0]

Is there not another pump around that is made you could make work with it?

[boost monkey 0]

Yeah there's plenty of them. PACE deffo do pumps as do a bunch of people in the states. It'd just be nice to have my one made and be able to day "I designed that from scratch".

 

I just checked the BOM (Bill of Materials) on the pump - 94 parts!!!

[boost monkey 0]

So, I just spent the whole of lunch time putting the rubber hoses in. I hope this helps people to understand how it works. Please forgive my lack of aeroquip and mikalor goodies, I just didn’t have time to insert them into the assemblies so I have just done hoses going between each part. So, from the top:

 

 

 

This is the system overall. As you can see there are some decent length of hoses. These can probably be rerouted in a more efficient manner – these ones are purely for visualization. You’d probably want them braided too.

 

 

 

Initially, the oil tank supplies the main pump (blue section nearest pulley) at the bottom with oil, which is them pumped out through the top and into the main gallery of the engine (shown by the floating rubber hose!). The main line in I chose to make the main gallery behind the coolant-oil heat exchanger plate.

 

 

 

After the oil has worked its way through the engine and returned to the sump, it is picked up in the 3 different banks by each of the scavenge pumps (other 3 blue sections). As before, intake at the bottom and exit at the top, straight into the scavenge channels (green section) which is basically a closed section for 3 different pipes which converge on the top of the centrifuge (end section).

 

 

 

The CAOS unit (Centrifugal Air Oil Separator) basically involves a spinning disc which throws the denser oil onto the inside of the CAOS casing which drips down and is pumped out the bottom, back to the tank. The air is pumped out through the center of the disc and goes back up to the swirl pot.

 

 

 

The oil tank takes CAOS air in in the swirl pot. This removes the last remaining elements of oil in the mist from the CAOS which is then drip-fed through the bottom of the pot back into the top of the tank. The oil return from the CAOS goes into the side of the main tank part and just replenishes the oil level for re use by the engine.

 

The main pump draws the oil from the bottom of the tank, and everything continues :D

 

---------- Post added at 02:43 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:40 PM ----------

 

Just a couple more for you:

 

 

 

Pump assembly - personalised! :lol: I think it's the 80's quattro font, nice and blocky :D

 

 

 

Cross-section of pump through one of the 2 gearshafts. You can see some detail such as the CAOS unit, the spacers between sections including oil seals and a brief glimpse of how the scavenge channels work.

[Swompy 0]

Very nice work indeed

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Nice CAD work mate! :D How come you need such a humungous pump? I always thought you'd just need an electric pump of some sort!

[boost monkey 0]

tbh, the pump is a bit overkill! I think it's quite a lot bigger than anything else on the market judging by the comparison with the sump pan! I thinkit's about 30cm long :-s

 

I'm sure I could scale it down and make it run faster. I think i geared it about 4:1 against the crank, so even 2:1 and then a 50% scale should keep the same performance.